CCD Camera Systems

MDM Observatory Blue4K STA0500 4Kx4K CCD camera on the 1.3m McGraw-Hill telescope

Apogee CCD cameras system for the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory 0.7m telescope

Lowell Observatory SITe 2Kx2K CCD camera on the 42-inch Hall telescope

Perth Apogee CCD Camera system on the Perth Observatory 0.6m telescope

Wise Observatory Thompson 4Kx2K CCD camera on the 1-m telescope

MDM Red4K deep-depletion CCD camera on the MDM 1.3m telescope

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, before commercial science-grade CCD systems became generally available, OSU has also built up a number of CCD camera systems, both custom builds and integration of commercial CCD cameras for use at a number of observatories. The custom CCD system used a detector controller architecture developed at OSU by Dr. Bruce Atwood, and commercial CCD camera integrations used off-the-shelf systems integrated with computer and power systems for use as complete turn-key systems.

The camera systems built by OSU were:

SITe 2Kx2K CCD imaging system and custom OSU controller for the Lowell Observatory 1.1m Hall telescope (1999)
Apogee AP7 CCD camera and computer system for the Perth Observatory 0.6m telescope in Perth, Australia for the PLANET microlensing follow-up network project (1999)
Thompson 2Kx4K CCD imaging system and custom OSU controller for the Wise Observatory 1m telescope in Israel (2000)
Apogee AP7p CCD and computer system for the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory 0.7m Nikolaiev telescope (2001)
Apogee Alta U30+UV CCD camera and computer system for the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory 2.6m telescope spectrograph (2005)
MDM Blue4K CCD (STA0500 4Kx4K) system and custom OSU controller for the MDM observatory (2007)
MDM Red4K CCD (4Kx4K deep-depletion CCD) and custom OSU controller for the MDM observatory (2011)

Instrument Specification

Project type: CCD Camera Systems

Instrument Facts

The Perth observatory CCD camera system made important contributions to microlensing planet searches for the PLANET and MicroFUN collaborations
The CrAO CCD cameras were funded by a joint NSF/US State Department program to provide assistance to scientific work in institutions that were part of the former Soviet Union.
The MDM Red4K deep depletion CCD was a spare from the DoE Dark Energy Camera (DECam) project funded by the NSF.
The MDM Blue4K system was developed originally as a wide-field imager for the MDM 1.3m telescope, but became the workhorse detector used by OSMOS on the MDM 2.4m.

Instrument Team

Bruce Atwood (OSU CCD Controller Systems, Lowell and Wise CCD PI)
Paul Martini (MDM Blue4K and Red4K PI)
Bradley Peterson (CrAO CCD camera systems PI)
Richard Pogge (commercial CCD camera software)
Tom O'Brien (mechanical engineer)

Dan Pappalardo (electronics engineer)
Jerry Mason (software and computer hardware)
Dave Brewer (instrument maker)
Dave Steinbrecher (instrument maker)

Filters: Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, Lowell Observatory, MDM Observatory, Perth Observatory, Wise Observatory, Operational, Instrument Subsystem