ES431 Astronomy Lab Report

Abhishek Panchal - SC11B157

Group B2
BTech Physical Sciences
Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology
April 16, 2014
0.1 Introduction
In this ES431 Astronomy Lab we carried out the following:
A. Understanding the working of a CCD.
B. Characterization of the IIST KAF0401E CCD in the SBIG ST-7XE Camera
1. Read Noise
2. Dark Current
3. Linearity
4. Gain
5. Charge Transfer Eciency
C. Analyzing data using IRAF
This involved doing cosmic ray correction of all the ccd characteristic images. Then subracting bias
frame from all the frames. Next step was analysis of all the images corresponding to characteristic
in IRAF. The charge collected within each pixel is measured as a voltage which is converted into an
output Digital Number (DN). We would be using this value for our analysis.
0.2 Data Analysis using IRAF
0.2.1 Read noise
Read Noise determined through bias subracted frames of read noise images for dierent exposure times
as shown in following table
Exposure time: 0.5 sec
Sr. no. mean std dev rms mean rms std dev
1 1.547 7.484
2 2.273 6.903 2.4026 6.96
3 3.124 6.457
Exposure time: 1 sec
Sr. no. mean std dev rms mean rms std dev
1 2.876 7.311
2 1.147 6.933 2.1849 6.831
3 2.176 6.204
Exposure time: 3 sec
Sr. no. mean std dev rms mean rms std dev
1 3.7 7.484
2 2.258 6.903 3.319 6.543
3 3.778 6.786
Observation: Here we notice that there is as such no relation between exposure time and DN
values since the values are constant for each case. Thus the read noise is independent of exposure
time.
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0.2.2 Dark Current Exposure Time dependence
We have found average DN value of both frame none and frame only cases for dierent exposure times.
We tted a line in each case using matlab and found out the slopes of the line, given in gure 1 and
2 respectively
Frame None
Exposure Time (sec) mean
10 2.869
50 17.59
100 29.9
500 150.7
Figure 1: Dark Current Frame None
Slope for Dark Current Frame none = 0.302 dn/sec
Frame Only
Exposure Time (sec) mean
5 2.776
10 3.434
20 3.513
50 2.483
100 1.742
200 6.426
500 17.95
Slope for dark current frame only = 0.0305 dn/sec
Observation: It is quite clear that slope of line for frame none is very much greater than slope for
frame none.
2
Figure 2: Dark Current Frame Only
0.2.3 Dark Current Temperature Dependence
We found out mean DN values for dierent temperature for 2 dierent exposure times (O second and
100 sec. Figure 3 shows graph DN values v/s temperature for 100 second exposure time).
0 second Exposure Time
Temperature (
o
C) mean
-10 1.763
-5 4.289
5 0.7008
10 0.8036
15 3.277
100 second Exposure
Temperature (
o
C) mean
-10 3.411
-5 7.456
5 11.61
10 17.76
15 21.43
Observation: From the graph we can infer that the DN values increases as the Operating Temper-
ature increases.
3
Figure 3: Dark Current DN values v/s Operating Temperature (100 Sec exposure Time)
0.2.4 Gain and Linearity
To calculate the gain we will plot the graph between mean and variance of DN values at dierent
exposure time. Slope of the graph will be equal to
1
g
where g is the gain.
Exposure Time (Sec) Mean Variance
1 4425 4008
3 13195 12651
5 21771 20945
7 29557 26906
9 31160 27096
11 27293 27032
13 31566 31235
15 35635 35235
17 38070 37720
20 4402 3984
23 13122 12433
26 21623 20827
29 29462 25904
Figure 4: Variance v/s Exposure Time for dierent exposure time and Linearly tted curve
4
Calculations:
Slope of the graph=0.95906
1
g
=0.95906
g=1.04268
But gain cannot be fraction.
Gain for the CCD = 1 electrons/count.
Here in gure 5 we have plotted graph of Mean value v/s exposure time.
Figure 5: Mean Value v/s Exposure time
Observation: we do not exactly get linear curve here. However the graph seems increasing upto
DN value of around 37000.
0.2.5 Charge Transfer Eciency
Expression: To calculate Charge Transfer Eciency () we use the following expression.
(DN)
p
(DN
p+1
)
=

p(1)
Where DN is the pixel value of the cosmic ray hit pixel and p is the pixel number. This can rewritten
as:
=
p(DN
p
)
p(DN
p
)+(DN)
p+1
Thus value of Charge Transfer Eciency can be calculated.
Sr. No. (DN)
p
(DN)
p+1
p Charge Transfer Eciency
1 53524.3 250 633 0.999
2 12652.5 60 127 0.999
3 13597.5 65.3 509 0.999
4 12459.5 61.5 551 0.999
Observation: The value of Charge Transfer Eceincy () is 99.99
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