The optical imager Galileo (OIG)

TL;DR

The paper details the development, installation, and operational use of the Optical Imager Galileo (OIG) on the TNG telescope, highlighting its role in instrument verification and scientific observations.

Contribution

It introduces the OIG instrument, its integration with TNG, and its use as a foundational tool for imaging and system verification in astronomical research.

Findings

OIG successfully verified optical quality and active optics of TNG.

OIG was the primary instrument for initial telescope testing and scientific scheduling.

Coupled with ARNICA, OIG was essential for early scientific observations.

Abstract

The present paper describes the construction, the installation and the operation of the Optical Imager Galileo (OIG), a scientific instrument dedicated to the 'imaging' in the visible. OIG was the first instrument installed on the focal plane of the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo (TNG) and it has been extensively used for the functional verification of several parts of the telescope (as an example the optical quality, the rejection of spurious light, the active optics and the tracking), in the same way also several parts of the TNG informatics system (instrument commanding, telemetry and data archiving) have been verified making extensive use of OIG. This paper provides also a frame of work for a further development of the imaging dedicated instrumentation inside TNG. OIG, coupled with the first near-IR camera (ARNICA), has been the 'workhorse instrument' during the first period of telescope experimental and scientific scheduling.