THE DARK ENERGY CAMERA

TLDR

The Dark Energy Camera is a 22‑degree field‑of‑view imager mounted on the Blanco 4‑m telescope in Chile, built by the Dark Energy Survey Collaboration to meet stringent wide‑field and supernova survey requirements. This paper presents a technical description of the camera’s engineering, construction, installation, and current status. The camera features a five‑element optical corrector, seven filters, a 60‑cm aperture shutter, and a 570‑megapixel focal plane of 250‑µm thick, fully depleted CCDs cooled in a vacuum Dewar, with 62 2k×4k imaging CCDs and 12 2k×2k guiding CCDs, 15‑µm pixels (0.263″/pixel), a hexapod focus system, and a 20‑second readout achieving 6–9 e⁻ noise.

Abstract

The Dark Energy Camera is a new imager with a 22 diameter field of view mounted at the prime focus of the Victor M. Blanco 4 m telescope on Cerro Tololo near La Serena, Chile. The camera was designed and constructed by the Dark Energy Survey Collaboration and meets or exceeds the stringent requirements designed for the wide-field and supernova surveys for which the collaboration uses it. The camera consists of a five-element optical corrector, seven filters, a shutter with a 60 cm aperture, and a charge-coupled device (CCD) focal plane of 250 μm thick fully depleted CCDs cooled inside a vacuum Dewar. The 570 megapixel focal plane comprises 62 2k × 4k CCDs for imaging and 12 2k × 2k CCDs for guiding and focus. The CCDs have 15 μm × 15 μm pixels with a plate scale of 0263 pixel−1. A hexapod system provides state-of-the-art focus and alignment capability. The camera is read out in 20 s with 6–9 electron readout noise. This paper provides a technical description of the camera's engineering, construction, installation, and current status.