U.S.-Venezuela Cooperative Research: Feasibility Study of aCCD Drift Scan Camera for the Venezuelan 1.0M Schmidt Telescope

9628045 Sofia这个美洲项目奖将支持博士。来自康涅狄格州耶鲁大学的Sabatino Sofia和其他三位天文学家，研究在委内瑞拉的1米施密特望远镜上安装电荷耦合器件（CCD）漂移扫描相机的技术可行性，该望远镜由委内瑞拉Llano del Hato天文研究中心（CIDA）运营。CIDA主任Gustavo Bruzual博士及其合作伙伴将与该小组合作。施密特光学，委内瑞拉施密特提供的赤道观测点，以及CCD漂移扫描技术的结合，应该会产生一个独特的强大的天文测量机。CCD相机将使潜在的科学应用成为可能，它将涵盖现代观测天体物理学的整个范围，从寻找附近的褐矮星，到研究我们银河系的结构，再到最遥远的类星体分布的宇宙学含义。在安装CCD之前，必须解决几个技术问题。特别是，望远镜上的相机所需的几何形状，以及处理大预期数据速率的算法必须考虑。这项建议的目的是进行必要的研究，以解决这些问题。＊＊＊

9628045 Sofia This Americas Program award will support Drs. Sabatino Sofia and three other astronomers from Yale University, Connecticut, to study the technical feasibility of mounting a Charge Coupled Device (CCD) drift scan camera on the 1m Schmidt telescope in Venezuela operated by the Centro de Investigacion de Astronomia (CIDA) at Llano del Hato, Venezuela. Collaborating with the group will be Dr. Gustavo Bruzual, Director of CIDA and his partners. The combination of Schmidt optics, the equatorial site provided by the Venezuelan Schmidt, and CCD drift scan techniques, should result in an uniquely powerful astronomical survey machine. Potential scientific applications which will be made possible by the CCD camera will cover the entire range of modern observational astrophysics, from searches for nearby brown dwarfs, to studies of the structure of our galaxy, to the cosmological implications of the distribution of the most distant quasars. Several technical issues must be resolved prior to the installation of the CCD. In particular, the geometry required by the camera on the telescope, and the algorithms for handling the large expected data rates must be considered. The objective of this proposal is to conduct the necessary studies to resolve these issues. ***