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

9628045索非亚美洲项目奖将支持来自康涅狄格州耶鲁大学的Sabatino Sofia博士和其他三名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漂移扫描相机的技术可行性。与该小组合作的将是加拿大国际开发署主任古斯塔沃·布鲁祖尔博士及其合作伙伴。由委内瑞拉施密特望远镜提供的赤道位置施密特光学系统和ccd漂移扫描技术的结合，应该会产生一台功能独特的天文测量机器。Ccd相机可能实现的潜在科学应用将涵盖现代观测天体物理学的整个范围，从搜索附近的棕矮星，到研究我们星系的结构，再到最远类星体分布的宇宙学含义。在安装电荷耦合器件之前，必须解决几个技术问题。特别是，必须考虑望远镜上的相机所需的几何形状，以及处理较大预期数据速率的算法。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. ***