Survey Observation of Short-Period Mira Variables Using a Very Wide Field Near-Infrared Camera

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The final goal of this project is revealing the structure of our Galaxy using short period Mira type variables as distance probes. For the first step of this project, we developed a wide-field near-infrared camera system attached to the 91cm telescope of Okayama Astrophysical Observatory as the main observational instrument. The wide-field camera has a capability of very wide-field imaging which is as wide as 1 degree square in near-infrared J, H, and K bands. We successfully constructed the optics and the detector system of the wide-field camera. We performed cooling tests for the camera dewer carefully and confirmed that the dewer has a good cooling capability. We also made renewal of the 91cm telescope. We made a new secondary mirror, its support system, and an attachment system for the wide-field camera. The primary mirror of the 91cm telescope was recoated with gold in order to improve its reflectivity in near-infrared band. We completely remade the hardware and the software of the telescope control system. We examined the survey observation strategy in detail in parallel with the instrumentation. Furthermore, we went on several business trips abroad, attended some international conferences for exchanging technical, scientific information with foreign investigators. Although we could not start real survey observation in this research period, we successfully completed the instrumentation which we had planned at first.