MANIAC - A NEW MID-INFRARED AND NEAR-INFRARED ARRAY CAMERA

We present the optical, mechanical and electronical design of MANIAC, the Mid- and Near-Infrared Array Camera, together with some results fr om the first observing run. MANIAC is a two-channel instrument that of fers observations from 1 to 5 mu m and from 8 to 28 mu m at the same t ime. The advantages of the purely reflective optical design of MANIAC are discussed as well as the options that are provided by simultaneous observations in the two regimes. The construction of MANIAC will be c ompleted in a modular way, each of the five phases offering a fully op erational instrument. The first phase, a mid-infrared camera based on a Rockwell 128x128 pixel Si:As detector, has now been completed, With a pixel scale of about 0.2 arcsec, the MANIAC mid-infrared channel off ers diffraction-limited imaging in the N and Q bands at a 4-m class te lescope and a field of view of 26x26 arcsec. The sensitivity achieved in the N band is very close to the background limit under all observat ional modes. We also discuss the scientific importance of high-resolut ion mid-infrared observations, describe the observing methods, and cha racterize the performance of the detector array.