LINC-NIRVANA is the IR Fizeau interferometric imager that will be installed within a couple of years on the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) in Arizona. Here we present a particular sub-system, the so-called Patrol Camera (PC), which has been now completed, along with the results of the laboratory tests. It images (in the range 600-900 nm) the same 2 arcmin FoV seen by the Medium-High Wavefront Sensor (MHWS), adequately sampled to provide the MHWS star enlargers with the positions of the FoV stars with an accuracy of 0.1 arcsec. To this aim a diffraction-limited performance is not required, while a distortion free focal plane is needed to provide a suitable astrometric output. Two identical systems have been realized, one for each single arm, which corresponds to each single telescope. We give here the details concerning the optical and mechanical layout, as well as the CCD and the control system. The interfaces (mainly software procedures) with LINC-NIRVANA (L-N) are also presented.

Date Published: 21 July 2010
PDF: 11 pages
Proc. SPIE 7734, Optical and Infrared Interferometry II, 77343S (21 July 2010); doi: 10.1117/12.855974

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7734:
Optical and Infrared Interferometry II
William C. Danchi; Françoise Delplancke; Jayadev K. Rajagopal, Editor(s)