NEAT-MAUI CAMERA ================ Instrument Overview =================== The Near Earth Asteroid Tracking (NEAT) survey began observations with the U. S. Air Force 1.0m Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) telescope on Mt. Haleakala, Maui, HI (Pravdo 1999). In 2000, NEAT transitioned to the Maui Space Surveillance Site (MSSS) 1.2m telescope located at the same facility. The NEAT camera at the Maui site was a single 4096 x 4096 camera with 15 micron pixels. The pixel scale is 1.43 arc-sec/pixel with the 1.0m GEODSS telescope and 1.36 arc-sec/pixel with the MSSS 1.2m. No filters were used and the bandpass is 0.4 - 0.8 microns, however the peak response matches closely with the Bessel-type R filter at 0.6 microns. A thermoelectric cooler (TEC) maintained an approximate operating temperature of -5 and -20 degrees C for the GEODSS and MSSS cameras, respectively. Four amplifiers readout the CCD in four quadrants. The table below provides a comparison of the instrument and telescope characteristics used by NEAT on Maui, HI. ---------------------------------------------------------- | Site Maui/GEODSS Maui/MSSS | | Dates of Operation: 12/95 - 2/99 2/00 - 4/07 | | Telescope Diameter: 1.0m 1.2m | | f/ratio: 2.15 3.14 | | Camera: 4096 x 4096 4096 x 4096 | | Pixel Size: 15 x 15 u 15 x 15 u | | Pixel Scale: 1.43'/pix 1.36'/pix | | Cooling: TEC @ ~-5C TEC @ ~-20C | | Filter: None None | | IAU Site Code: 566 608 | | Latitude / Longitude: +20deg 42.5' 156deg 15.5'W | | Elevation / Timezone: 3040.35m UTC - 10 | |________________________________________________________| Regardless of the camera, each CCD chip read to a unique output file. Filenames are based on the universal start time of the exposure and, if appropriate, identify the specific chip used. The Maui and tri-camera images contain the 4080 x 4080 imaging area. The initial orientation of the Maui and Palomar tri-camera images has East towards to left and North downward. Each uncompressed, 4k x 4k, image (Palomar tri-camera and Maui) is 66.6 and 33.3 Mb in size, respectively.