Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2012 · 19 citations · 0 references
Natural SciencesAstronomyPhysicsInstrumentationOpticsSpectroscopyCalibrationOptical InstrumentationOptical MetrologyPhotodetectorsPhotometric SystemsTelescope OpticsAstronomical Instrument CalibrationInstrumental Response FunctionsLight ThroughputPhotometric CalibrationPower OutputSpectrometer CalibrationSystem CalibrationThroughput Calibration
We describe a spectrophotometric calibration system that is being implemented as part of the DES DECam project at the Blanco 4 meter at CTIO. Our calibration system uses a 1nm wide tunable source to measure the instrumental response function of the telescope optics and detector from 300nm up to 1100nm. This calibration will be performed regularly to monitor any change in the transmission function of the telescope during the 5 year survey. The system consists of a monochromator based tunable light source that provides illumination on a dome flat that is monitored by calibrated photodiodes that allow us to measure the telescope throughput as a function of wavelength. Our system has a peak output power of 2 mW, equivalent to a flux of approximately 800 photons/s/pixel on DECam.