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C. M. Telesco, R. K. Pina (U. Florida), R. S. Fisher (U. Florida and USGP)
OSCIR, the University of Florida mid-IR imager/spectrometer, recently became available for use by the international Gemini community on Gemini North. OSCIR uses a Boeing 128 x 128-pixel Si:As blocked-impurity-band detector most sensitive in the 8-25-micron spectral region. The pixel scale is 0.089", which gives a field of view of 11" x 11" on Gemini. Although much of OSCIR's time so far has supported final engineering and commissioning of the telescope's chopping secondary mirror system, a sample of early science results demonstrates the targeted superb image quality and outstanding sensitivity. These results include diffraction-limited images with a resolution of 0.3" FWHM at 10 microns and observations with point-source sensitivities of 0.1 milliJansky (S/N = 1, 1 h of chopped integration with the broadband N filter). We present a selection of images that illustrate the performance achieved so far, and we note where improvements are probable as OSCIR is optimized and when Gemini's facility mid-IR instruments MICHELLE and T-ReCS come on line. This research is supported in part by NSF Grant AST-9618348 to the University of Florida.