FLI ML16803 conventional CCD
This CCD camera is currently one of the main imaging instruments on the RCC telescope. The other one is the Andor EMCCD.
An FLI MicroLine 16803 camera with Sloan g,r,i and H-alpha filters is currently mounted on the telescope yielding an approximately 10'x10' FoV. Camera control is implemented via ccdsh after the camera drivers are loaded. This can be done with the following command:
source /usr/local/ccdsh/scripts/load-camfilt.ccdsh
This line can also be included in the user's local startup script in the home directory. The camera driver file contains the followings:
module mod_fli_camera.so --device 10.10.137.101:1122 module mod_fli_filter.so --device 10.10.137.101:1123 define filter 1 halpha "H-alpha" define filter 2 g "Sloan g" define filter 3 r "Sloan r" define filter 4 i "Sloan i" define filter 5 e5 "empty 5"
The first two lines load the camera and filter modules respectively, and the next five defines the filters.
Parameters
The basic parameters of the camera and its CCD are the following:
- Resolution: 4096 x 4096
- Pixel size: 9 x 9 microns
- Effective field-of-view: 9.4 x 9.4 arcminutes
- Effective resolution: 0.137"/pixel
- Available binning modes: 1x1, 2x2, 4x4.
- Detector: KAF16803
Filters
The third column of the driver file contains the filter positions, the fourth the names which the filter can be referred to when using the set filter command, and the fifth contains the names.
The spectrograph frontend contains two additional filter wheels. Make sure that both wheels are into the empty (0) position. This can be checked in the acectrl --status listing. Alternatively, you can use the filter-1 wheel to observe with Johnson-Cousins BVRI filters. However, these currently cannot be controlled within ccdsh environment, you have to use the acectrl --filter-1 n command to set/change filters, where n indicates the number of the filter:
- 0: empty - 1: B - 2: V - 3: R - 4: I - 5: clear
Notes
The camera can be cooled to <math>-35^{\circ}\mathrm{C}</math> in the winter, however in a warm summer, the lowest point which can be safely reached is around <math>-25^{\circ}\mathrm{C}</math> (consult the power usage via the get temperature command).
In order to avoid oversampling of the PSFs, a 2x2 binning is recommended. Use the command line switch -b 2,2 (or --bin 2,2) to specify this binning. For instance, one can use the sequence
sequence -n xyocelotis -b 2,2 10*([g,60],[r,60],[i,60])
The pickoff mirror and the off-axis guider mirrors block the light from reaching the camera. Do not forget to switch off the spectrograph: acectrl --stop, and move the guider mirror to the side: acectrl --guide-xstage-reset, before starting the observations.
The camera can be focused with the usual set focus command within ccdsh.
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