Overview
The Wide-Field Infrared Transient Explorer (WINTER) is a new near-infrared time-domain survey instrument installed on a dedicated 1-meter robotic telescope at Palomar Observatory in June of 2023. WINTER’s science goals include robotic follow-up of kilonovae from binary neutron star (BNS) and neutron-star black-hole (NSBH) mergers, surveys to study galactic and extra-galactic transients and variables, along with building up a deep, coadded image of the near-infrared sky. The project also serves as a technology demonstration for new large-format Indium Gallium Arsenide (InGaAs) detectors for cost-effective near-infrared photometry without cryogenic cooling. WINTER’s custom camera combines six InGaAs detectors with a novel tiled fly’s-eye optical design to cover a >1 degree-squared field of view in the Y-, J-, and shortened-H-band filters (0.9-1.7 um). In this talk, I will present the design, performance, and early on-sky results from the WINTER observatory.