Enhanced Performance for the IMACS F/4 Camera Upgrade

IMACS F/4 相机升级的增强性能

• 批准号: 1038894
• 负责人: Alan Dressler
• 金额: $ 6.91万
• 依托单位: Carnegie Institution of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-08-15 至 2011-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1038894&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Enhanced; Performance; IMACS; Camera; Upgrade

An upgrade is underway for an instrument on the Magellan Baade 6.5-meter telescope at the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Las Campanas Observatory in Chile. The instrument, called IMACS (Inamori-Magellan Arial Camera & Spectrograph) will have the original CCD detectors in its camera replaced with newer technology devices. The new CCDs will provide better throughput, higher signal-to-noise, and increased resolution than the previous chips and will result in significant efficiencies in the use of telescope time. During the process of ordering the new CCDs the Observatory was made aware of a new enhancement to the detectors that would considerably increase the CCDs responsiveness at both the blue and red ends of the observable spectrum. A relatively new CCD technology called "deep-depletion" significantly improves the response at the red end and new anti-reflection coatings can be added to these devices to improve the response in the blue. This combination will add increased science and discovery capability in particular by enabling intermediate resolution (~10,000 = R = ~20,000) spectroscopy of the Calcium triplet and Magnesium I lines in the far-red. This capability will be used to study the chemical composition and kinematics of stars in nearby galaxies, the chemical composition of globular clusters in external galaxies, and the chemical composition of dwarf stars in the bulge of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Funds for these enhanced CCDs are being provided through a RAPID grant by NSF's Division of Astronomical Sciences.

位于智利的华盛顿拉斯坎帕纳斯天文台卡内基研究所的麦哲伦·巴德6.5米望远镜的仪器正在进行升级。这台名为iMacs(稻盛麦哲伦Arial相机和光谱仪)的仪器将用新的技术设备取代相机中原有的CCD探测器。与以前的芯片相比，新的ccd将提供更好的吞吐量、更高的信噪比和更高的分辨率，并将显著提高望远镜时间的使用效率。在订购新的ccd的过程中，天文台了解到探测器有了新的改进，这将大大提高ccd在可观测光谱的蓝色和红色两端的响应度。一种相对较新的被称为“深度耗尽”的电荷耦合器件技术显著改善了红端的响应，并且可以在这些器件上添加新的减反射涂层来改善蓝端的响应。这种组合将增加科学和发现能力，特别是通过实现远红外线中钙三重态和镁I线的中等分辨率(~10,000=R=~20,000)光谱。这一能力将用于研究附近星系中恒星的化学成分和运动学，外部星系中球状星团的化学成分，以及我们银河系隆起中的矮星的化学成分。用于这些增强型CCDs的资金是由美国国家科学基金会天文科学部提供的快速赠款。