Sigma QUick Infrared Camera Setup and Observing with Quirc, Dewar Temperature, Camera Sensitivity

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October 30, 1997

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2.2Dewar Temperature

The dewar now has a temperature sensor and heater. For normal operation, the temperature controller should be used to set the detector temperature to 80.0K. If the controller is not used, drifts can occur as the telescope is moved, resulting in dark current instabilities in the array. The new array is not thought to be more sensitive to these effects than the previous detector, but some of the anomalies previously seen by observers with the original QUIRC detector may have been due to this effect.

2.3Camera Sensitivity

The following sensitivity estimates are based on observations of 2 standard stars at the UH 2.2m telescope on 2/6/96. The Point SRC (source) and Mag/arcsec2 values are for 1 minute of on-source integration time, 5￿. The point source detection values below assume a PSF of 0.5 arcsec FWHM.

Table 2. QUIRC Sensitivity

UH 2.2m Telescope

Filter

Point SRC(Mag)

Mag/arcsec2

Jy/ADU (1 sec)

J

18.6

17.9

1.052e-6

H

17.8

17.1

8.295e-7

K

16.2

15.5

9.622e-7

H+K

18.6

17.9

 

 

 

 

 

2.3.1QUIST sensitivity

The following numbers are based on observations of standard stars using QUIST at the UH 0.6m telescope on 2/9/97. The Point SRC (source) and Mag/asec2 are for 1 minute of integration time, 5 sigma. The point source detection values below assume a PSF of 2.5 pixels FWHM.

Table 2. QUIRC Sensitivity on QUIST

Filter

Point SRC(Mag)

Mag/arcsec2

Jy/ADU (1 sec)

K’

14.5

16.4

7.644e-5

Hs

14.7

16.6

2.291e-4

Hl

14.3

16.2

2.391e-4

2.12

12.0

15.0

4.563e-6

2.26

12.7

15.5

1.412e-5

 

 

 

 

3 Setup and Observing with QUIRC

The nominal orientation for QUIRC at the 88-inch telescope is for the black electronics box on the dewar (the utility box) to point North (toward the control room). Then the resulting FITS data files written by the program have N up and E to the left (i.e. the (0,0) pixel is in the SE corner).

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Contents Observer’s Guide for Quirc Page Near-Infrared Observing Techniques System OverviewDetector Linearity, Saturation, Read Noise, Dark Current Camera Sensitivity Setup and Observing with QuircDewar Temperature Telconfig06quirc Workstation setupFp qrc Qcdcom Setup and OperationTaking exposures Writing Scripts and Taking Mosaics Filters and Focusing8QUIRC User Guide FocusingTaking Dark Frames Cold RestartRunning VF to display data Quick VF tips Setting upImage display options DSP initialization commands Qcdcom commandsCommands for setting up and taking exposures October30 Filter hnum commandiSet filter Go hnumiStart exposure Status shows the current parameters Diagnostic commands Program counts the errors