William Herschel
Telescope
Auxiliary-port CAMera (ACAM)
First light: Jun 2009.
Last commissioning:
Designed and built by: ACAM was designed entirely by engineers and astronomers at ING, and was built in collaboration with Kevin Dee of Engineering & Project Solutions Ltd.
Description:
ACAM can be used either for imaging (as above) through broad-band
or narrow-band filters, or for taking spectra.
In spectroscopy mode, the light from the object under study is
dispersed by a
VPH (volume-phase holographic) grating.
For a 0.5-arcsec slit,
the on-axis spectroscopic
resolution is approximately 900 at a wavelength of 6000Å.
ACAM is mounted permanently at a folded-Cassegrain focus
of the telescope, and can be deployed at a few minutes notice.
This allows astronomers to switch quickly from the main
camera in use for the night, to ACAM, for rapid follow-up of unusual
events.
ACAM's exceptional versatility will allow astronomers to carry out
a broad range of high-impact
science projects which otherwise would not be
possible with the WHT, in particular those requiring one or more
of:
rapid response;
narrow-band imaging;
wide field of view;
low-resolution spectroscopy;
or high camera throughput (very litte light is lost in the optics).
Some scientific highlights:
More information:
More photos of this instrument: http://www.ing.iac.es/PR/archive/wht/instruments.html
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