| Names |
Margaret Meixner, Stephen Smee, Ryan L. Doering, Robert H. Barkhouser, Todd Miller, Joseph Orndorff, Patricia Knezek, Edward Churchwell, Gregg Scharfstein, Jeffrey Percival, David Mills, Charles Corson, Richard Joyce, Brian Ferguson, Masaaki Otsuka |
| Abstract |
The WIYN High Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC) has been a general-use
instrument at the WIYN telescope on Kitt Peak since 2008. WHIRC is a
near-infrared (0.8 - 2.5 μm) camera with a filter complement of J, H,
Ks broadband and 10 narrowband filters, utilizing a 2048 × 2048
HgCdTe array from Raytheon's VIRGO line, developed for the VISTA
project. The compact on-axis refractive optical design makes WHIRC the
smallest near-IR camera with this capability. WHIRC is installed on the
WIYN Tip-Tilt Module (WTTM) port and can achieve near
diffraction-limited imaging with a FWHM of ~0.25 arcsec at Ks with
active WTTM correction and routinely delivers ~0.6 arcsec FWHM images
without WTTM correction. During its first year of general use operation
at WIYN, WHIRC has been used for high definition near-infrared imaging
studies of a wide range of astronomical phenomena including star
formation regions, stellar populations and interstellar medium in nearby
galaxies, high-z galaxies and transient phenomena. We discuss
performance and data reduction issues such as distortion, pupil ghost,
and fringe removal and the development of new tools for the observing
community such as an exposure time calculator and data reduction
pipeline. |