An infrared camera for Leuschner Observatory and the Berkeley undergraduate astronomy lab

We describe the design, fabrication, and operation of an infrared camera wh ich is in use at the 30 inch telescope of the Leuschner Observatory. The ca mera is based on a Rockwell PICNIC pixel 256 x 256 HgCdTe array, which is s ensitive from 0.9 to 2.5 mum. The primary purpose of this telescope is for undergraduate instruction. The cost of the camera has been minimized by usi ng commercial parts wherever practical. The camera optics are based on a mo dified Offner relay which forms a cold pupil where stray thermal radiation from the telescope is baffled. A cold, six-position filter wheel is driven by a cryogenic stepper motor, thus avoiding any mechanical feedthroughs. Th e array control and readout electronics are based on standard PC cards; the only custom component is a simple interface card which buffers the clocks and amplifies the analog signals from the array.