THE UNITED KINGDOM INFRARED TELESCOPE
ANNUAL REPORT
1995 AND 1996

Introduction

M.J. Ward, Chairman, UKIRT Steering Committee

The contents of this report confirm UKIRT as the world's premier dedicated infrared telescope. As a national facility it must serve the needs of a large scientific community with diverse scientific interests. It achieves this by means of its relatively small suite of complementary state-of-the-art instruments, coupled with the outstanding level of technical and operational support which maintain the instruments and the telescope in the optimal condition, that visiting astronomers now expect as the norm.

The UKIRT operation would not retain its pre-eminence for long if it did not evolve in innovative ways. One example of this is the Upgrades Programme undertaken in collaboration with MPIA in Germany. A measure of the success of this programme is that visiting astronomers now make observations using the tip/tilt secondary mirror as a matter of routine. Its use provides substantial gains in sensitivity for narrow slit spectroscopic observations, as well as delivering much improved direct image quality. The scientific impact of these improvements can be seen in the descriptions of some of the more recent highlights contained within this report.

Looking ahead, the role of UKIRT must adapt as we enter the era of the 8 - 10 meter telescopes. It will do so by tailoring its future instruments to provide complementary observations, and in some areas by enabling programmes to be carried out using these new large facilities, for example by identifying classes of rare object of low surface number density. As in the past, so in the future, all developments will be science driven, and the ultimate value of UKIRT to the astronomical community will be judged by the importance of the observations that it makes possible. I have no doubt that it will successfully meet this challenge.