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NIRC2

Near Infra Red Camera 2 for the Keck Observatory
(In collaboration with Caltech and CARA)

Under the direction of UCLA's NIRC2 Co-Investigators, James Larkin and Ian McLean, the UCLA Infrared Lab has designed and built the electronics package for the NIRC2 instrument being developed for the Keck II Telescope. The NIRC2 project is being led by the Principal Investigator, Caltech's Keith Matthews, and Co-Investigator Tom Soifer.

The NIRC2 electronics system is designed to operate the SBRC Aladdin2 or Aladdin3 Infrared Detector. The 10242 pixel Aladdin detector is InSb based, and is controlled by a Sun Workstation which communicates with the NIRC2 electronics via a fiber optic link. The IDL-based camera control software has also been developed by UCLA, and represents one of UCLA's major contributions to the NIRC2 project. The NIRC2 software is very similar to the software which UCLA developed for its recently delivered NIRSPEC instrument, and it is hoped that these very similar and user-friendly products will make observing easier and more productive for astronomers using the Keck Observatory.

On September 10, 1999, the NIRC2 electronics and Sun Workstation were successfully delivered to Caltech for integration with the rest of the NIRC2 instrument.

Link to Keck NIRC2 page

Pictures:

Drawings:

NIRC2 Software Information:

nirc2_tower