Imaging Instrument Upgrade Plan: "IO"

A proposal to upgrade the LT optical (RATCam) and infrared (SupIRCam) cameras has recently been submitted to STFC and will be discussed at the open session of PPRP on December 17th at RIBA, London.

The current cameras were designed and built in the early part of the decade and have proved very successful, contributing to over 40 scientific publications in the period 2006-2008. However their specification, especially in terms of field of view, is now somewhat limiting.

As well as simply increasing the field of view (by a factor of twelve times in the infrared and five times in the optical) the new instrument "IO" will also incorporate a simple tip-tilt system for improved image quality. This will reduce the effect of windshake on the telescope and remove first order atmospheric effects. In addition it will, for the first time, give the facility to image simultaneously in the optical and the IR.

More details of the proposed camera specification are given here.