People involved at OAB: Bregoli, Ciattaglia, Innocenti
Since the year 2001 a joint collaboration between Bologna and Arcetri was started, in order to provide high resolution optical images based on a fast detector and suitable dedicated software, for use in systematic programs at the Loiano telescope, and later to develop a photon counting wavefront sensor for adaptive optics on large optical telescopes.
In the framework of this project, a program of laboratory- and later sky-tests of this kind of detector for adaptive optics applications was started in the spring of 2002, involving the Arcetry Observatory, the Astronomy Dept. of the University of Bologna and the Bologna Observatory. As a first step we have interfaced a commercial photon-counting controller to a new type of detector: the L3CCD, an avalanche intensified CCD from E2V (ex Marconi AT) with the aim of developing a low-noise wavefront detector for adaptive optics. The system performed as an efficient and almost ready-to-use speckle camera with a duty cicle of 20 msec. During the year 2003 the first electronic generation was developed, as well as a suitable cryogenic system for the sensor.
All of the optical bench data acquisition and analysis software have been developed at the Bologna Observatory. This suitable software requires a careful synchronisation among several instruments and great acquisition flexibility to fulfill the specific requirements of fast pixels. In this way the great flexibility of the characterization facility allows to characterize sensor parameters easily, quickly and accurately, even in a very low light regime. Many custom parts for both the electronic controller (housings) and the cryogenic system have been developed at the OAB, as well as the optical bench and the speckle camera.