The Mini-SiTian Array: Evaluation Camera System

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Zhang, Yu, Du, Lin, Hu, Yi, Huang, Yang, Wu, Ying, He, Min, Gu, Hongrui, Mu, Haiyang, Chen, Xunhao, Wu, Hong
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2025
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author Zhang, Yu
Du, Lin
Hu, Yi
Huang, Yang
Wu, Ying
He, Min
Gu, Hongrui
Mu, Haiyang
Chen, Xunhao
Wu, Hong
author_facet Zhang, Yu
Du, Lin
Hu, Yi
Huang, Yang
Wu, Ying
He, Min
Gu, Hongrui
Mu, Haiyang
Chen, Xunhao
Wu, Hong
contents The Mini-SiTian project, which is the pathfinder for the SiTian project, utilizes three 30 cm telescopes equipped with commercial CMOS cameras (ZWO ASI6200MM Pro) to simulate large-area time-domain survey. Due to the avoidance of the traditional mechanical shutter, the CMOS camera is favorable in time-domain survey projects. In the future, the SiTian telescope array will employ a two-by-two scientific-grade mosaic CMOS camera to survey a 10,000-degree square area every 30 minutes. Therefore, the performance of CMOS directly determines the detection capability of SiTian telescopes for transient sources, and a comprehensive understanding of the performance of CMOS cameras is crucial. In this research, laboratory testing was conducted to thoroughly evaluate three cameras by assessing several critical parameters, including bias stability, dark current, pixel anomalies, linearity, gain, and read noise. We find exceptional short-term bias stability with standard deviations below 0.02 ADU, negligible dark current of approximately 0.002 e$^{-}$ pixel$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$ at $0^\circ\text{C}$, and excellent linearity with nonlinearity consistently below $\pm$ 0.5\%, and a small proportion (0.06\% to 0.08\%) of pixels with anomalous responses. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates uniform gain values across all cameras, ranging from 0.252 to 0.255 e$^{-}$ ADU$^{-1}$, with low readout noise, measured to be below 1.6 e$^{-}$ using conventional methods. We also propose a novel method for pixel-level gain and read noise calculation for CMOS sensors, which revealed a narrow gain distribution and a low median read noise of 1.028 e$^-$ for one of the cameras. The laboratory testing of the ZWO ASI6200MM Pro cameras indicates their potential to meet the requirements of time-domain surveys for the Mini-SiTian project.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2504_01617
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Mini-SiTian Array: Evaluation Camera System
Zhang, Yu
Du, Lin
Hu, Yi
Huang, Yang
Wu, Ying
He, Min
Gu, Hongrui
Mu, Haiyang
Chen, Xunhao
Wu, Hong
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
The Mini-SiTian project, which is the pathfinder for the SiTian project, utilizes three 30 cm telescopes equipped with commercial CMOS cameras (ZWO ASI6200MM Pro) to simulate large-area time-domain survey. Due to the avoidance of the traditional mechanical shutter, the CMOS camera is favorable in time-domain survey projects. In the future, the SiTian telescope array will employ a two-by-two scientific-grade mosaic CMOS camera to survey a 10,000-degree square area every 30 minutes. Therefore, the performance of CMOS directly determines the detection capability of SiTian telescopes for transient sources, and a comprehensive understanding of the performance of CMOS cameras is crucial. In this research, laboratory testing was conducted to thoroughly evaluate three cameras by assessing several critical parameters, including bias stability, dark current, pixel anomalies, linearity, gain, and read noise. We find exceptional short-term bias stability with standard deviations below 0.02 ADU, negligible dark current of approximately 0.002 e$^{-}$ pixel$^{-1}$ s$^{-1}$ at $0^\circ\text{C}$, and excellent linearity with nonlinearity consistently below $\pm$ 0.5\%, and a small proportion (0.06\% to 0.08\%) of pixels with anomalous responses. Furthermore, our analysis demonstrates uniform gain values across all cameras, ranging from 0.252 to 0.255 e$^{-}$ ADU$^{-1}$, with low readout noise, measured to be below 1.6 e$^{-}$ using conventional methods. We also propose a novel method for pixel-level gain and read noise calculation for CMOS sensors, which revealed a narrow gain distribution and a low median read noise of 1.028 e$^-$ for one of the cameras. The laboratory testing of the ZWO ASI6200MM Pro cameras indicates their potential to meet the requirements of time-domain surveys for the Mini-SiTian project.
title The Mini-SiTian Array: Evaluation Camera System
topic Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.01617