NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility(IRTF), Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii
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Felix NASA InfraRed Telescope Facility(IRTF), Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii |
Introduction
Felix is a new acquisition camera, off-axis guider, and wavefront sensor that will replace Smokey as IRTF's facility acquisition and off-axis guide system. The main goal of Felix is to enable off-axis wavefront sensing and control anywhere in the sky. Felix can be used as a 2x2 Shack-Hartmann WFS that will be used to adjust the hexapod to keep IRTF in focus. This closed loop focus measurement will improve upon our current open loop focus adjust model.
Several improvements have been made to Felix, compared to Smokey, to achieve our goals. The camera is an EM-CCD instead of an image intensified TV camera, greatly improving sensitivity. A single camera handles acquisition, guiding, and science imaging tasks. This is the same Andor camera as used for MORIS and MOC. Dual filter wheels enable any color filter to be stacked with a selection of ND filters. The selection of ND filters combined with digital live sky subtraction should greatly improve day-time target acquisition. The profile of the pick-off mirror (POM) has been significantly reduced to improve the unvignetted patrol area of Felix. Otherwise, Felix reflects Smokey's layout and functionality.
Felix consists of:
Felix Specs
Project Status