After an intensive installation campaign, the Supercam visiting instrument has been successfully installed in the Cassegrain cabin of APEX. Supercam is a 64-pixel 345 GHz heterodyne array built by the University of Arizona
Supercam Installed on APEX
Published: 14 Dec 2014
Supercam installed in the APEX Cassegrain cabin [Credit: Carlos A. Durán / APEX]
This complex installation was done in close collaboration between the APEX and Supercam instrument teams. Supercam is by far the largest such array, and allows wide areas to be mapped in the CO(3-2) line. Making use of the optimal atmospheric transparency at Chajnantor, Supercam will map several extended regions such as the Galactic Plane, the Magellanic Clouds and the Orion star forming region. The figure (below) shows a Supercam image of the NGC 2068 region in Orion. The colour coding shows the ambient velocity in green, with blue-/red-shifted CO gas emission in blue/red.
