No Arabic abstract
NectarCAM is a camera proposed for the medium-sized telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) covering the central energy range of ~100 GeV to ~30 TeV. It has a modular design and is based on the NECTAr chip, at the heart of which is a GHz sampling Switched Capacitor Array and a 12-bit Analog to Digital converter. The camera will be equipped with 265 7-photomultiplier modules, covering a field of view of 8 degrees. Each module includes the photomultiplier bases, high voltage supply, pre-amplifier, trigger, readout and Ethernet transceiver. The recorded events last between a few nanoseconds and tens of nanoseconds. The camera trigger will be flexible so as to minimize the read-out dead-time of the NECTAr chips. NectarCAM is designed to sustain a data rate of more than 4 kHz with less than 5% dead time. The camera concept, the design and tests of the various subcomponents and results of thermal and electrical prototypes are presented. The design includes the mechanical structure, cooling of the electronics, read-out, clock distribution, slow control, data-acquisition, triggering, monitoring and services.
NectarCAM is a camera proposed for the medium-sized telescopes of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) which covers the core energy range of ~100 GeV to ~30 TeV. It has a modular design and is based on the NECTAr chip, at the heart of which is a GHz sampling Switched Capacitor Array and 12-bit Analog to Digital converter. The camera will be equipped with 265 7-photomultiplier modules, covering a field of view of 8 degrees. Each module includes photomultiplier bases, high voltage supply, pre-amplifier, trigger, readout and Ethernet transceiver. The recorded events last between a few nanoseconds and tens of nanoseconds. The expected performance of the camera are discussed. Prototypes of NectarCAM components have been built to validate the design. Preliminary results of a 19-module mini-camera are presented, as well as future plans for building and testing a full size camera.
The NectarCAM is a camera proposed for the medium-sized telescopes in the framework of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA), the next-generation observatory for very-high-energy gamma-ray astronomy. The cameras are designed to operate in an open environment and their mechanics must provide protection for all their components under the conditions defined for the CTA observatory. In order to operate in a stable environment and ensure the best physics performance, each NectarCAM will be enclosed in a slightly overpressurized, nearly air-tight, camera body, to prevent dust and water from entering. The total power dissipation will be ~7.7 kW for a 1855-pixel camera. The largest fraction is dissipated by the readout electronics in the modules. We present the design and implementation of the cooling system together with the test bench results obtained on the NectarCAM thermal demonstrator.
An important aspect of the calibration of the Cherenkov Telescope Array is the pointing, which enables an exact alignment of each telescope and therefore allows to transform a position in the sky to a point in the plane of the Cherenkov camera and vice versa. The favoured approach for the pointing calibration of the medium size telescopes (MST) is the installation of an optical CCD-camera in the dish of the telescope that captures the position of the Cherenkov camera and of the stars in the night sky simultaneously during data taking. The adaption of this approach is presented in this proceeding.
The pointing capability of a telescope in the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a crucial aspect in the calibration of the instrument. It describes how a position in the sky is transformed to the focal plane of the telescope and allows precise directional reconstructions of atmospheric particle showers. The favoured approach for pointing calibrations of the Medium Size Telescopes (MST) is the utilisation of an CCD-camera installed in the centre of the dish, which images the night sky and the focal plane simultaneously. The technical implementation of this solution and test results taken over a period of one year at the MST prototype in Berlin/Adlershof are presented. Investigations of pointing calibration precision with simulated data and real data taken during test runs of the prototype telescope will also be shown.
In this work, we describe the optical properties of the single photoelectron (SPE) calibration system designed for NectarCAM, a camera proposed for the Medium Sized Telescopes (MST) of the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA). One of the goals of the SPE system, as integral part of the NectarCAM camera, consists in measuring with high accuracy the gain of its photo-detection chain. The SPE system is based on a white painted screen where light pulses are injected through a fishtail light guide from a dedicated flasher. The screen - placed 15 mm away from the focal plane - is mounted on an XY motorization that allows movements over all the camera plane. This allows in-situ measurements of the SPE spectra via a complete scan of the 1855 photo-multiplier tubes (PMTs) of NectarCAM. This calibration process will enable the reduction of the systematic uncertainties on the energy reconstruction of $gamma$-rays coming from distant astronomical sources and detected by CTA.