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CCDS Acquisition Camera
User's Manual
J. Marshall
05 August 2005
Background:
The CCDS acquisition (slitviewer) camera was replaced in August 2005. This modern
CCD camera is much more sensitive than the old system! It should also be easier to use.
The new acquisition camera is a SBIG ST-9 CCD camera. The system specifications are
listed on the next page. This camera is controlled with SBIG's control software,
CCDOps. This software runs on a pc running Windows XP.
The old camera on the CCDS has been replaced, along with some of its infrastructure, by
the much smaller ST-9 camera. The old video monitor has been replaced with a new pc
monitor, keyboard, and mouse. The control pc lives in the computer room (on the small
red rack) and is clearly marked.
This upgrade should be in all respects an improvement to the functionality of CCDS, and
should not represent much of a change of usage for the observer. In particular, all of the
existing optics were retained in this upgrade, the only hardware that was replaced was in
fact the camera itself.
Please note that one important change with this upgrade is that the field-of-view of the
acquisition camera is no longer centered on the CCDS camera. In particular, to center an
object on the CCDS detector, the object must be placed near the South (right-hand) side
of the acquisition camera field-of-view.
th
Previously it was a struggle to acquire targets as bright as 17
magnitude; it is now easy
to obtain targets down to 20th magnitude in 5 seconds!
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Summary of Contents for Curtis Computer Acquisition Camera CCDS
- Page 1 CCDS Acquisition Camera User’s Manual J. Marshall 05 August 2005 Background: The CCDS acquisition (slitviewer) camera was replaced in August 2005. This modern CCD camera is much more sensitive than the old system! It should also be easier to use. The new acquisition camera is a SBIG ST-9 CCD camera.
- Page 2 System Specifications (Measured) Camera model SBIG ST-9 CCD chip KAF0261E Format 512x512 20x20 _m pixels Cooling Single-stage TEC Readout Time ~ 1 second Gain 1.8 e-/DN Dark Current ~1 DN/s/pixel @ 0 C Read Noise 6.6 DN Bias 130 DN Saturation 65 K DN At the 2.4m:...
- Page 3 1. If the system is not running when you start observing, open the CCDOps program on the control computer (it should open up automatically when you log on as “Visitor”). The CCDOps toolbar should be displayed on the desktop. 2. Establish link with the camera by clicking the “EstLink” button on the toolbar. 3.
- Page 4 Using the Acquisition Camera 1. Startup Log on to the ccdsacqcam machine by clicking on the “Visitor” account on the Welcome Screen. There is no password associated with this account. CCDOps should open automatically when you log on to this account. If not, open the program by double- clicking on the CCDOps desktop icon.
- Page 5 Figure 2. Setup dialog box Make sure Temperature Regulation is set to “Active” and that the Setpoint is about 20 degrees below ambient. IMPORTANT: The system temperature setpoint should be set to about 20 degrees C below the ambient temperature in the dome. If the cooling capacity gauge (lower right of CCDOps screen, see Figure 3) reads more than 60%, the temperature setpoint is too low.
- Page 6 CCDS Acquisition Camera User’s Manual 3. Normal Acquisition Operation Once a link is established with the camera and the temperature regulation is turned on, you are ready to use the system. Under most circumstances you will want to use the “Focus” mode of the camera. This mode quickly reads out the entire CCD (unbinned or binned 2x2 or 3x3) and auto- displays it to the screen.
- Page 7 You may also use the “Grab” button on the toolbar. This will take only one image instead of a continuous sequence of images. This may be useful if you want to take an image of your object’s position on the slit for reference on a future night. You may then save this image to the disk (see Section 7).
- Page 8 Exposure time guide: For very bright objects (V<8 mag), minimum exposure times of 0.12 seconds are plenty long; in fact, the object will most likely be saturated. Very faint objects (V>19 mag) are detected easily on a clear moonless night in 5 seconds in unbinned (high-res) mode.
- Page 9 To place a filter in the beam, find the “Filter” pull-down menu and simply select the filter you desire. The camera will rotate the correct filter in front of the CCD. If for some reason the items on the pull-down menu are greyed out, select Filter Wheel Setup.
- Page 10 CCDS Acquisition Camera User’s Manual One exception to this is that on clear, moonless nights it may be difficult to see the slit for short exposure times. Binning 3x3 may allow you to see the slit more easily. Note that the “Vertical N Binning” and “1xN, 2xN, 3xN” binning options are used for spectroscopy, and should not be used in this application.
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Page 11: Appendix A. Restarting The System From A Connection Failure
Restarting the system from a connection failure If CCDOps fails to connect with the camera or gives an error message when you attempt to establish a link, you need to reboot the computer and may need to reinstall the drivers for the camera. - Page 12 6. The Found New Hardware Wizard will help you to install the new drivers. FOLLOW THESE STEPS EXACTLY or you will have to reboot the computer again! • You may need to be logged in as Administrator to make these changes. A pop-up window will ask you for the CCDS password (CCDS is the name of the administrator account on this machine).
- Page 13 • The Wizard will allow you to choose your search and install options: Select “Don’t search, I will choose”. • The Wizard will ask you to select the device driver for this hardware: Highlight the first driver on the list, then click Next.
- Page 14 CCDS Acquisition Camera User’s Manual • A pop-up will appear warning about Windows compatibility issues Select “Continue Anyway” • Select Finish to complete the wizard. You may now re-open CCDOps and establish a link to the camera as normal.
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