This image shows a long-slit near-infrared spectrograph mounted at the focus of the the 0.4m Boller and Chivens telescope at the Whately Observatory. The spectrograph was developed by graduate students taking a course in infrared instrumentation. Originally this spectrograph was used with a 1x32 linear InSb array. When Nova Cygnii 1992 exploded in January 1992 we modified the spectrograph to operate with a 64x64 element HgCdTe camera developed at University of Massachusetts (cylindrical dewar in picture) in order to monitor the development of the Brackett-gamma (2.165 um) hydrogen recombination line in the nova.

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