The CCD Mosaic Imager continues to perform well on both the 4-m and 0.9-m telescopes and will be available for applications in the 1998B semester. The replacement of the existing CCDs with backside-illuminated, thinned SITe CCDs is still anticipated for this summer. We have, at the time of writing, received five suitable CCDs and expect the remaining three to arrive soon enough to ensure the replacement and testing before the fall semester begins. These CCDs typically have about 5e- read noise, very good cosmetics (no more than a couple of hundred bad pixels), excellent CTE, and low dark current. They are flat to approximately 15 µm, eliminating concerns about focus variations. Their sensitivity peaks at about 90% at 650 nm and is above 60% between 370 and 850 nm.
The filter selection continues to grow. By the fall of 1998, we should have
the following broad-band filters: U, B, V, R, I, and z' (from the SDSS
system). In addition we will have H at rest and at a variety of redshifts,
[S II], and [O III] on and off. For a comprehensive list of the available
Mosaic filters, see the Web page:
http://www.noao.edu/kpno/mosaic/filters/filters.html.
The latest information about the CCD Mosaic Imager and the most current version of the user manual can be found at the Mosaic Web Site (http://www.noao.edu/kpno/mosaic/mosaic.html).
Todd Boroson (for the Mosaic Team)