Santa Barbara Instrument Group ST-5C, Руководство по эксплуатации

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Section 1 - Introduction to CCD Cameras
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1. Introduction to CCD Cameras
The CCD (charge coupled device) is very good at the most difficult astronomical imaging
problem: imaging small, faint objects. For such scenes, long film exposures are typically
required. The CCD based system has several advantages over film: greater speed, quantitative
accuracy, ability to increase contrast and subtract sky background with a few keystrokes, the
ability to co-add multiple images without tedious dark room operations, wider spectral range,
and instant examination of the images at the telescope for quality. Film has the advantages of a
much larger format, one-step color, and independence of the wall plug (the ST-5C camera can
be battery operated in conjunction with a laptop computer, though). After some use, you will
find that film is best for producing sensational large area color pictures, and the CCD is best for
planets, small faint objects, and general scientific work such as variable star monitoring and
position determination. It is for this reason that we designed the camera to support both efforts,
as an imaging camera and as an auto-guider to aid astrophotography.
1.1. How CCDs Work
The CCD is a solid-state imaging detector that is quite commonly used in video tape cameras
and is starting to find acceptance in still frame cameras. It has been used for Astronomical
Imaging for over twenty years. The CCD is arranged as a rectangular array of imaging
elements called pixels. An image is formed by reading the intensity of these pixels.
The basic function of the CCD detector is to convert an incoming photon of light to an
electron which is stored in the detector array until it is read out, thus producing data which
your computer can display as an image. How this is accomplished is eloquently described in a
paper by James Janesick and Tom Elliott of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory:
"Imagine an array of buckets covering a field. After a rainstorm, the buckets are
sent by conveyor belts to a metering station where the amount of water in each
bucket is measured. Then a computer would take these data and display a
picture of how much rain fell on each part of the field. In a CCD the "raindrops"
are photons, the "buckets" the pixels, the "conveyor belts" the CCD shift registers
and the "metering system" an on-chip amplifier.
Technically speaking the CCD must perform four tasks in generating an image.
These functions are:
1) charge generation
2) charge collection
3) charge transfer
4) charge detection
The first operation relies on a physical process known as the photoelectric effect -
when photons or particles strike certain materials free electrons are liberated. In
the second step the photoelectrons are collected in the nearest discrete collecting
sites or pixels. The collection sites are defined by an array of electrodes, called
gates, formed on the CCD. The third operation, charge transfer, is accomplished
by manipulating the voltage on the gates in a systematic way so the signal
electrons move down the vertical registers from one pixel to the next in a
conveyor-belt like fashion. At the end of each column is a horizontal register of
pixels. This register collects a line at a time and then transports the charge
packets in a serial manner to an on-chip amplifier. The final operating step,
charge detection, is when individual charge packets are converted to an output
voltage. The voltage for each pixel can be amplified off-chip and digitally