Chapter 2:
Overview of NICMOS
In this chapter we provide an overview of the basic properties and capabilities of NICMOS under the NICMOS Cooling System (NCS). We first give an overview of the NICMOS capabilities, then a brief summary of the NICMOS history that led to the installation of the NCS. A description of the optical and mechanical layout of the NICMOS instrument follows, before we proceed to the NCS design and its interface to NICMOS. Last, a summary of the NICMOS basic operations is given.
