Infrared instrumentation for large telescopes: an alternative approach

摘要

I very briefly describe the latest generation near infrared (1-2.5 micron)instruments which are available on, or under development for `large' (D>=3.5 m)telescopes. Most of the imagers under construction are limited to relativelysmall fields, while the spectrometers aim at quite high resolving powers. Thealternative instruments which I discuss here are - WIDE, a relatively low-cost instrument for the prime focus of LBT and/or ofTNG optimized for deep imaging of very large fields (12'x12' on LBT and 26'x26'on TNG) through the 1 micron, J, H, K' broad-band filters. - AMICI, an ultra-high efficiency, low resolution disperser optimized forcollecting complete 0.9-2.5 micron spectra of very faint objects. This deviceis mounted in NICS (the IR instrument for TNG) and should soon deliver spectrawith quality comparable to that obtained with instruments on 8m classtelescopes with similar integration times.