H. T. Diehl, E. Neilsen, R. Gruendl, T. M. Abbott, S. Allam, O. Alvarez, J. Annis, E. Balbinot, S. Bhargava, K. Bechtol, G. Bernstein, R. Bhatawdekar, S. Bocquet, D. Brout, R. Capasso, R. Cawthon, C. Chang, E. Cook, C. Conselice, J. Cruz, C. D'Andrea, L. da Costa, R. Das, D. DePoy, A. Drlica-Wagner, A. Elliott, S. Everett, J. Frieman, A. Fausti Neto, A. Ferté, I. Friswell, K. Furnell, L. Gelman, D. Gerdes, M. S. Gill, D. Goldstein, D. Gruen, D. Gulledge, S. Hamilton, D. Hollowood, K. Honscheid, D. James, M. Johnson, M. W. Johnson, S. Kent, R. Kessler, G. Khullar, E. Kovacs, A. Kremin, R. Kron, N. Kuropatkin, J. Lasker, A. Lathrop, T. Li, M. Manera, M. March, J. Marshall, M. Medford, F. Menanteau, I. Mohammed, M. Monroy, B. Moraes, E. Morganson, J. Muir, M. Murphy, B. Nord, A. Pace, A. Palmese, Y. Park, F. Paz-Chinchón, M. E. Pereira, D. Petravick, A. Plazas, J. Poh, T. Prochaska, A. Romer, K. Reil, A. Roodman, M. Sako, M. Sauseda, D. Scolnic, L. Secco, I. Sevilla-Noarbe, N. Shipp, J. Smith, M Soares-Santos, B. Soergel, A. Stebbins, K. Story, K. Stringer, F. Tarsitano, B. Thomas, D. Tucker, K. Vivas, A. Walker, M.-Y. Wang, C. Weaverdyck, N. Weaverdyck, W. Wester, C. Wethers, R. Wilkenson, H.-Y Wu, B. Yanny, A. Zenteno, Y. Zhang
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is an operating optical survey aimed at understanding the accelerating expansion of the universe using four complementary methods: weak gravitational lensing, galaxy cluster counts, baryon acoustic oscillations, and Type Ia supernovae. To perform the 5000 sq-degree wide field and 30 sq-degree supernova surveys, the DES Collaboration built the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3 square-degree, 570-Megapixel CCD camera that was installed at the prime focus of the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). DES has completed its third observing season out of a nominal five. This paper describes DES “Year 4” (Y4) and “Year 5” (Y5), the survey strategy, an outline of the survey operations procedures, the efficiency of operations and the causes of lost observing time. It provides details about the quality of these two-season's data, a summary of the overall status, and plans for the final survey season.
In recent years the V. M. Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) has been renovated for use as a platform for a completely new suite of instruments: DECam, a 520-megapixel optical imager, COSMOS, a multi-object optical imaging spectrograph, and ARCoIRIS, a near-infrared imaging spectrograph. This has had considerable impact, both internally to CTIO and for its wider community of observers. In this paper, we report on the performance of the renovated facility, ongoing improvements, lessons learned during the deployment of the new instruments, how practical operations have adapted to them, unexpected phenomena and subsequent responses. We conclude by discussing the role for the Blanco telescope in the era of LSST and the new generation of extremely large telescopes.
H. T. Diehl, E. Neilsen, R. Gruendl, B. Yanny, T. M. Abbott, J. Aleksić, S. Allam, J. Annis, E. Balbinot, M. Baumer, L. Beaufore, K. Bechtol, G. Bernstein, S. Birrer, C. Bonnett, D. Brout, C. Bruderer, E. Buckley-Geer, D. Capozzi, A. Carnero Rosell, F. Castander, R. Cawthon, C. Chang, L. Clerkin, R. Covarrubias, C. Cuhna, C. D'Andrea, L. da Costa, R. Das, C. Davis, J. Dietrich, A. Drlica-Wagner, A. Elliott, T. Eifler, J. Etherington, B. Flaugher, J. Frieman, A. Fausti Neto, M. Fernández, C. Furlanetto, D. Gangkofner, D. Gerdes, D. Goldstein, K. Grabowski, R. Gupta, S. Hamilton, H. Head, J. Helsby, D. Hollowood, K. Honscheid, D. James, M. Johnson, S. Jouvel, T. Kacprzac, S. Kent, R. Kessler, A. Kim, E. Krause, C. Krawiec, A. Kremin, R. Kron, S. Kuhlmann, N. Kuropatkin, O. Lahav, J. Lasker, T. Li, E. Luque, N. Maccrann, M. March, J. Marshall, N. Mondrik, E. Morganson, D. Mudd, A. Nadolski, P. Nugent, P. Melchior, F. Menanteau, D. Nagasawa, B. Nord, R. Ogando, L. Old, A. Palmese, D. Petravick, A. Plazas, A. Pujol, A. Queiroz, K. Reil, A. Romer, R. Rosenfeld, A. Roodman, P. Rooney, M. Sako, A. Salvador, C. Sánchez, E. Sánchez Álvaro, B. Santiago, A. Schooneveld, M. Schubnell, E. Sheldon, A. Smith, R. Smith, M. Soares-Santos, F. Sobreira, M. Soumagnac, H. Spinka, S. Tie, D. Tucker, V. Vikram, K. Vivas, A. Walker, W. Wester, M. Wiesner, H. Wilcox, P. Williams, A. Zenteno, Y. Zhang, Z. Zhang
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is an operating optical survey aimed at understanding the accelerating expansion of the universe using four complementary methods: weak gravitational lensing, galaxy cluster counts, baryon acoustic oscillations, and Type Ia supernovae. To perform the 5000 sq-degree wide field and 30 sq-degree supernova surveys, the DES Collaboration built the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3 square-degree, 570-Megapixel CCD camera that was installed at the prime focus of the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). DES has completed its third observing season out of a nominal five. This paper describes DES “Year 1” (Y1) to “Year 3” (Y3), the strategy, an outline of the survey operations procedures, the efficiency of operations and the causes of lost observing time. It provides details about the quality of the first three season's data, and describes how we are adjusting the survey strategy in the face of the El Niño Southern Oscillation.
H. Diehl, T. M. Abbott, J. Annis, R. Armstrong, L. Baruah, A. Bermeo, G. Bernstein, E. Beynon, C. Bruderer, E. Buckley-Geer, H. Campbell, D. Capozzi, M. Carter, R. Casas, L. Clerkin, R. Covarrubias, C. Cuhna, C. D'Andrea, L. da Costa, R. Das, D. DePoy, J. Dietrich, A. Drlica-Wagner, A. Elliott, T. Eifler, J. Estrada, J. Etherington, B. Flaugher, J. Frieman, A. Fausti Neto, M. Gelman, D. Gerdes, D. Gruen, R. Gruendl, J. Hao, H. Head, J. Helsby, K. Hoffman, K. Honscheid, D. James, M. Johnson, T. Kacprzac, J. Katsaros, R. Kennedy, S. Kent, R. Kessler, A. Kim, E. Krause, R. Kron, S. Kuhlmann, A. Kunder, T. Li, H. Lin, N. Maccrann, M. March, J. Marshall, E. Neilsen, P. Nugent, P. Martini, P. Melchior, F. Menanteau, R. Nichol, B. Nord, R. Ogando, L. Old, A. Papadopoulos, K. Patton, D. Petravick, A. Plazas, R. Poulton, A. Pujol, K. Reil, T. Rigby, A. Romer, A. Roodman, P. Rooney, E. Sanchez Alvaro, S. Serrano, E. Sheldon, A. Smith, R. Smith, M. Soares-Santos, M. Soumagnac, H. Spinka, E. Suchyta, D. Tucker, A. Walker, W. Wester, M. Wiesner, H. Wilcox, R. Williams, B. Yanny, Y. Zhang
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is a next generation optical survey aimed at understanding the accelerating expansion of the universe using four complementary methods: weak gravitational lensing, galaxy cluster counts, baryon acoustic oscillations, and Type Ia supernovae. To perform the 5000 sq-degree wide field and 30 sq-degree supernova surveys, the DES Collaboration built the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3 square-degree, 570-Megapixel CCD camera that was installed at the prime focus of the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). DES started its first observing season on August 31, 2013 and observed for 105 nights through mid-February 2014. This paper describes DES “Year 1” (Y1), the strategy and goals for the first year's data, provides an outline of the operations procedures, lists the efficiency of survey operations and the causes of lost observing time, provides details about the quality of the first year's data, and hints at the “Year 2” plan and outlook.
The KPNO Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter telescope is to be the host facility for the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). DESI will record broadband spectra simultaneously for 5000 objects distributed over a 3-degree diameter field of view; it will record the spectra of approximately 20 million galaxies and quasi-stellar objects during a five-year survey. This survey will improve the combined precision of measurement on the dark energy equation of state today (w0) and its evolution with redshift (wa) by approximately a factor of ten over existing spectroscopy baryon acoustic oscillation surveys (e.g., BOSS1) in both co-moving volume surveyed and number of galaxies mapped. Installation of DESI on the telescope is a complex procedure, involving a complete replacement of the telescope top end, routing of massive fiber cables, and installation of banks of spectrographs in an environmentally-controlled lab area within the dome. Furthermore, assembly of the instrument and major subsystems must be carried out on-site given their size and complexity. A detailed installation plan is being developed early in the project in order to ensure that DESI and its subsystems are designed so they can be safely and efficiently installed, and to ensure that all telescope and facility modifications required to enable installation are identified and completed in time.
The Dark Energy Survey Collaboration has completed construction of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3 square
degree, 570 Megapixel CCD camera which will be mounted on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at CTIO. DECam will be
used to perform the 5000 sq. deg. Dark Energy Survey with 30% of the telescope time over a 5 year period. During the
remainder of the time, and after the survey, DECam will be available as a community instrument. All components of
DECam have been shipped to Chile and post-shipping checkout finished in Jan. 2012. Installation is in progress. A
summary of lessons learned and an update of the performance of DECam and the status of the DECam installation and
commissioning will be presented.
The DES project is a 5 year imaging survey of the southern sky using the 4m Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo
International Observatory in Chile. A new wide field camera with a 2.2 degree diameter field of view has been built to
undertake this survey. The alignment of the large lenses for this camera poses a significant challenge as they have to be
aligned to a tolerance of ±50 micrometers. This paper presents the assembly and alignment process of the full optical system along with the test results. Also included is the predicted imaging performance from the as-built system.
The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) has been installed on the V. M. Blanco telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. This major upgrade to the facility has required numerous modifications to the telescope and improvements in observatory infrastructure. The telescope prime focus assembly has been entirely replaced, and the f/8 secondary change procedure radically changed. The heavier instrument means that telescope balance has been significantly modified. The telescope control system has been upgraded. NOAO has established a data transport system to efficiently move DECam's output to the NCSA for processing. The observatory has integrated the DECam highpressure, two-phase cryogenic cooling system into its operations and converted the Coudé room into an environmentally-controlled instrument handling facility incorporating a high quality cleanroom. New procedures to
ensure the safety of personnel and equipment have been introduced.
The V. M. Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory is undergoing a number of improvements
in preparation for the delivery of the Dark Energy Camera. The program includes upgrades having potential to deliver
gains in image quality and stability. To this end, we have renovated the support structure of the primary mirror,
incorporating innovations to improve both the radial support performance and the registration of the mirror and telescope
top end. The resulting opto-mechanical condition of the telescope is described. We also describe some improvements to
the environmental control. Upgrades to the telescope control system and measurements of the dome environment are
described in separate papers in this conference.
The Dark Energy Survey Camera (DECam) will be comprised of a mosaic of 74 charge-coupled devices (CCDs). The
Dark Energy Survey (DES) science goals set stringent technical requirements for the CCDs. The CCDs are provided by
LBNL with valuable cold probe data at 233 K, providing an indication of which CCDs are more likely to pass. After
comprehensive testing at 173 K, about half of these qualify as science grade. Testing this large number of CCDs to
determine which best meet the DES requirements is a very time-consuming task. We have developed a multistage
testing program to automatically collect and analyze CCD test data. The test results are reviewed to select those CCDs
that best meet the technical specifications for charge transfer efficiency, linearity, full well capacity, quantum efficiency,
noise, dark current, cross talk, diffusion, and cosmetics.
The Dark Energy Camera is a new prime-focus instrument to be delivered to the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro
Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in 2011. Construction is in-progress at this time at Fermilab. In order to
verify that the camera meets technical specifications for the Dark Energy Survey and to reduce the time required to
commission the instrument while it is on the telescope, we are constructing a "Telescope Simulator" and performing full
system testing prior to shipping to CTIO. This presentation will describe the Telescope Simulator and how we use it to
verify some of the technical specifications.
The Dark Energy Camera is an wide field imager currently
under construction for the Dark Energy Survey.
This instrument will use fully depleted 250 μm thick
CCD detectors selected for their higher quantum efficiency
in the near infrared with respect to thinner devices.
The detectors were developed by LBNL using
high resistivity Si substrate. The full set of scientific
detectors needed for DECam has now been fabricated,
packaged and tested. We present here the results of
the testing and characterization for these devices and
compare these results with the technical requirements
for the Dark Energy Survey.
The Dark Energy Survey Collaboration is building the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 3 square degree, 520
Megapixel CCD camera which will be mounted on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at CTIO. DECam will be used to
perform the 5000 sq. deg. Dark Energy Survey with 30% of the telescope time over a 5 year period. During the
remainder of the time, and after the survey, DECam will be available as a community instrument. Construction of
DECam is well underway. Integration and testing of the major system components has already begun at Fermilab and
the collaborating institutions.
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) will produce high quality images covering over 5000 square degrees of the sky,
with precise photometric redshifts between z = 0.2 to z = 1.3, using g, r, i, z and Y filters. The Dark Energy
Camera (DECam), under construction for this survey, consists of wide field corrector optics and a CCD detector
array that will give a 2.2 square degree field of view. It will be placed at the prime focus of the Blanco 4-meter
telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The Optical Science Laboratory (OSL) at
University College London (UCL) is undertaking the alignment of the five lenses in the imaging system. These
lenses range in diameter from 0.60 - 0.98 meters. The lenses must be held within tight tolerance limits in order
to meet the DES science requirements. The tolerances are especially driven by the accuracy in the measurement
of the weak lensing signal. This paper details the design for the cells that will hold the lenses and the alignment
procedure for the mounting of the lenses and cells. Also presented is the expected static shear distortion pattern
that will be generated and the impact of this pattern on the weak lensing signal measurement.
The CTIO V. M. Blanco 4-m telescope is to be the host facility for the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a large area optical
survey intended to measure the dark energy equation of state parameter, w. The survey is expected to use ~30% of the
telescope time over 5 years and use a new 520 megapixel CCD prime focus imaging system: the Dark Energy Camera
(DECam). The Blanco telescope will also be the southern hemisphere platform for NEWFIRM, a large area infrared
imager currently being commissioned at the Mayall Telescope at KPNO. As part of its normal cycle of continuing
upgrades and in preparation for the arrival of these new instruments, the Blanco telescope control system (TCS) will be
upgraded to provide a modern platform for observations and maximize the efficiency of survey operations. The
upgraded TCS will be based on that used at the SOAR telescope and will be a prototype of the TCS to be used by LSST.
It will be optimized for programmed and queued survey observations, will provide extended real-time telemetry of site
and facility characteristics, and will incorporate a distributed observer interface allowing for on- and off-site
observations and real time quality control. Hardware modifications will include the use of absolute tape encoders and a
modern servo control and power driver systems.
The DECam instrument, for the 4m Blanco telescope at CTIO, is a 5 lens element wide field camera giving a 2.2 degree
diameter field of view. The lenses are large, with the biggest being 980mm in diameter, and this poses challenges in
mounting and alignment. This paper reports the status of the production of the optics for the DECam wide field imager
Also presented are the design and finite element modelling of the cell design for the 5 lenses of the imager along with the
proposed alignment process.
We describe the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), which will be the primary instrument used in the Dark Energy Survey.
DECam will be a 3 sq. deg. mosaic camera mounted at the prime focus of the Blanco 4m telescope at the Cerro-Tololo
International Observatory (CTIO). DECam includes a large mosaic CCD focal plane, a five element optical corrector,
five filters (g,r,i,z,Y), and the associated infrastructure for operation in the prime focus cage. The focal plane consists of
62 2K x 4K CCD modules (0.27"/pixel) arranged in a hexagon inscribed within the roughly 2.2 degree diameter field of
view. The CCDs will be 250 micron thick fully-depleted CCDs that have been developed at the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory (LBNL). Production of the CCDs and fabrication of the optics, mechanical structure, mechanisms,
and control system for DECam are underway; delivery of the instrument to CTIO is scheduled for 2010.
We describe a five element corrector for the prime focus of the 4 meter Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile that will be used in conjunction with a new mosaic CCD camera as part of the proposed Dark Energy Survey (DES). The corrector is designed to provide a flat focal plane and good images in the SDSS g, r, i, and z filters. We describe the performance in conjunction with the scientific requirements of the DES, particularly with regard to ghosting and weak-lensing point spread function (PSF) calibration.
The CTIO V. M. Blanco 4-m telescope is to be the host facility for the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a large area optical
survey intended to measure the dark energy equation of state parameter, w, to a precision of ˜ 5%. The survey is
expected to take 5 years and use a new 520 megapixel CCD prime focus imaging system: the Dark Energy Camera
(DECam). In preparation for the arrival of DECam, we plan numerous upgrades to the telescope, including a new
telescope control system optimized for programmed and queued survey observations, modifications to the telescope
itself to improve reliability and performance, extended real-time telemetry of site and facility characteristics, and a
distributed observer interface allowing for on- and off-site observations and real time quality control. These upgrades
are specifically motivated by the scientific goals of the DES but will also improve community use of the telescope.
We briefly describe the SOAR Optical Imager (SOI), the first light instrument for the 4.1m SOuthern Astronomical Research (SOAR) telescope now being commissioned on Cerro Pachón in the mountains of northern Chile. The SOI has a mini-mosaic of 2 2kx4k CCDs at its focal plane, a focal reducer camera, two filter cartridges, and a linear ADC. The instrument was designed to produce precision photometry and to fully exploit the expected superb image quality of the SOAR telescope over a 5.5x5.5 arcmin2 field with high throughput down to the atmospheric cut-off, and close reproduction of photometric pass-bands throughout 310-1050 nm. During early engineering runs in April 2004, we used the SOI to take images as part of the test program for the actively controlled primary mirror of the SOAR telescope, one of which we show in this paper. Taken just three months after the arrival of the optics in Chile, we show that the stellar images have the same diameter of 0.74" as the simultaneously measured seeing disk at the time of observation. We call our image "Engineering 1st Light" and in the near future expect to be able to produce images with diameters down to 0.3" in the R band over a 5.5' field during about 20% of the observing time, using the tip-tilt adaptive corrector we are implementing.
The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) site testing team are developing a suite of instruments to measure the atmospheric and optical characteristics of candidate TMT sites. Identical sets of robotically operating instruments will be placed at each candidate site. The fully developed system will comprise of a combined MASS/DIMM. a SODAR, tower mounted thermal probes and a portable DIMM. These instruments have overlapping altitude coverage and provide a measure of the C2n profile from the ground up with sufficient resolution to make conclusions about the ground layer and high altitude turbulence characteristics. The overlapping altitude coverage is essential to ensure consistency between these very different instruments. In addition to checking for consistency in the overlap regions, procedures are being used to cross check between instruments, i.e. the calculation of the isoplanatic angle from both the MASS and DIMM and that the integrals of the C2n profiles from the MASS, SODAR and 30m tower gives the same r0 value as measured by the DIMM.
We discuss a variation of the traditional DIMM system in which we employ a continuous drift mode readout technique giving a maximum of nearly 300 samples per second.
Findings of our major equipment testing campaigns and first field deployment are presented that demonstrate our progress in developing a rigorous approach to site testing.
The SOAR Optical Imager (SOI) is the commissioning instrument for the 4.2-m SOAR telescope, which is sited on Cerro Pachón, and due for first light in April 2003. It is being built at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, and is one of a suite of first-light instruments being provided by the four SOAR partners (NOAO, Brazil, University of North Carolina, Michigan State University). The instrument is designed to produce precision photometry and to fully exploit the expected superb image quality of the SOAR telescope, over a 6x6 arcmin field. Design goals include maintaining high throughput down to the atmospheric cut-off, and close reproduction of photometric passbands throughout 310-1050nm. The focal plane consists of a two-CCD mosaic of 2Kx4K Lincoln Labs CCDs, following an atmospheric dispersion corrector, focal reducer, and tip-tilt sensor. Control and data handling are within the LabVIEW-Linux environment used throughout the SOAR Project.
The Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope (GSMT), along with other proposed Extremely Large Telescopes (ELT's) with apertures over 20-m, is likely to impose rather different site selection criteria than those for existing large telescopes. Advantageously, remote-sensing techniques allow rather more objective comparisons than was possible in the past, and the general task is aided by numerical modeling and new ground-based measurement techniques. In recognition of the difficulty of the site-selection process, co-operation between the several ELT projects is the norm. A description is given of the site survey for the GSMT, begun in late 1999, and now part of the GSMT studies and evaluation project, run by the Associated Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) New Initiatives Office (NIO).
In July of 1998 the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) successfully upgraded MOSAIC 1, an 8192 by 8192 pixel array using eight Scientific Imaging Technologies, Inc. (SITe) St-002A thinned backside 2k by 4k charge coupled devices (CCDs). In July of 1999 MOSAIC II, a clone of MOSAIC I was commissioned also using eight SITe ST-002A CCDs. Additionally in December of 1998 NOAO implemented Mini- MOSAIC a 4096 by 4096 pixel array using two SITe ST-002A thinned CCDs. This report will discuss the performance, characterization and capabilities of the three wide field imagers now in operation at NOAO's Kitt Peak Observatory, Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory and at the WIYN Consortium 3.5-Meter telescope on Kitt Peak.
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