Buttable Optical CCD Mosaics: Concept And First Results At The European Southern Observatory

Roland Reiss; Harry Bauer; Sebastian Deiries; Sandro D'Odorico; Antonio Longinotti

doi:10.1117/12.961518

26 September 1989 Buttable Optical CCD Mosaics: Concept And First Results At The European Southern Observatory

Roland Reiss, Harry Bauer, Sebastian Deiries, Sandro D'Odorico, Antonio Longinotti

Proceedings Volume 1130, New Technologies for Astronomy; (1989) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.961518
Event: 1989 International Congress on Optical Science and Engineering, 1989, Paris, France

Abstract

New techniques to build and operate CCD mosaics consisting of Thomson THX31157 buttable CCD image sensors have been developed under the convention between ESO-INSU for the development of CCD detectors for astronomy. A split-field microscope is used to align the CCDs with respect to a precision sapphire template thus avoiding cumulative positioning errors in large mosaics. A 2 by 2 prototype CCD mosaic has been aligned with errors of less than 3 μm. A new generation CCD controller, based on commercially available VMEbus boards and newly developed CCD interface boards has been designed, built and successfully tested. The controller is able to read out up to 16 CCDs in parallel. The CCD camera is controlled by a 68020 microcomputer running under the UNIX-like real-time operating system OS-9/V2.2. Rudimentary image pre-processing software has been included in the controller to assemble the single CCD images into one image compatible with IHAP or FITS format. A newly designed cryostat with very high mechanical stability (1 μm) has four built-in preamplifiers to guarantee low noise operation even in noisy environments. Noise levels of less than 5 electrons RMS for the complete mosaic have been measured using A-grade THX31157 CCDs. The results of extensive laboratory testing of the mosaic are presented in this paper.

Citation Download Citation

Roland Reiss, Harry Bauer, Sebastian Deiries, Sandro D'Odorico, and Antonio Longinotti "Buttable Optical CCD Mosaics: Concept And First Results At The European Southern Observatory", Proc. SPIE 1130, New Technologies for Astronomy, (26 September 1989); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.961518

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