KASINICS: Near Infrared Camera System for the BOAO 1.8 m Telescope

• Published in: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan Vol. 60; no. 4; pp. 849 - 856
• Main Authors: Moon, Bongkon, Jin, Ho, Yuk, In-Soo, Lee, Sungho, Nam, Uk-won, Cha, Sang-Mok, Cho, Seoung-Hyun, Kyeong, Jae-Mann, Park, Youngsik, Mock, Seungwon, Han, Jeong-Yeol, Lee, Dea-Hee, Park, Jang-Hyun, Han, Wonyong, Pak, Soojong, Kim, Geon-Hee, Kim, Yong Ha
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Oxford Universtiy Press 25.08.2008
• Subjects: infrared: general; techniques: photometric; instrumentation: detectors
• ISSN: 0004-6264; 2053-051X
• DOI: 10.1093/pasj/60.4.849

We developed Korea Astronomy and Space science Institute (KASI) Near Infrared Camera System (KASINICS) to be installed on the 1.8 m telescope of Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory (BOAO) in Korea. We use a 512 $\times$ 512 InSb array (Aladdin III Quadrant, Raytheon Co.) to enable $L$ band observations as well as $J, H$ , and $K_s$ bands. The field-of-view of the array is 3 ${\rlap{\hskip.75pt{^\prime}}\hskip.75pt.\hskip1pt}$ 3 $\times$ 3 ${\rlap{\hskip.75pt{^\prime}}\hskip.75pt.\hskip1pt}$ 3 with a resolution of 0 ${\rlap{\hskip.75pt{^{\prime\prime}}}\hskip.75pt.\hskip1.75pt}$ 39 $/$ pixel. We adopt an Offner relay optical system, which provides a cold stop to eliminate thermal background emission from the telescope structures. Most parts of the camera, including the mirrors, were manufactured from the same ingot of aluminum alloy to ensure a homologous contraction from room temperature to 80 K. We also developed a readout electronics system for the array detector. Based on preliminary results from test observations, the limiting magnitudes are $J=$ 17.6, $H=$ 17.5, $K_s =$ 16.1, and $L$ (narrow) $=$ 10.0 mag at a signal-to-noise ratio of 10 for an integration time of 100 s.