Installation & Integration support on the VISTA wide-field reflecting telescope with 4.1 meter mirror, located at the Paranal Observatory in Antofagasta Chile. It is operated by the European Southern Observatory.
VISTA is a custom-designed survey telescope and camera, which will obtain wide-field surveys of the southern sky in the near-infrared. The field of view is very wide, an area about the size of twelve full moons, and can take exposures of objects deep into space.
Within five years VISTA will have mapped the whole sky in four colours of infrared light, to impressive depths, as well as being able to look in more detail at specific regions of the universe. RAL Space is involved in the system engineering, mechanical design and manufacture of the body of the camera and the thermal design of the camera amongst other elements of the construction and testing of the camera.
The camera comprises a large vacuum vessel with sixteen 2k x 2k pixel infrared detectors cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures, making up the largest IR focal place in the world.
More about the Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA)
