AIRI design by Johns Hopkins University

AIRI (Araucaria InfraRed Imager) is an infrared camera, designed by experts and engineers from the Johns Hopkins University, that will be installed on the 2.5-m telescope at OCM. The design of the camera was presented at the SPIE event: Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, in 2026 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Araucaria InfraRed Imager (AIRI) instrument design

J.R. Eimer, R.H. Barkhouser, S.A. Smee, R. Chini, R. Dekany, M. Górski, G. Hajdu, A.C. Harding, S.C. Hope, P. Karczmarek, W. Narloch, J. Peebles, G. Pietrzyński, P. Wielgórski

SPIE, 2026, vol. 14149, pp. 3378-3392

J.R. Eimer, a professor at the Johns Hopkins University and a cosmologist specializing in the design of instrumentation, presented at the SPIE event: Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, held in 2026 in Copenhagen, Denmark, the design of a new near-infrared camera for the 2.5-m telescope that will be assembled at OCM by the end of 2026.

The new instrument, named AIRI (Araucaria InfraRed Imager) will observe in J, H, and Ks bands, delivering images with resolution 0.”13/pix across the 4.’4 × 4.’4 field of view. AIRI will be used by the Araucaria Project to further improve extragalactic distance scale, bringing us closer towards the resolution of the Hubble tension.

The AIRI instrument is based on the design strategy from the WHIRC camera developed for the WIYN telescope. Modifications include an overall transition to updated technologies, optimized optical design, and improved ghosting and straylight performance.