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Overview of Instrumentation at ING

This page provides an overview of the instrumentation at the WHT and INT. Further information about a given instrument can be obtained by clicking on the instrument name, or by emailing one of the listed instrument specialists.

At the INT, the usual instruments (IDS, WFC) are offered in 2023B, and may be available during a fraction of 2024A as well.

At the WHT, commissioning of the new multi-object spectrograph WEAVE, is in progress. As of May 2023, the LIFU (large integral field unit) mode is commissioned, with science-verification observations have started. The LIFU mode is being offered for open-time observations in 2023B.

Once the MOS and mIFU modes of WEAVE have also been commissioned (by ~ mid-2023, if all goes well) a long-term average of 70% of the time at the WHT will be devoted to the WEAVE surveys.

The remaining 30% of the time will be available for 'open time' community observing with WEAVE, with the Cassegrain instruments (ISIS, LIRIS, ACAM) or with visiting instruments. Open time for the MOS and mIFU modes of WEAVE will only be advertised once they are commissioned. It's expected that WEAVE will stay on the telescope during all of 2023 and 2024, so non-WEAVE open time will not be offered during this period.

The latest news about the ongoing evolution of the instrumentation at the WHT and INT (following a 2014 poll of the community) can be found on the ING instrumentation update page.

Information about how to apply for telescope time can be found on the applying for telescope time page.

Notes (§) about specific instruments and procedures can be found at the bottom of this page.

Information about instruments no longer offered at ING (e.g. the multi-object spectrograph AF2) can be found on the page about past, present and future instruments.



Spectroscopy
Instrument/Contacts Wavelength
range		 Resolving
power (§7)		 Slit length Detector (§5) Comments
4.2-m William Herschel Telescope
Manager: Benn
ISIS
Specialists: Skillen / Benn
3000 - 10000 Å 600 < R < 12700 4' Red: Red+
Blue: EEV12
Red or Blue:
Qucam3, Qucam2 		Long-slit spectroscopy;
spectro and imaging polarimetry;
fast spectroscopy; image-slicer
LIRIS (§1)
Specialists: Dominguez / Fariña
9000 - 24000 Å 1000 < R < 3000 4.2' HgCdTe Long-slit spectroscopy;
multi-object spectroscopy;
spectro and imaging polarimetry
ACAM (§2)
Specialists: Benn / Domínguez  
3500 - 9400 Å R ~ 400 6' AUXCAM Long-slit spectroscopy
WEAVE (being commissioned in 2023)
Specialists: Benn / Domínguez / Fariña  
3660 - 9590 Å R ~ 5000, 20000 EEV CCDs MOS (up to 960 fibres) and IFU spectroscopy
2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope
Manager: Fariña
IDS
Specialists: Vaduvescu / Domínguez
3000 - 10000 Å 700 < R < 10000 3.3' Red+2 (or EEV10)
 Long-slit spectroscopy


Imaging
Instrument/Contacts Detector (§5) Filters (§6) Scale ("/pixel) Field-of-view
4.2-m William Herschel Telescope
Manager: Benn
PF-QHY (§9) (test camera used during WEAVE
integration, until July 2021 only)
Specialists: Vaduvescu / Ashley  
QHY Small selection of filters,
see the instrument page 		0.067 10'.7 x 7'.1
ACAM (§2)
Specialists: Benn / Domínguez  
AUXCAM Most ING filters, see database 0.25 8'.3
LIRIS
Specialists: Dominguez / Fariña
HgCdTe ZJHK_s
and 8 narrow-band		 0.25 4'.27
2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope
Manager: Fariña
Wide Field Camera (§3)
Specialists: Vaduvescu / Ashley
EEV See database 0.33 33'.8 x 33'.8


Visitor Instruments (§4)
InstrumentDescription Institute Contact
4.2-m William Herschel Telescope
Manager: Benn
GHaFaS Fabry-Perot Hα imager IAC John Beckman, Alex Oscoz
PAUCam(§8) Prime-focus imager (1 deg field of view) IFAE Francisco Castander
PN.S Slitless counter-dispersed spectrograph Kapteyn Magda Arnaboldi


SIGNAL can be used to calculate exposure times for most telescope/instrument/detector combinations.

§ Notes

  1. LIRIS: slit-mask preparation and manufacture takes approximately eleven weeks; PIs awarded time in multi-slit mode are strongly encouraged to initiate the design of slit masks at the earliest opportunity. Information about slit-mask design and timelines is given here. As of semester 2014B, the cost of manufacturing the slit masks (600 - 900 euros per mask) must be covered by the home institution of the proposing team.
  2. ACAM: observations can be made at any time, except when an instrument is mounted at WHT prime focus.
  3. INT WFC: offered at rotator angle 180 degrees only. When there is compelling scientific justification, other rotator angles (0, 90 or 270-degrees) can be offered for the duration of the run; changes to the rotator angle within a run are not permitted.
  4. Visitor instruments: the list in the table above includes those instruments whose teams have expressed an interest in collaborative proposals. Prospective applicants should in the first instance contact the relevant person named in the above table. Applicants wishing to submit a proposal based on a new (to ING) visitor instrument should follow these instructions. After 2016B, visiting instruments requiring a Nasmyth focus have been hosted on the GRACE Nasmyth platform (rather than GHRIL).
  5. CCDs: specifications and technical details are given on the ING detectors page.
  6. Filters: details are given on the ING filters page.
  7. Spectroscopic resolutions quoted for ISIS, LIRIS, ACAM and IDS assume a 1-arcsec slit.
  8. PAUCam was successfully commissioned at WHT prime focus in 2016. Observers interested in using PAUCam should contact Francisco Castander at the email address above, for advice about any technical issues not covered on the PAUCam web pages, and also for advice about the likely timing of PAUCam survey runs during the coming semester. All scheduled observations will be carried out by the PAUCam team.
  9. The PF-QHY camera is a test imaging camera which was mounted behind the new prime-focus corrector for WEAVE. It was available for service-mode science observations from April 2021 until mid-July 2021, and remains included on this page for reference purposes. The PF-QHY has been characterised and tested by ING, but users should understand that it is not a fully-commissioned common-user instrument.


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Last modified: 15 December 2023