Wide-field camera for the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope

David M. Henry; Eli Ettedgui-Atad; Mark M. Casali; Richard J. Bennett; Alan Bridger; Derek J. Ives; R. Gary Rae; Timothy G. Hawarden

doi:10.1117/12.395449

16 August 2000 Wide-field camera for the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope

David M. Henry, Eli Ettedgui-Atad, Mark M. Casali, Richard J. Bennett, Alan Bridger, Derek J. Ives, R. Gary Rae, Timothy G. Hawarden

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4008, Optical and IR Telescope Instrumentation and Detectors; (2000) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.395449
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2000, Munich, Germany

Abstract

This paper describes an ambitious new wide field IR camera for the 3.8m UK IR Telescope (UKIRT), located on Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The camera, currently under design at the UK Astronomy Technology Center, will include 4 2048 by 2048 pixel focal plane array IR detectors operating over a wavelength range of 1-2.5 micrometers . The optics provide a 1 degree diameter corrected field of view and a pixel scale of 0.4 arcsec per pixel. A novel Schmnidt type optical design allows the large field to be imaged with excellent image quality. The optical design includes a cold stop to maximize rejection of background radiation and stray light. Precise microstepping will be used to improve sampling. Four parallel data acquisition and processing channels will be used to cope with the large data rates expected. It is envisaged that a substantial fraction of UKIRT time will be devoted to large area sky surveys once WFCAM is operational, resulting in a unique IR catalogue containing hundreds of millions of objects.

Citation Download Citation

David M. Henry, Eli Ettedgui-Atad, Mark M. Casali, Richard J. Bennett, Alan Bridger, Derek J. Ives, R. Gary Rae, and Timothy G. Hawarden "Wide-field camera for the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope", Proc. SPIE 4008, Optical and IR Telescope Instrumentation and Detectors, (16 August 2000); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.395449

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