Previous Article
Next Article
Table of Contents

CTIO Instrumentation News (1Mar95)
(from CTIO, NOAO Newsletter No. 41, 1 March 1995)

While the budget cuts described above are forcing us to retire a number of
less-used instruments (see accompanying article), we are continuing to push
forward to provide state-of-the-art instrumentation for the telescopes on
Cerro Tololo.

The CTIO Infrared Spectrometer (IRS) was re-commissioned in July with a
256 X 256 InSb detector, and has now been used for several successful
observing runs.  The detector is run with a Wildfire controller
system installed by the NOAO Instrumentation Group in Tucson.  The useful
slit length is ~16" on the 4-m telescope.  A new 75 l/mm grating has been
bought, which provides for high efficiency observing of faint objects at
resolution R~600 in the I,J,H and K bands.  We are preparing to test a
cross-dispersing system in the IRS, which will produce an echellette format
with five orders.  Further information is provided below, as well as in
NOAO Newsletter No. 39.

The CTIO IR Imager (CIRIM) has now seen extensive use, mainly on the
1.5-m telescope.  Preliminary information on performance was given in
NOAO Newsletter No. 40, with additional results provided below.

Other projects completed over the past three months include a new
filterwheel for the Cassegrain CCD systems, which will take five 4 X 4 inch
filters, the conversion of the 4-m Telescope Control System to the VxWorks
operating system, and fabrication of the mechanical parts for two Arcon
boxes for KPNO.

See the "CCD News" article for the latest in our adventures with the
installation of the Loral 3K X 1K CCD in the Air Schmidt camera for the
4-m spectrographs, as well as the progress toward a new CCD camera and
filter bolt system at the Curtis Schmidt.

J. Baldwin

Previous Article
Next Article
Table of Contents