The ESO VLT CCD Detectors Software

Antonio Longinotti
ESO

Session ID: T10.04   Type: oral

Abstract:

Charge Coupled Devices (CCD) are currently by far the most widely used type of detectors in Astronomy. It is foreseen to have in operation at the ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) on mount Paranal in Chile about 40 technical CCD cameras for auto-guiding, field viewing and wavefront sensing, and probably more than 10 scientific CCD cameras for instruments working in the optical spectral range.
The CCD Software Package is the very first VLT application built and tested on top of the VLT Common Software. It provides services (e.g. execute an exposure and store the acquired image data in a FITS file) to higher level packages, such as the control software of a VLT instrument (science CCDs) or the telescope auto-guiding software (technical CCDs). It provides also a stand-alone mode, with Graphical User Interface (GUI), whereby the CCD camera is treated as a simple instrument and is directly driven from the CCD control panel. After a brief introduction to the VLT Control Software architecture, the VLT CCD Detectors Control Software and its functionality will be presented, with particular attention to the capabilities for on-line image data analysis:





Patrick P. Murphy
Tue Sep 10 22:41:02 EDT 1996