TIRGO (named after the Italian operated Telecopio InfraRosso del Gornergrat Osservatorio) is a compact sub-millimetre wavelength Nb superconducting tunnel junction receiver developed jointly by RAL, University of Kent, Canterbury (link opens in a new window), University of Bath (link opens in a new window) and Arcetri Observatory, Italy (link opens in a new window).
TIRGO has been installed at both the Gornergrat (Switzerland) and UKIRT (link opens in a new window) (Hawaii) facilities. The receiver, used in combination with an acousto-optic spectrometer, exhibited excellent noise performance, achieving a best noise equivalent temperature of 280 K (DSB) at 808 GHz. Despite unfavourable observing conditions, spectral observations of a variety of astronomical sources have been made that effectively verify the sensitivity and usefulness of the instrument for astronomical research.
