PISCES: A wide-field, 1-2.5 mu m camera for large-aperture telescopes

Wide-field-of-view infrared cameras, operating on the new generation of lar ge telescopes, offer unprecedented gains in the detection of faint sources and in observing efficiency for both direct imaging and spectroscopy. With a 1024 x 1024 pixel, 1-2.5 mum detector, the PISCES camera provides 8.'5 an d 3.'16 fields at the 2.3 m Bok telescope and 6.5 m Multiple Mirror Telesco pe, respectively. Its refractive optics utilize all spherical surfaces and standard glasses. A cold pupil stop suppresses the thermal background produ ced by the emissive surfaces normally present in Cassegrain optical configu rations. The optical design is directly extendable to wider fields with lar ger detector formats. Future upgrades include low-resolution (R = 200-500) multiobject spectroscopy.