Speaker
Dr
Kyler Kuehn
(Argonne National Laboratory)
Description
The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is an astronomical survey covering 5000 square degrees of the Southern Hemisphere, scheduled for first light in late 2011. Survey observations will be made with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), a 570 Megapixel camera consisting of 62 extremely red-sensitive (QE > 50% at 1000 nm) 2k x 4k science CCDs (along with associated guide and focus CCDs). DECam will be mounted on the Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), and its large (3 square degree) field of view will allow for the detection of millions of galaxies and thousands of supernovae over the 525 nights of the Survey.
A 1/32 scale precursor camera (PreCam) was designed, constructed, and tested at Argonne National Laboratory, and was installed on the Curtis-Schmidt telescope at CTIO in the fall of 2010. Following a several week commissioning process, PreCam observations began in November 2010. PreCam was designed as a critical testbed for DECam detectors and data acquisition systems, along with many other aspects of the hardware, software, and Survey observing strategy. Furthermore, because the PreCam detectors are identical to the DECam CCDs, PreCam science data provide standard star calibrations that can save DES up to 10% of its planned observing time (since DES on-sky calibration time will be dramatically reduced).
We describe the basics of DECam and the Dark Energy Survey, and provide significant detail of the PreCam instrument, focusing on those aspects that make it an excellent precursor to the full DECam system.
Author
Dr
Kyler Kuehn
(Argonne National Laboratory)
Co-author
Dr
Steve Kuhlmann
(Argonne National Laboratory)
