2017 February: SPIRou camera delivered at IRAP/OMP
The SPIRou dioptric camera was delivered and installed in the spectrograph
The last optical element of the SPIRou spectrograph, the dioptric camera, was just delivered at IRAP/OMP and installed on the optical bench.
This camera, assembled and tested at Université de Montreal (UdeM) as outlined in a previous highlight, is quite impressive, reaching 1 m in length, 0.4 m in diameter and 70 kg in weight.
Following delivery, the camera was thermalized for 1 day within the SPIRou clean room to avoid condensation problems on the lenses. The camera was then installed on the optical bench and aligned with respect to the off-axis parabola. Thermal straps and temperature sensors were also fixed to the camera to ensure adequate thermal exchange with the optical bench, and accurate temperature monitoring during the forthcoming cryogenic cycles.
Once the H2RG test detector (expected soon) reaches IRAP/OMP and is mounted on the rear side of the camera, SPIRou will be ready to collect the first in-lab images, and to carry out the whole series of fine tunings and validation tests.
