The European Southern Observatory (ESO) Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) Camera System

P. Crane; A. Rose; P. Schabel

doi:10.1117/12.965846

1 January 1981 The European Southern Observatory (ESO) Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) Camera System

P. Crane, A. Rose, P. Schabel

Proceedings Volume 0290, Solid-State Imagers for Astronomy; (1981) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.965846
Event: Solid State Imagers for Astronomy, 1981, Cambridge, United States

Abstract

This paper describes the CCD camera system that is currently operating at ESO, the performance characteristics of this camera, and presents some test results. The system has been developed with the philosophy that it will be important to be able to utilize a wide variety of CCD chips since chip development is proceeding rapidly. Thus, the system is based around a μ-processor, programmable in FORTH, which allows a areat deal of flexibility in driving the CCD chip. One feature of interest is the ability to do on chip summing of adjacent pixels. Test results in the laboratory used a thinned, special version of the RCA SID 52501 chip are encouraging, but the chip itself is far from optimized, having about 80 electrons/pixel of noise. However, this is considered sufficient for many direct imaging applications where sky noise will dominate.

Citation Download Citation

P. Crane, A. Rose, and P. Schabel "The European Southern Observatory (ESO) Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) Camera System", Proc. SPIE 0290, Solid-State Imagers for Astronomy, (1 January 1981); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.965846

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available