The Mosaic II CCD Imager
on the CTIO Blanco 4m

CTIO Support Scientists:
Alistair Walker, Robert Schommer, Chris Smith

A clone of the 8K Mosaic Imager presently in use on the KPNO Mayall and 0.9-m telescopes is being commisssioned at CTIO during 1999, replacing the BTC Mosaic Imager at the Blanco 4-m prime focus. The 8 SITe 2Kx4K CCDs for Mosaic II have been tested in the Tucson CCD Lab. After assembly of the focal plane, the CCDs were taken to CTIO and installed in the dewar, and full system tests begun. We have modified the prime focus area, strengthening the pedestal and enlargening the cage doors. Mosaic II was put on the Blanco 4-m for engineering tests on July 12-14, and has been scheduled for general visitor use for semester 1999-II, with restricted access during August. Given that Mosaic II is a clone of Mosaic I, much of the extensive documenatation available for the latter is directly relevant. You can find this at "NOAO Mosaic Imager." Information on aspects that are different between the two installations (eg CCD properties) will appear here as it becomes available. See also "Filters Available." One important scheduling difference is that at CTIO Mosaic II will not be offered at any telescope apart from the 4-m prime focus, and will be the only optical imager scheduled at that telescope.

For the July and August engineering runs the instrument was used in 8-channel mode.  Initial pictures taken during these runs are available here. The 16-channel mode (2 amps per chip), was tested and works, but several amplifiers were not performing yet within specs.

A local version of the Mosaic Imager manual, CTIO Version, is available.

A frequently asked questions page for Mosaic is under construction.

Gain, Read Noise, and Saturation of Mosaic II CCDs
Chip 1 Chip 2 Chip 3 Chip 4 Chip 5 Chip 6 Chip 7 Chip 8
Gain
(e-/adu)		 1.98 2.20 1.94 1.92 1.88 1.96 2.07 2.63
Read Noise
(e-)		 5.9 e- 6.7 e- 6.6 e- 7.8 e- 7.1 e- 8.3 e- 5.6 e- 7.3 e-
Saturation
(adu)		 46000 52000 52000 29000 49000 44000 36000 32000

CTIO Mosaic Support Pages (internal use only)

Last updated: 10 March, 2000

Staff Contacts:
Alistair Walker: awalker@noao.edu
Robert Schommer: rschommer@noao.edu
Chris Smith: csmith@noao.edu