Stellar Occultations in the 1990's: Portable, High-Speed CCD Photometers

该奖项将用于洛厄尔天文台开发一种新的 基于电荷耦合器件（CCD）的光度计的产生， 用于观测太阳系中的天体对恒星的掩星 系统 与传统的高速光度计相比 使用光电倍增管，基于CCD的光度计提供了很多 在更宽的波长范围内具有更高的量子效率， 直接从CCD图像引导望远镜的能力， 能够构建更小的合成光度孔径 在跟踪图像运动并且可以被优化用于 改变视觉条件。 因此，基于CCD的光度计 提供了一个大大高于信噪比 传统的光度计为给定的事件，它允许有用的 对更多涉及暗星的事件的观测 要做的。 高速CCD光度计必须是便携式的 与便携式望远镜或固定式望远镜一起使用 恰好位于掩星路径内

This award will be used at Lowell Observatory to develop a new generation of photometers based on Charge Coupled Devices (CCD) for use in observing occultations of stars by objects in the Solar System. When compared with conventional high-speed photometers that use photomultipliers, a CCD-based photometer provides much greater quantum efficiency over a broader wavelength range, the ability to guide the telescope directly from the CCD image, and the ability to construct a much smaller synthetic photometric aperture after the fact that tracks image motion and can be optimized for changing seeing conditions. As a result, the CCD-based photometer provides a substantially greater signal-to-noise ratio than the traditional photometer for a given event, and it allows useful observations of the more numerous events involving fainter stars to be made. The high-speed CCD photometer must be portable in order to be used with a portable telescope or a fixed telescope that happens to lie within an occultation path.