Fundación Galileo Galilei - INAF Telescopio Nazionale Galileo 28°45'14.4N 17°53'20.6W 2387.2m A.S.L.

NICS - Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer

NICS is the infrared camera/spectrometer designed and built for the National Telescope Galileo by the infrared group at the Arcetri Observatory in Firenze (Italy). Below is a brief description of the instrument and of its observing modes:


WARNING! Imaging polarimetry and spectropolarimetry are not currently available.


Last modified on Sep 06. Written by E. Oliva and based on the characterization work done by F. Ghinassi, J. Licandro, R. Maiolino, F. Mannucci, A. Marconi, N. Nagar and L. Testi.

NICS was first refurbished in March 2003 at the Arcetri Observatory. These works have solved most of the mechanical and optical problems which previously affected and limited its astronomical use.

Another very importat upgrade occurred in February 2006, when the new array electronics control system (FASTI) was installed thus solving several problems (reliability, persistency, large overheads) which affected the previous system.

These remarkable achievements are the result of several years of competent work by the IR-group of Arcetri, and in particular by C. Baffa, V. Biliotti, A. Checcucci, G. Comoretto, G. Falcini, V. Gavryusev, S. Gennari, E. Giani, G. Marcucci, I. Mochi, M. Sozzi & P. Stefanini. A particular thank to the former director of Arcetri, Marco Salvati, for his collaboration in the organizational work after the instrument remained without a P.I.


For any comments please contact Vania Lorenzi.