Characterization of a Commercial, Front-Illuminated Interline Transfer CCD Camera for use as a Guide Camera on a Balloon-Borne Telescope

Clark, P.; Massey, R.; Chang, H.L.; Galloway, M.; Israel, H.; Jones, L.L.; Li, L.; Mandic, M.; Morris, T.; Netterfield, C.B.; Peacock, J.; Sharples, R.; Susca, S.

Abstract

We report results obtained during the characterization of a commercial front-illuminated progressive scan interline transfer CCD camera. We demonstrate that the unmodified camera operates successfully in temperature and pressure conditions (-40°C, 4 mBar) representative of a high altitude balloon mission. We further demonstrate that the centroid of a well-sampled star can be determined to better than 2% of a pixel, even though the CCD is equipped with a microlens array. This device has been selected for use in a closed-loop star-guiding and tip-tilt correction system in the BIT-STABLE balloon mission.

Citation

Clark, P., Massey, R., Chang, H., Galloway, M., Israel, H., Jones, L., …Susca, S. (2014). Characterization of a Commercial, Front-Illuminated Interline Transfer CCD Camera for use as a Guide Camera on a Balloon-Borne Telescope. Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation, 3(2), Article 1440003. https://doi.org/10.1142/s2251171714400030

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 28, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Sep 23, 2014
• Publication Date: Sep 23, 2014
• Deposit Date: Oct 19, 2014
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 17, 2014
• Journal: Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation
• Print ISSN: 2251-1717
• Electronic ISSN: 2251-1725
• Publisher: World Scientific Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 3
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: 1440003
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1142/s2251171714400030
• Keywords: Instrumentation, CCD characterization, Sub-orbital balloon flight, Pointing stability.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1452083
• Related Public URLs: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014JAI.....340003C