Introduction

SpectroCam-10 is a mid-infrared camera and spectrograph for the 200-inch Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory. As a camera, the instrument offers subarcsecond angular resolution with a field of view of 16''. As a spectrograph, it can operate in a low (R = 100) or high (R = 2000) resolution mode with a 1'' wide by 16'' long slit. The instrument is optimized for operation at wavelengths from 8 to 13 um, and has some capability in the 5 and 20 um bands. A cross-sectional drawing of SpectroCam-10 is shown in Figure 1.1 and the main features of the instrument are summarized in Table 1.1. Sensitivities are listed in Table 1.2.

Figure 1.1:   SpectroCam-10 cross section.

 

Table 1.1:   SpectroCam-10 Specifications 

  Installation:      Cassegrain f/70 focus

  Detector:          Rockwell 128x128 Si:As BIBIB
                     75x75 micron pixels
                     Low and Medium Background Switchable Capacitance Mux
                     1.6 x 10^7 e- well depth (med. bkgd.)
                     1.6 x 10^6 e- well depth (low  bkgd.)

  Control System:    IBM-compatible PC in Cass. cage (DOS)
                     Sun Ultra-2 in data room (UNIX and CDE)
                     Custom programs for real-time data acquisition and display
                     IRAF available for data processing
                     FITS output to Exabyte

  Operating Modes:   Two gratings and an optical flat provide three different modes.
                     Quoted sensitivities measured July 1993 and represent
                     1-sigma in 100 sec on-source integration time.

     Camera mode:    0.256"/pixel, 16" dia. unvignetted field (64 pixels)
                     OCLI silicate filter set, ~1 micron bandpsass,
                        7.9, 8.8, 9.5, 10.3, 11.7, 12.5 microns
                     Also have 3-5, 8-14, and 17.9 micron filters.

     Spectrograph:   16" long slits, 0.25"/pixel in spatial direction
                     64 spatial x 128 spectral pixels
                     8-14 micron order-sorting filter
                     0.5, 1, 2, and 4 arcsec wide slits
                     Sensitivities with 2" slit, every 2 pixel averaged:
                     Lores Mode:
                        0.024 microns per pixel, R~100 with 1" slit
                        NEFD = 25 mJy/pixel
                        Line sensitivity = 4.7x10^-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1
                     HiRes Mode:
                        0.00128 - 0.00142 microns per pixel, R~2000 with 1" slit
                        NEFD = 100 mJy/pixel
                        Line Sensitivity = 1.2x10^-14 erg cm^-2 s^-1

Table 1.2:   Camera-Mode Sensitivities
Wavelength (microns) 7.9 8.7 9.8 10.311.712.517.9
Pt. Src. Sens. (mJy) 44 18 21 17 14 30 240
Point source sens. is for 1 sigma in 100s on-source in a 5-pixel dia. beam.
Data taken 14 November 1994