The secondary mirror is mounted on a chopping mechanism to rapidly switch the pointing of the telescope from target to sky at up to 4 Hz.

SpeX is a medium-resolution 0.8-5.4 μm spectrograph built at the Institute for Astronomy (IfA), for the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) on Mauna Kea.

The primary scientific driver of SpeX was to provide maximum simultaneous wavelength coverage at a spectral resolving power which is well-matched to many planetary, stellar and galactic features, and at resolving power which adequately separates sky emission lines and disperses sky continuum.

A high throughput prism mode is a provided for 0.8-2.5 μm spectroscopy at R~100 for solid state features and SEDs.

SpeX is used for a wide array of planetary and astrophysical research programs and is the most requested instrument on IRTF.

MIRSI is a 2.2 to 25 μm thermal infrared imaging camera with grism spectrographic capability.

MORIS (MIT Optical Rapid Imaging System) s a high-speed, visible-wavelength camera for use on IRTF using an electron multiplying CCD.

The design is based on POETS (Portable Occultation, Eclipse, and Transit Systems), which were developed by a collaboration between MIT and Williams College.

The IRTF staff are currently developing SPECTRE, an optical-to-infrared seeing-limited integral field unit.

CSHELL was a 1 - 5.5 μm high resolution single-order echelle spectrograph which uses a 256 x 256 pixel InSb detector array.

NSFCAM2 was a 1-5 μm camera, built at the Institute for Astronomy, (IfA), for the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF).

A third wheel, located at the F/38 telescope focal plane inside the camera, contained grism slits and field lenses.

Observers can use IRTF from any location with a high speed internet connection, such as their office or home, anywhere around the world.

The observer controls the instrument via a VNC session, just as they would at the summit, and communicates with the telescope operator via phone, Polycom, or Skype.

This has enabled the IRTF to support many programs where frequent observations of targets are necessary, such as weekly monitoring of solar system objects.

Examples include supernovae, which explode unexpectedly, or near-earth asteroids that may be discovered shortly before their closest approach to the Earth.

NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) also made observations of P/2016 BA14, which is a comet that came within about 9 lunar distances of Earth in 2016.

[3] Dedicated infrared telescopes require a high and dry location, special instrumentation, and similar high-quality mirrors and optics as for visible wavelength observations.