NOAO > Instrumentation Projects
NOAO > Instrumentation Projects |
|
The NOAO Extremely Wide-Field Infrared Imager will offer well-sampled coverage of a 28x28 arcminute field of view at the Cassegrain focus of the NOAO 4-meter facilities. First commissioning will be on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at KPNO, with commissioning on the CTIO Blanco 4-meter to follow soon thereafter. The NEWFIRM instrument was transported to KPNO in late January. First light occurred on February 2, 2007. NEWFIRM is currently back in Tucson for installation of improved detectors.
SAM
(SOAR Adaptive Optics Module)
The Adaptive Optics (AO) project for the SOAR telescope aims
to provide a system capable of delivering significantly improved seeing over
a 1-2 arcminute field in the visible wavelengths. It will exploit a new
technique called "ground layer compensation" to correct for the turbulence
caused by the first few thousand meters of atmosphere above the site, using
a Rayleigh laser guide star to provide full sky coverage. It is being
designed and built at NOAO-South in La Serena. If you would like additional
information, please visit the following web site:
http://www.ctio.noao.edu/new/Telescopes/SOAR/Instruments/SAM/.
MONSOON
The Monsoon Image Acquisition system is the NOAO solution for scalable,
multi-channel high-speed image acquisition systems required for next
generation projects.
Monsoon is designed
to be flexible enough to support CCD, CMOS and IR diode imaging arrays in a
wide variety of uses, including science instruments, acquisition and guide
cameras, and wavefront sensors. Various organizations have implemented MONSOON
systems into their requirements. Some are: Indiana University for
incorporation into the FHiRE instrument for the WIYN telescope at KPNO; IFAE
(Barcelona); and University of Illinois in conjunction with Fermilab with
possible use in the Dark Sky Camera. NEWFIRM MONSOON and QUOTA MONSOON have had
first light. These are the two "flavors" of MONSOONS (IR and CCD).
 |
NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), Inc. under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation. Last updated 26 April 2007. |
 |
NOAO > Instrumentation Projects |
|
