Detector upgrade in EMIR@GTC: on-sky performances

Garzón, Francisco; Fernández-Acosta, Sergio; Hammersley, Peter; Joven, Enrique; Russo, Anthony; Rosich, Josefina
Bibliographical reference

Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy X

Advertised on:
7
2024
Number of authors
6
IAC number of authors
5
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
EMIR was shipped to the GTC on May 2016 and had its first light on June 2016. Since the beginning, the EMIR performances have been severely hampered by the many instabilities in the infrared detector, a 2048x2048 Hawaii2, built with the old original technology of the Teledyne Hawaii series. Despite of this, the instrument has proven to be powerful enough so as to produce a significant number of important scientific contributions. Starting in 2020, we initiated a new project aimed at equip EMIR with a most modern detector array, free from the artifacts that contaminated the observations with the old one. As a results EMIR has recently been upgraded with a new Hawaii2RG infrared detector which has superior performances virtually in every aspect compared with the old one. Not only the new detector is more sensitive, virtually in every aspect, compare with the old one but it also lacks the many instabilities of the original detected that have severely hampered the performances of EMIR, while it is not free from artifacts that increases the noise in the measurements. This is particularly noticeable under high illumination conditions, i.e. broad brand imaging, as it will be shown below. In addition, the new detector sits on a remotely operated gimbal mount that permits an exquisite alignment in the field of view. The detector is controlled by the SIDECAR integrated controller and a Markury Scientific MACIE interface card over IP communication.