WIYN High Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC)

Available for Shared Risk Observing in 2009A

PI: Margaret Meixner, Space Telescope Science Institute
Project Scientist: Ed Churchwell, University of Wisconsin
WIYN Observatory Liaison: Heidi Schweiker
KPNO WHIRC Instrument Scientist: Dick Joyce

WHIRC commissioning activities began in July 2007 and are expected to be completed during semester 2008B.  WHIRC will become a general-use near-IR (0.9-2.5 micron) camera for the WIYN 3.5m telescope residing on the WIYN Tip-Tilt Module (WTTM) port. During semester 2009A, WHIRC is being supported in direct imaging mode without active WTTM correction as a shared-risk instrument.  Some shared-risk observing with WTTM correction might be possible in 2009A, depending on the availability of WIYN support personnel familiar with WTTM operation.  WHIRC has frequently demonstrated seeing limited performance of approximately 0.5-0.6" FWHM during the 2008A semester, and as good as 0.3" on exceptional nights. With the full tip-tilt first-order AO corrections possible with WTTM, WHIRC should typically deliver images with approximately 0.3" FWHM and near-diffraction-limited images (0.15") in the K_s band on exceptional nights. The optical design uses a Raytheon 2048×2048 HgCdTe VIRGO array with a fixed pixel scale of 0.1" (20 µm pixels). The field of view (3.3'×3.3') covers most of the WTTM corrected field. WHIRC has two filter wheels providing three broadband filters (J, H, K_s), and an assortment of 10 narrow band filters.

Remaining commissioning activities include reducing the detector noise and verifying photometric and flatfielding performance.  More detailed information on the instrument and current performance can be found here.

WHIRC filter complement

Figure 1 WHIRC on the WIYN WTTM port.

NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation.