The science array for NOTCam was installed in October. Apart from the
much better cosmetics compared to the engineering grade array
mentioned in the previous report, we have since been able to check the
efficiency of the science array in more detail. Overall it was found
that the new array is 30% more sensitive than the engineering array
ever was at its best (June 2002) in J and H, while the quantum
efficiency is about the same around 2 m
. Furthermore, the
sensitivity of the engineering array seems to have decreased over the
last few years. Lack of zero-point monitoring points (few and
non-photometric NOTCam tech nights) makes it difficult to study when
and how quickly it deteriorated, but we are currently looking into old
NOTCam data from the archive. All in all, the new array gives about
0.6 magnitudes deeper zero-points in all bands than the engineering
array provided in August 2005. Details on this can be found at
http://www.not.iac.es/instruments/notcam/sensitivity.html
Data has also been obtained to check the photometric scatter across the FOV for the YnJHKKs filter, but this still needs to be analyzed.
Thomas Augusteijn 2006-05-08