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arXiv · 1201.5904

ARCONS: a highly multiplexed superconducting UV to near-IR camera

Kieran O'Brien·Benjamin A. Mazin·Sean McHugh·Seth Meeker·Bruce Bumble
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Abstract

ARCONS, the Array Camera for Optical to Near-infrared Spectrophotometry, was recently commissioned at the Coude focus of the 200-inch Hale Telescope at the Palomar Observatory. At the heart of this unique instrument is a 1024-pixel Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detector (MKID), exploiting the Kinetic Inductance effect to measure the energy of the incoming photon to better than several percent. The ground-breaking instrument is lens-coupled with a pixel scale of 0.23"/pixel, with each pixel recording the arrival time (<2 microsec) and energy of a photon (~10%) in the optical to near-IR (0.4-1.1 microns) range. The scientific objectives of the instrument include the rapid follow-up and classification of the transient phenomena.

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Kieran O'Brien, Benjamin A. Mazin, Sean McHugh, Seth Meeker, Bruce Bumble. 2012-01-27. ARCONS: a highly multiplexed superconducting UV to near-IR camera. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1743921312001159

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