Dual Channel Coronagraphic Imager (NICI: Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager)

Visit library section to see NICI's documentation

NICI provides high resolution frame differencing optimized for observations of faint objects in the immediate vicinity of bright sources. This environment has a very bright background. NICI’s two camera systems nearly eliminate the troublesome background. NICI is flexible and can be applied to many other science goals in the infrared spectrum.

Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager for the Gemini Telescopes

The picture above is worth a thousand words. It shows the GL229 system taken with an infrared coronagraph called CoCo on the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility. This image is the difference off two images taken over two hours in two different filters. The primary star in this system, GL229a is in the center behind the coronagraphic mask which occults most if it's light. The source in the upper right quadrant near the top of the image is GL229b a cool companion to GL229a. GL229b is what might be called a super planet. It is many times larger than Jupiter but still small enough and cool enough that it has a methane atmosphere. Methane absorbs light emitted by GL229b very strongly at some wavelengths and not at all at others. By taking two images, one in the methane absorption and one out side of the absorption band and then differencing the images the light from the primary star cancels almost completely while the light from the object with the methane absorption does not cancel. This allows a relatively faint source to be observed in the presence of a large amount of background light from the primary star. This type of differential observation is the focus of the NICI instrument.

NICI Project Overview

NICI Project Team

Management

• Project Manager/Project Engineer — Douglas Toomey — Mauna Kea Infrared
• Project Scientist — Christ Ftaclas — Michigan Technological University

Science Team

• Christ Ftaclas — Science Team Leader
• Dana Backman — Disk Science
• Sandy Leggett — Browns Dwarfs
• Eduardo Martin — Brown Dwarfs
• John Rayner — Young Stellar Objects
• David Trilling — Coronagraphic Observations — Disk Science

Design Team

• Peter Onaka — Electronics/Array Drive Design
• Werner Stahlberger — Mechanical Design
• Jeff Douglass — Mechanical Design
• John Rayner — Science and Optical Design
• Jim Hinds — Software Design
• Chris Shelton — AO Optical Design

Gemini/AURA/NOAO Participants

• Ron Probst NOAO Instrument Scientist
• Mark Trueblood — NOAO COTR
• Neil Gauhan — NOAO — Management Consultant
• Mark Chun — Gemini Instrument Scientist
• Robert Nolan — Gemini contact
• William Rambolt — Gemini — Epics Software design

Visit library section to see NICI's documentation