9.10.C : Calibration Information

$Id: calibrate.html,v 1.4 1996/03/13 22:38:45 de Exp de $
At least two, and probably more, kinds of calibration data can be acquired with DEIMOS. The obvious two are spectral and image calibration frames. Special slitmasks are to be made, which will be machined in particular patterns and sizes of apertures to provide an asymmetrical test image. Comparison of this image with the "theoretical" design of the mask should reveal any artifacts introduced by the "projection" of the mask image onto the detector; changes across time, temperature, or telescope position in the calibration frame should reveal flexure, thermal artifacts, or other sources of image distortion.

During engineering tests, a series of both spectral and image calibration frames should be acquired at many different telescope positions. This series should be done again after any corrections or re-engineering are complete, to serve as a reference for the future. From then on, we might expect that the observer takes one or two calibration frames either at the start of each run or at the start of each night. All of these calibration frames should be saved as part of a continuous history of the instrument's performance.

If the instrument is stable enough and/or the flexure compensation system is effective enough, it may be possible to produce and archive a standard set of calibration data which can be used by many successive observers. The information management system should accommodate this possibility.


de@ucolick.org
webmaster@ucolick.org
De Clarke
UCO/Lick Observatory
University of California