Focal plane geometry characterization of the Kepler Mission

Peter Tenenbaum; Jon M. Jenkins

doi:10.1117/12.856702

19 July 2010 Focal plane geometry characterization of the Kepler Mission

Peter Tenenbaum, Jon M. Jenkins

Proceedings Volume 7740, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy; 77401C (2010) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856702
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2010, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

The Kepler Mission focal plane contains 42 charge-coupled device (CCD) photodetectors. Each CCD is composed of 2.2 million square pixels, 27 micrometers on a side, arranged in a grid of 2,200 columns by 1,044 rows. The science goals of the Kepler Mission require that the position of each CCD be determined with an accuracy of 0.1 pixels, corresponding to 2.7 micrometers or 0.4 seconds of arc, a level which is not achievable through pre-flight metrology. We describe a technique for determining the CCD positioning using images of the Kepler field of view (FOV) obtained in flight. The technique uses the fitted centroid row and column positions of 400 pre-selected stars on each CCD to obtain empirical polynomials which relate sky coordinates (right ascension and declination) to chip coordinates (row and column). The polynomials are in turn evaluated to produce constraints for a nonlinear model fit which directly determines the model parameters describing the location and orientation of each CCD. The focal plane geometry characterization algorithm is itself embedded in an iterative process which determines the focal plane geometry and the Pixel Response Function for each CCD in a self-consistent manner. In addition to the fully automated calculation, a person-in-the-loop implementation was developed to allow an initial determination of the geometry in the event of large misalignments, achieving a much looser capture tolerance for more modest accuracy and reduced automation.

Citation Download Citation

Peter Tenenbaum and Jon M. Jenkins "Focal plane geometry characterization of the Kepler Mission", Proc. SPIE 7740, Software and Cyberinfrastructure for Astronomy, 77401C (19 July 2010); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.856702

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