Development of infrared instrumentation for the Chicago Adaptive Optics System

With the increasing number of adaptive optics (AO) systems being developed for major observatories, it is important to understand the requirements and the capabilities of the IR instrumentation that will utilize these systems. During the past two years, we have constructed and upgraded an IR camera system based on the NICMOS 3 IR array for the Chicago Adaptive Optics System (ChAOS). ChAOS is a high order adaptive optics system built by Edward Kibblewhite and his research group for use at the ARC 3.5 Meter Telescope. The IR camera has been used with the AO system during several observing runs and achieved near diffraction limited images form 1 to 2.3 microns. We present these early imaging result and discuss several of the unique problems faced by this camera. We will also discuss the potential capabilities of AO instruments and discuss our observing plans for the near future. Finally we describe our ongoing development of an IR spectrograph for the system.