PROCEEDINGS ARTICLE | June 28, 2006
Proc. SPIE. 6269, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy
KEYWORDS: Near infrared, Telescopes, Mirrors, Electronics, Clocks, Cameras, Sensors, Field programmable gate arrays, Control systems, Domes
The IRAIT project is aimed at preparing the first permanent observatory, a 80 cm class telescope, at Dome C, a site located at 3200 height on the Antarctic plateau. To exploit the high-quality and low-sky-background conditions offered by the site in spectral regions beyond 20 μm, IRAIT telescope will be equipped at its Nasmyth focus by a dual feed infrared camera: a near/medium infrared camera (AMICA) designed to be operated by a Si:As detector array sensitivity in the range 5-28 μm, and a In:Sb detector array covering the shorter spectral range down to J band. AMICA is a joint effort of several Italian institutions (OAMI, OATO, OAPD) led by the Teramo Observatory, belonging to Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF). The importance of this instrument is twofold: AMICA is expected to provide extensive surveys of the southern sky in K,L,M,N and Q bands, and to give a direct estimate of the observational quality of this highly promising site. To face the prohibitive Antarctic environment, the telescope should be fully robotic and operations for the telescope and its instrumentation remotely controlled. Careful consideration is to be devoted to the design and integration of the control system, besides the accurate insulation for all the equipment. In the present paper we will provide an overview of the AMICA camera focused on the detectors control electronics, the solutions adopted to reduce the impact with a severe environment and the present status of the project.
