Spartan Infrared Camera, a High-Resolution Imager for the SOAR Telescope: Design, Tests, and On-Telescope Performance

The Spartan Infrared Camera provides tip-tilt corrected imaging for the SOAR Telescope in the 900-2500 nm spectral range with four 2048 x 2048 HAWAII-2 detectors. The camera has two plate scales: high-resolution (40 mas pixel(-1)) for future diffraction-limited sampling in the H and K bands and wide-field (66 mas pixel(-1)) to cover a 5' x 5' field, over which tip-tilt correction is substantial. The design is described in detail. Except for CaF2 field-flattening lenses, the optics are aluminum mirrors to thermally match the aluminum cryogenic-optical box in which the optics mount. The design minimizes the tilt of the optics as the instrument rotates on the Nasmyth port of the telescope. Two components of the gravitational torque on an optic are eliminated by symmetry, and the third component is minimized by balancing the optic. The optics (including the off-axis aspherical mirrors) were aligned with precise metrology. For the detector assembly, Henein pivots are used to provide frictionless, thermally compliant, lubricant-free, and thermally conducting rotation of the detectors. The heat load is 14 W for an ambient temperature of 10 degrees C. Cooling down takes 40 hr. An activated-charcoal getter controls permeation through the large Viton O-ring for at least nine months. We present maps of the image distortion, which amount to tens of pixels at the greatest. The wavelength of the narrowband filters shift with position in the sky. The measured Strehl ratio of the camera itself is 0.81-0.84 at lambda 1650 nm. The width of the best K-band image was 260 mas in unexceptional seeing measured after tuning the telescope and before moving the telescope. Since images are normally taken after pointing the telescope to a different field, this supports the idea that the image quality could be improved by better control of the focus and the shape of the primary mirror. The instrument has proved to be capable of producing images that can be stitched together to measure faint, extended features and to produce photometry that agree internally to better than 0.01 mag and are well calibrated to 2MASS stars in the range of 12 < K < 16.