Vista IR camera: conceptual design

Ian Egan; Eli Atad-Ettedgui; Mark M. Casali; Simon C. Craig; Maureen A. Ellis; Peter R. Hastings; David M. Henry; Ken Laidlaw; John Murray; Malcom Stewart; Will Sutherland

doi:10.1117/12.458116

24 December 2002 Vista IR Camera: Conceptual Design

Ian Egan, Eli Atad-Ettedgui, Mark M. Casali, Simon C. Craig, Maureen A. Ellis, Peter R. Hastings, David M. Henry, Ken Laidlaw, John Murray, Malcom Stewart, Will Sutherland

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4836, Survey and Other Telescope Technologies and Discoveries; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.458116
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

This paper describes the conceptual design for a near infrared camera for the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). VISTA is a 4m class survey telescope that is being designed to perform pre-planned, ground-based astronomical surveys of the Southern sky from ESO's Cerro Paranal Observatory in Chile. The IR Surveys will be carried out in the J, H and K_short wave-bands at fainter magnitudes than those produced by the current generation of survey telescopes. To maximise throughput and survey efficiency, the camera has been completely integrated with the overall optical design with the telescope mirrors providing the power and the camera optics the wavefront correction. The camera design employs a non-traditional approach to control stray light by using cryogenic baffles rather than the more traditional cold-stop approach. The very large optical field available, 1.6° diameter with a plate scale of approximately 57μm/arcsec, means that the focal plane can accommodate sixteen 2k×2k IR detectors thus forming the largest IR focal plane used in ground based astronomy to date. The 67 Mpixel focal plane will generate a significant data rate. Each exposure will comprise 270 MB and a typical night will generate 400 GB.

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Ian Egan, Eli Atad-Ettedgui, Mark M. Casali, Simon C. Craig, Maureen A. Ellis, Peter R. Hastings, David M. Henry, Ken Laidlaw, John Murray, Malcom Stewart, and Will Sutherland "Vista IR Camera: Conceptual Design", Proc. SPIE 4836, Survey and Other Telescope Technologies and Discoveries, (24 December 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.458116

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