Sibonise

Sibonise, meaning “show us” in isiXhosa, is currently being commissioned on Lesedi.  It is an imaging camera with the largest detector of any SAAO instrument, an E2V 6kx6k pixel CCD, yielding a field of view of two thirds of a degree in diameter.  A summary of the key features can be found in the table below, with more details to follow.

Detector E2V CCD231-C6 back-illuminated, NIMO
No. of pixels 6144×6160
Field of view 39 arcmin diameter
Platescale 0.38 acrsec/pixel
Coating Astro multi-2
Filters U, B, V, R, I, Hα (3.2nm), Hα (4nm), He II 468.6 (4nm), [O III] (2.8nm), clear
Imaging modes Full frame, frame transfer
Readout options Fast, slow
Gain options Bright, faint
Exposure time ≥ 0.5 s