Spectrophotometric calibration system for DECam Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • We present a spectrophotometric calibration system that will be implemented as part of the DES DECam project at the Blanco 4 meter at CTIO. Our calibration system uses a 2nm wide tunable source to measure the instrumental response function of the telescope from 300nm up to 1100nm. The system consists of a monochromator based tunable light source that is projected uniformly on a Lambertian screen using a broadband "line to spot" fiber bundle and an engineered diffuser. Several calibrated photodiodes strategically positioned along the beam path will allow us to measure the throughput as a function of wavelength. Our system has an output power of 0.25 mW, equivalent to a flux of approximately 100 photons/s/pixel on DECam. We also present results from the deployment of a prototype of this system at the Swope 1m at Las Campanas Observatory for the calibration of the photometric equipment used in the Carnegie Supernova Project. 2010 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.

name of conference

  • Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy III

published proceedings

  • GROUND-BASED AND AIRBORNE INSTRUMENTATION FOR ASTRONOMY III

author list (cited authors)

  • Rheault, J., DePoy, D. L., Behm, T. W., Kylberg, E. W., Cabral, K., Allen, R., & Marshall, J. L.

citation count

  • 12

complete list of authors

  • Rheault, J-P||DePoy, DL||Behm, TW||Kylberg, EW||Cabral, Kris||Allen, Rick||Marshall, JL

editor list (cited editors)

  • McLean, I. S., Ramsay, S. K., & Takami, H.

publication date

  • July 2010