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.
| Binning | Readout Speed | Gain (e-/DN) |
Readnoise (e-) | Readout Time (m:ss) |
Approx. Bias (DN) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x1 | slow | 1.8 | 8.9 | 1:16 | 1000 |
| x1 | fast | 2.0 | 16.8 | 0:17 | 1000 |
| x2 | slow | 1.8 | 10.7 | 0:21 | 1000 |
| x2 | fast | 1.9 | 12.4 | 0:05 | 1000 |
| x4 | slow | 1.9 | 13.3 | 0:06 | 1000 |
| x4 | fast | 1.9 | 15.3 | 0:02 | 1000 |
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.
Support Astronomers (sa@ucolick.org) Last modified: Mon Dec 23 14:58:16 PST 2013