Wide-field CCD imaging at CFHT: the MOCAM example

We describe a new 4096x4096 pixel CCD mosaic camera (MOCAM) available at the prime focus of the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT). The camera is a mosaic of four 2048x2048$Loral frontside-illuminated CCDs with 15$\mu$m pixels, providing a field of view of 14'x14' at a scale of 0.21''/pixel. MOCAM is equipped with B, V, R and I filters and has demonstrated image quality of 0.5''-0.6'' FWHM over the entire field. MOCAM will also be used with the CFHT adaptive optic bonnette and will provide a field of view of 90'' at a scale of 0.02 ''/pixel. MOCAM works within the CFHT Pegasus software environment and observers familiar with this system require no additional training to use this camera effectively. The technical details, the performance and the first images obtained on the telescope with MOCAM are presented. In particular, we discuss some important improvements with respect to the standard single-CCD FOCAM camera, such as multi-output parallel readout and dynamic anti-blooming. We also discuss critical technical issues concerning future wide-field imaging facilities at the CFHT prime focus in light of our experience with MOCAM and our recent experience with the even larger UH 8192x8192 pixel CCD mosaic camera.Comment: Accepted for publication in Publication of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Latex with aas2pp4.sty and epsf.sty. 12 pages, 10 figure

The VINCI instrument software in the very large telescope environment

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) very large telescope interferometer (VLTI) got first fringes on March 17, 2001 at Mount Paranal in Chile. The VINCI instrument has played a key role in the achievement of this important milestone and is a fundamental component for the current VLTI operations. This paper, after a brief introduction of the VLTI and the instrument itself, will focus mainly on control software aspects. It describes the VINCI hardware and software architecture in the context of the whole VLT control concept. Particular emphasis is given to real-time control aspects, data acquisition, distribution of control over several hardware platforms, networks, standardization of hardware and software components, and software configuration control management

The VINCI instrument software in the very large telescope environment

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