DENIS 3-CHANNEL NEAR-INFRARED CAMERA
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  Instrument Overview                                                         
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    The DENIS (Deep European Near-Infrared southern sky Survey)               
    instrument is made up of a 3-channel camera built of commercially         
     available detector arrays by the Observatoire de Paris and with          
    major contributions from other European Institutes, notably: the          
    IAS in Frascati, the Observatoire de Grenoble, the University of          
    Innsbruck, the Observatoire de Lyon, and the IAC in Tenerife. The         
    instrument was used for the DENIS survey at the ESO 1.0 meter             
    telescope at La Silla, Chile.                                             
                                                                              
    Instrument characteristics:                                               
                                                                              
                                           I         J          Ks            
    Central wavelength (microns)          0.8       1.25      2.15            
    Array manufacturer                 Tektronix  Rockwell  Rockwell          
    Size in pixels                     1024x1024   256x256   256x256          
    Pixel size (microns)                  24        40        40              
    Pixel size (arcsec)                    1         3         3              
    Average array quantum efficiency      0.65      0.81      0.61            
    Read-out noise (e-)                   6.7       38        39              
    Read-out time (sec)                   2.98      0.13      0.13            
    Exposure time (sec)                    9        10        10              
    Achieved limiting magnitude                                               
       (point source, 3 sigma)            18.5      16.5      14              
    Magnitude of saturation                9.5       8.5      6.5             
                                                                              
                                                                              
    For more information about the DENIS instrument see Epchtein              
    1997.                                                                     
                                                                              
    Epchtein, N., DENIS:  A deep near infrared southern sky survey,           
    from New Horizons from Multi-Wavelength Sky Surveys, B.J. McLean          
    et al. (eds.) (printed in the Netherlands), 106-108, 1997.