Work

DragonflyPol: Wide-Field Optical Linear Polarimetry with the Dragonfly Telephoto Array (Instrument Description and Commissioning)

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: We present DragonflyPol, a wide-field optical linear polarimetry capability implemented on the Dragonfly Telephoto Array. DragonflyPol leverages Dragonfly’s modular, multi-lens architecture to obtain simultaneous measurements in four linear polarization orientations (0°, 45°, 90°, and 135°) across a ∼5 deg 2 field of view, distributed across 44 polarized lens–detector units. Four additional units serve as unpolarized reference channels. We describe a broad range of science goals enabled by this capability, including magnetic field mapping and tomography, dust grain properties, CMB foreground characterization, and the three-dimensional structure of diffuse interstellar clouds. We integrate Canon polarizers and Baader Sloan r ′ bandpass filters into the drop-in filter holders of the Canon lenses, and conduct a three-phase laboratory characterization program to select optimal polarimetric components, measure contrast ratios and transmission efficiencies, and determine and mark the transmission axis of each polarizer with sub-degree repeatability. Laboratory measurements across all 44 deployed polarizers yield a mean noise-subtracted contrast ratio of 1228 ± 104 and a single-polarizer transmission efficiency of ∼33% in the r ′ band. On-sky commissioning, including twilight flat-field characterization and twilight-sky polarization measurements, confirms throughput stability across polarization groups and successful recovery of the expected Rayleigh scattering signal. DragonflyPol achieved first polarimetric light in 2025 September.

Source: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

DOI: 10.1088/1538-3873/aeb3b7