Widefield Upgrade for the Spartan Infrared Camera

Michigan State University, East Lansing MI

Investigators

Abstract

The Spartan Camera is being built by Michigan State University for use on the 2.5 m SOAR telescope in Chile. The Spartan camera will consist of a matrix of four 2048x2048 detectors covering a field of 5' x 5' at a resolution of 0.16 arc seconds (or half that field with 0.08 arc second resolution). The Spartan camera under construction now will only consist of a half-populated detector matrix (2 detectors), with only one of the detectors being science-grade. The requested grant will be used for partially-matching funds to acquire two more science-grade detectors for the camera. The majority of the funding for these detectors will come from the Brazilian SOAR partner. The Spartan camera, once completed and installed on the SOAR telescope, will enable a variety of near-IR scientific imaging of targets ranging from Galactic to high-redshift objects. The SOAR instrument has a broad impact to the astronomical community, as it is a collaboration between a wide range of U.S. and foreign institutions.