Ground-based Infrared Activities at TIFR and Future Prospects

We give a brief description of the activities of the Infrared Astronomy
Group (DAA) of TIFR since its inception in 1971 with special emphasis on
the ground-based Near Infrared Astronomical observations using the various
Indian telescopes at Kavalur (IIA), Mt. Abu (PRL), Girawali (IUCAA),
Nainital (ARIES) and Hanle (IIA).

This group is one of the few groups in India, working on the design,
fabrication, calibration and use of Near Infrared cameras and
spectrographs for astronomical purposes. The instruments range from single
element photometers to the 58x62 Indium Antimonide array based TIRCAM-1
camera to the latest state of the art 2048 x 2048 (Mercury Cadmium
Telluride) H2RG array based TANSPEC imager and spectrograph. It is a
journey of building instruments for Indian telescopes from the smallest to
the largest ARIES 3.6m DOT telescope in Devasthal, Uttarakhand; a journey
from single element Near Infrared imagers to array based Near Infrared
spectrographs.

In this talk, the basic ideas of Near Infrared detectors and cameras will
be presented and the complications in designing Near Infrared instruments
vis-à-vis their (visible) optical counterparts will be discussed. The
unique design of TIRSPEC (on 2m HCT telescope at Hanle, Ladakh) currently
being heavily used by the astronomy community, and also the planned
TANSPEC, which is now being built for India's largest 3.6m Devasthal
observatory telescope, will be presented.

About the Speaker:
Mr. Joe Philip Ninan did his B.Sc from Christ College, Bangalore with Gold
Medal. He is about to complete his Int-PhD programme at the TIFR Deemed
University. He was an NIUS Fellow (2008) and a KVPY Fellow (2009). He won
the Ratanbai Jerajani award for best seminar in the area of Astronomy and
Astrophysics (2013).