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Isaac Newton Telescope

PFC: Prime Focus Camera


First light (at ING): February 1984.

De-commissioned: May 1997.

Designed and built by: RGO

Description: During the first commissioning nights, photographic plates were used as the default detector. The CCD Camera at the prime focus of the INT was commissioned from July 1985 to  May 1997. When it was first commissioned two CCD chips were in use: RCA 58612 (thinned and back-illuminated) and GEC P8600 (front-illuminated). The former has a significantly higher detective quantum efficiency, especially in the blue, but higher readout noise. On the other hand, the pixel size of the GEC chip was 22 µm, compared with 30 µm for the RCA chip (0.54 and 0.74 arc sec, respectively), so the former gives significantly better sampling in good seeing. The last CCD detector used was Tektronix, with a pixel size of 24 µm or 0.59 arc sec, FoV 10 arcmin. It was replaced by the new CCD-mosaic Wide Field Camera. 

Time allocations:
Nights scheduled since semester 2007B

Research impact:

Scientific highlights (21)

Publications (78 from ING paper count)

Public outreach:

Media releases (1)

Multimedia:

Photo archive (1)



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Last modified: 08 November 2023