The Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager

Christ Ftaclas, Physics Department, Michigan Tech

The Near Infrared Coronagraphic Imager (NICI) is a dual channel
coronagraphic camera just begun for Gemini South.  It combines several
powerful features directed at the planetary origins problem.  NICI will be
a facility class instrument with a dedicated curvature AO system optimized
for coronagraphic work.  Each imaging channel has 25 filters and there
eight channel-splitting options as well as several occulting mask and Lyot
stop choices including provision for user supplied occulting masks.  The
goal is to make NICI an extremely flexible instrument that can be easily
configured for many different types of problems.  The dual channel camera
is specifically designed to enhance detection of faint sources by channel
differencing.  The talk will be directed at how Origins science drives the
design, how coronagraphs work, why they work on ground-based telescopes,
adaptive optics in the context of coronagraphic instruments and the
peculiarities of observing in the background limited domain.  NICI is being
built by Mauna Kea Infrared for the US Gemini Program with funding from
NASA and NSF.