User's Guide to the Nickel Direct Imaging Camera


Table of Contents


Introduction
Hardware Overview
Software Overview
Detector Characteristics
Filter Wheel
CCD User Interface
Eventsounds
Observing Hints
Checklists

Data Archive
Mt. Hamilton Homepage

Detector Characteristics

CCD-2 (aka Dewar#2), is a thinned, Loral, 2048 x 2048 CCD, with 15-micron pixels. Its 0.184 arcsec/pixel plate scale gives a field of view of about 6.3 x 6.3 arcminutes. CCD-2 is currently the only detector available for direct imaging on the Nickel telescope. See CCD-2 specifications for QE and other characteristics.

Readnoise and gain (measured on telescope by E.G. Dec 23, 2013) for each binning and readout mode is listed below.

BinningReadout
Speed
Gain
(e-/DN)
Readnoise
(e-)
Readout Time
(m:ss)
Approx. Bias
(DN)
x1slow1.88.9 1:161000
x1fast2.016.8 0:171000
x2slow1.810.7 0:211000
x2fast1.912.4 0:051000
x4slow1.913.3 0:061000
x4fast1.915.3 0:021000

The CCD full well depth is 118,000 e-. The chip is linear in response up to 60,000 DN in bin x2 fast mode (measured by E.G. April 2006). Other readout modes may become non-linear at lower count levels, thus keeping peak levels below 50K DN is recommended for all readout modes.

The CCD is read out using a single amplifier and the 32 column overscan region occupies the far right (highest numbered) columns.


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Last modified: Mon Dec 23 14:58:16 PST 2013