Magellan Instant Camera testbed

The Magellan Instant Camera (MagIC) is an optical CCD camera that was built at MIT and is currently used at Las Campanas Observatory (LCO) in La Serena, Chile. It is designed to be both simple and efficient with minimal optics between the telescope port and the detector, a high quantum efficiency and throughput detector, a CryoTiger® self-contained, cooling system that cleanly and cost-effectively maintains observing temperatures as low as 70K, and a modular user interface that allows the observer to control all elements of an exposure. The goal of this thesis project is to create a testbed for MagIC at MIT. The testbed consists of identical camera electronics, software, and hardware to MagIC, but it has an engineering-grade CCD. The system will be used to test electronics and software before installation occurs at LCO and to serve as an additional camera at Wallace Astrophysical Observatory for MIT students and other observatory users. This thesis will serve a documentation source for MagIC as well as a manual for setting up and running the MagIC testbed.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• McEwen, Heather K. (Heather Kristine), 1982-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• James L. Elliot.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32749

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32749