This award supports the acquisition of several pixel charge- coupled device (CCD) sensors in support of ground-based optical observing at San Diego State University's Mount Laguna Observatory. Several of these will be unthinned and one will be thinned and anti-reflection coated for enhanced blue and ultraviolet sensitivity. They will be manufactured by the Ford Aerospace foundry following Science Applications International Corporation's (SAIC) design. San Diego State will assist SAIC in the testing and characterization of the CCD's in selecting the devices for delivery, as well as to help SAIC develop improved devices and to determine their range of performance characteristics. The thinned sensor will provide improved quantum efficiency and a factor of 9.4 larger detector area than the currently available TI sensor. The CCD's will be controlled by a quadrant readout camera controller designed at San Diego State, and by a dual processor instrument control and image processing computer system. The thinned CCD will be targeted to three ongoing observational programs - the optical and near infrared imaging of Bok globules, studies of the physics of plasmas in stars, and a search for and monitoring of novae in external galaxies.
