The SAURON project - I. The panoramic integral-field spectrograph

A new integral-field spectrograph, SAURON, is described. It is based on the TIGER principle, and uses a lenslet array. SAURON has a large field of vie w and high throughput, and allows simultaneous sky subtraction. Its design is optimized for studies of the stellar kinematics, gas kinematics, and lin e-strength distributions of nearby early-type galaxies. The instrument desi gn and specifications are described, as well as the extensive analysis soft ware which was developed to obtain fully calibrated spectra, and the associ ated kinematic and line-strength measurements. A companion paper will repor t on the first results obtained with SAURON on the William Herschel Telesco pe.