A

TNG  Commisioning

FIRST LIGHT OF ARNICA  AT TNG

ARCETRI IR

The Arcetri Observatory, The CAISMI-CNR and The TNG Commissioning Group Roque de Los Muchachos December 18^th, 1998   Document also available in:  

www.tng.iac.es

  

The ARcetri INfrared CAmera (ARNICA) has been installed   in the week 6-13 December 1998 at  the TNG Nasmyth A focus (see Figure 1.). The interface is meant to support the optical imager (OIG), the infrared camera (ARNICA will be later substituted by NICS), and the adaptive optics module (ADOPT@TNG).

During the week 13-20 December Arnica, had a shared observing time with ADOPT@TNG. Some of the images obtained during this observing run are shown below.

This success could be achieved only with the collaboration of many people. We would thank all partecipants, and in particular the TNG technical and support staff and Arcetri and Tirgo joint tecnical staff.

Arnica  is a DRO camera for infrared imaging operating in wavelength  range between 0.9 and 2.6 microns and is equipped with a Nicmos3 256x256 detector. The camera optical design, entirely based on lenses, provides a plate scale of 0.41 arcsec /pixel (field of view = 105"x105").

 

 

Figure 1. Arnica mounted at Nasmyth interface.  

Figure 2 shows one of the first images, the Butterfly Nebula (NGC2346) observed in the line of the S0->1 transition of molecular hydrogen.

The observation was obtained by means of a narrow band filter (bandbass 1%, 2.125 microns). The final image is composed by 5 elementary exposures of 60 sec. The seeing was about 1 arcsec FWHM.

Figure 2. The Butterfly Nebula.   

Figure 3 shows the true color composite image of a dust embedded star cluster containing a massive protostar (IRAS 23385+6053). The J, H, and K band have been mapped with the blu, yellow and red colors respectively.

The observations were obtained by means of the three standard near infrared filter (J, 1.12-1.40 microns, H, 1.48-1.82 microns, K, 2.00-2.41 microns). The integration time was about 4 minutes per filter. The seeing was 1 arcsec FWHM.

Figure 3. Embedded star cluster IRAS 23385+6053.   

Figure 4 shows a section of the reflection nebula NGC 2023 observed in the S0->1 H2 emission line.

The observation was obtained with a narrow band filter (bandpass 1%) and an integration time of 7 minutes.

Figure 4. The NGC 2023 reflection nebula.   

Last updated 29 Dec 1998

---

Infrared Start Page _______________ Arcetri Home Page