First light of this camera took place at Palomar Observatory on the 200" Hale telescope on the nights of 1-3 December 2001. The camera uses a 1024x1024 Rockwell HgCdTe engineering-grade detector with a 9-element corrector at the f/3.3 prime focus of the Hale telescope. Blemishes in the chip are visible in the upper right quadrant. The camera is sensitive between 1 and 2.5 microns.
Please note that the images beneath are single frames from the camera, spanning almost 5 arcminutes on a side.
This commissioning chip will be replaced by a 2048x2048 scientific-grade chip in the summer of 2002. This chip will image a nearly 10 arcminute field.
The plate scale is approximately 0.26 arcseconds per pixel. Seeing during this run averaged arcsecond or better, especially in K band.
Participating in the commissioning were John Wilson, Steve Eikenberry, Chuck Henderson, Joe Carson, and Don Barry. Jean Mueller was our Palomar telescope operator. Thanks also to other WIRC team members Jim Houck, Bernhard Brandl, Tom Hayward, Bruce Pirger, and Justin Schoenwald.
Exposure details: J (15s), H (9s), and K-prime (11s) single frames. Subtracted from offset backgrounds, flat fielded and dark subtracted, and composited. J is coded as red, H as green, and K-prime as blue.
The Crab pulsar is the lower right of the pair at the center of the nebula. The nearby arcs and wisps are shocks generated by high-velocity outflow from the pulsar.
Exposure details: J (20s), H(15s), K-prime (15s) single frames, subtracted from offset backgrounds, flat fielded and dark subtracted. J band is red, H band is green, and K-prime is blue.
Exposure details: J (1.8s), H (1.8s). Composited with red representing J, blue representing H, and green interpolated between the two images. Our K-prime reduction for this image is initially problematic, so this preliminary release does not use it.
Exposure details: single frames of J (5s), H (5s), K-prime (5s). J is represented as red, H as green, and K-prime is blue.
Exposure details: single frames of J (1.8s), H (1.8s), and K-prime (1.8s). Basic reduction with dithered background subtract, dark and flat correction. J is coded as blue in this image, H as green, and K-prime as red.