Commissioning ShARCS: the Shane Adaptive optics infraRed Camera-Spectrograph for the Lick Observatory 3-m telescope

TL;DR

ShARCS is a new infrared camera-spectrograph designed for the Shane telescope, enabling high-efficiency, diffraction-limited imaging and spectroscopy in infrared bands with advanced features like polarimetry and visible-light sensitivity.

Contribution

This paper introduces the design and initial performance results of ShARCS, a novel adaptive optics infrared instrument for the Shane telescope.

Findings

Successful commissioning and early science observations demonstrating diffraction-limited imaging.

High quantum efficiency (>80%) of the infrared detector across J, H, and K bands.

Capability for linear polarimetry and visible-light observations.

Abstract

We describe the design and first-light early science performance of the Shane Adaptive optics infraRed Camera-Spectrograph (ShARCS) on Lick Observatory's 3-m Shane telescope. Designed to work with the new ShaneAO adaptive optics system, ShARCS is capable of high-efficiency, diffraction-limited imaging and low-dispersion grism spectroscopy in J, H, and K-bands. ShARCS uses a HAWAII-2RG infrared detector, giving high quantum efficiency (>80%) and Nyquist sampling the diffraction limit in all three wavelength bands. The ShARCS instrument is also equipped for linear polarimetry and is sensitive down to 650 nm to support future visible-light adaptive optics capability. We report on the early science data taken during commissioning.