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Session 43 - HST Instruments & Other Missions.
Display session, Tuesday, January 14
Metropolitan Ballroom,
We describe the characteristics and design of Near--InfraRed IMager (NIRIM), a new near--IR camera with a spectral coverage of 0.8--2.5\mum. NIRIM serves a dual purpose of wide field imaging on the Mt. Laguna 1 m telescope and high angular resolution imaging as a science camera on a laser-guided adaptive optics system on the Mt. Wilson 100 inch telescope. NIRIM houses a 256\times256 HgCdTe array (a.k.a. NICMOS3 array), reimaging optics to decrease background radiation and 14 filters; all cryogenically cooled with liquid nitrogen to \sim77 K. On the Mt. Laguna 1 m telescope, where it saw first light in July 1995, NIRIM has three plate scale options: 0.\arcsec 5, 1\arcsec, and 2\arcsec per pixel with corresponding field of views of 2.1\arcmin, 4.3\arcmin and 8.5\arcmin. The University of Illinois Seeing Improvement System (UnISIS) is the laser guide adaptive optics system being built for the Mt. Wilson 100 inch telescope. We expect NIRIM to see first light on UnISIS in summer 1997 when UnISIS is operational. Characterizations of NIRIM are presented for NIRIM on the Mt. Laguna 1 m telescope.
