First light with NEWFIRM

NEWFIRM, the widefield infrared camera for the NOAO 4-m telescopes, saw first light in February 2007 and is now in service as a general user instrument. Previous papers have described it conceptually and presented design details. We discuss experience gained from assembly, laboratory testing, and on-sky commissioning. We present final system performance characteristics and summarize science use in its the first semester of general availability. NEWFIRM has met its requirement to provide a high efficiency observing system, optimized end-to-end for survey science.

[1]  Richard Joyce,et al.  Passive compensation of gravity flexure in optical instruments , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[2]  P. N. Daly,et al.  The NEWFIRM observing software: from design to implementation , 2008, Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[3]  Ronald G. Probst,et al.  Program status of NEWFIRM, the wide-field infrared camera system for the NOAO 4-m telescopes , 2004, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.

[4]  Ronald G. Probst,et al.  NEWFIRM: the widefield IR imager for NOAO 4-m telescopes , 2003, SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation.