MIRI Target Acquisition

The JWST Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) provides target acquisition capabilities for the low-resolution spectroscopy, medium-resolution spectroscopy, and coronagraphic imaging modes.

Target acquisition (TA) is a procedure that centroids a source and places it accurately within an aperture, region of interest (ROI), or subarray. The filters available for MIRI TA are F560W, F1000W, F1500W, and FND. 

TA procedures in the Astronomer's Proposal Tool (APT) are available in these articles:


MIRI target acquisition readout patterns

See also: Understanding Exposure Times

A description of the FASTGRPAVG readout patterns and tables of the group times for all subarrays available for TA are presented in MIRI Detector Readout FASTGRPAVG. All MIRI target acquisition exposures use only one integration.



Notable updates
  •  
    Moved information on the FASTGRPAVG readout patterns to a new, dedicated page.

  •   
    Added FAST as readout pattern for TA.

  •  
    Added links for LRS slit and Slitless TA.
Originally published