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CHIMERA Technical Specifications
- Documentation
- Telescope
- Detectors
- Scale
- Filters
Contents
1. Documentation
CHIMERA: a wide-field, multi-colour, high-speed photometer at the prime focus of the Hale telescope (2016) L.K. Harding, G. Hallinan, J. Milburn, P. Gardner, N. Konidaris, N.Singh, M. Shao, J. Shandu, G. Kyne and H.E. Schlichting MNRAS 457, 3036-3049.
2. Telescope
- 200-inch prime focus, f/3.3.
- Field of view: 4.95 arc-minutes on a side.
3. Detectors
CHIMERA uses two Andor iXon Ultra DU-888, cameras for the red and blue channels. The iXon Ultra 888 cameras contain CCD201-20 EMCCD detectors from E2V.
- Specification sheet: CHIMERA RED - camera serial number X-10082.
- Specification sheet: CHIMERA BLUE - camera serial number X-10343.
| Summary of Detector Characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Parameter | Value |
| Sensor type | EMCCD |
| Varian | frame transfer, back illuminated, two-phase |
| Active pixels (image) | 1024×1024 |
| Pixel pitch | 13 μm |
| Digitization | 16-bit |
| Amplifiers | Conventional or EM |
| Calibrated gain range | 1-1000 |
| Multiplication stages | 604 |
| Read-out rate (conventional horizontal) | 1, 0.1 MHz |
| Read-out rate (EM horizontal) | 30, 20, 10, 1 MHz |
| Frame rates | 26 fps (full) - 1000 fps (subarray) |
| Dark current (IMO, −85C) | 5 x 10-4 e−/pixel/s |
| Read noise (Conventional 1 MHz) | ~6 e− rms |
| Read noise (EM 1 MHz) | ~20 e− rms |
| Read noise (EM 10 MHz) | ~53 e− rms |
| Read noise (EM 20 MHz) | ~120 e− rms |
| Read noise (EM 30 MHz) | ~160 e− rms |
| Effective read noise (w/EM gain) | < 1 e− rms |
4. Scale
Platescale: 0.29 arcseconds/pixel, 13μm pixels.
5. Filters
Each channel of the CHIMERA instrument contains a filter slide mechanism with 4 filter positions (not all are populated). The dichroic transmits light in the 570 to 850nm wavelength range into the RED camera and reflects light from 300 to 540nm into the BLUE camera. The primary broadband filters in the instrument are Sloan filters covering the wavelength range from 320nm to > 1000nm.
- CHIMERA RED channel: Sloan r', i', z' and a custom 600nm filter (50nm width)
- CHIMERA BLUE channel: Sloan g', u', clear and not populated
CHIMERA filters
The empirically measured optical throughput of the system for each of the Sloan filters is summarized below:
CHIMERA optical throughput.
Questions? We've answered many common observing and operations questions in our observer FAQ page.
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Chimera Specs / v 1.0.0
Last updated: 20 February 2020 JM
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