NICS (the Near Infrared Camera Spectrometer) is a cooled near-infrared came
ra-spectrometer that has been developed by the Arcetri Infrared Group at th
e Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory, in collaboration with the CAISMI-CNR f
or the TNG (the Italian National Telescope Galileo at La Palma, Canary Isla
nds, Spain). As NICS is in its scientific commissioning phase, we report it
s observing capabilities in the near-infrared bands at the TNG, along with
the measured performance and the limiting magnitudes. We also describe some
technical details of the project, such as cryogenics, mechanics, and the s
ystem which executes data acquisition and control, along with the related s
oftware.