The Dark

Energy
Camera
(DEcam)
AKSHAY KUMAR S.R
GOVARDHANAN D
VIKAS V

nlike the human eye,
digital cameras can
stare at the sky for a
long time and store more and
more light. By replacing the
human eye with cameras,
astronomers can detect fainter
and more distant objects. Our
eyes cannot detect or can
tolerate too much of light and
so it is not able to see so many
objects especially far away and
darker objects. Thus digital
cameras can be used for such
purposes. But even a digital
camera is applicable only for
brighter objects.

In 1998, two teams of
astronomers studying distant
supernovae made the
remarkable discovery that the
expansion of the universe is
speeding up. Yet, according to
Einstein's theory of General
Relativity, gravity should lead to
a slowing of the expansion. To
explain cosmic acceleration,
cosmologists are faced with
two possibilities: Either 75% of
the universe exists in an exotic
form, now called dark energy,
that exhibits a gravitational
force opposite to the attractive
gravity of ordinary matter, or
General Relativity must be
replaced by a new theory of
gravity on cosmic scales. This
led to the Dark Energy Survey
that probes the origin of
accelerating universe and the
nature of the mysterious dark
energy by measuring the 14











Billion years of cosmic
expansion in the universe and
with extremely high precision.
The ultimate aim of the survey
is to build an extremely
sensitive 572 megapixel digital
camera. There came the idea
of a DEcam also known as The
Dark Energy Camera. The
name portrays the cameras
capability to detect objects
which are of very less
brightness through the faint
energy emitted from those
objects. It is to be mounted on
the Blanco 4-meter telescope
at Cerro Tolono Inter-American
Observatory high in the Chilean
Andes. The entire setup
consists of 2 main parts. One is
the camera and the other is the
above mentioned telescope.








Camera:
Cameras used for
optical astronomy are usually
composed of an array of digital
chips called charge-coupled
devices (CCDs). CCDs convert
light into electrons. Each chip is
divided into millions of pixels.
The electrons generated by the
light that hits each pixel are
converted to a digital value that
a computer can store or
display. In concept, these are
the same devices that make
up the heart of any home digital
camera. However, unlike home
cameras that are used to
record images of things that are
very bright, astronomical CCDs
must be souped up in order to
detect the tiny amount of light
that reaches us from faint
and/or distant objects. Much of
the light from extremely distant
galaxies and supernovae has
been red shifted into long-
wavelength red and infrared
light, which conventional CCDs
do not detect very well.



Named DECam, this
large, 570 Megapixel cameras
will hold 74 CCDs constructed
specifically to be sensitive to
the red shifted light from distant
galaxies and stars. DECam will
have the widest field of view in
the NOAO ground-based
optical/infrared system of
imagers. Its 2.2 degree field of
view is so large that a single
image will record data from an
area of the sky 20 times the
size of the moon as seen from
earth. This wide field of view
requires that DECam use a
system of five lenses, each one
uniquely shaped to correct a
variety of optical aberrations,
with the biggest of these lenses
being almost 1 meter in
diameter.

U

Telescope:
The science of the
Dark Energy Survey requires
the construction of a unique
astronomical instrument able to
meet demanding requirements.
The idea of building an entirely
new system to answer a
specific scientific question is a
relatively new but growing trend
in the field of astronomy. In the
past, most telescopes were
constructed as general-purpose
facilities that might have small
pieces added or undergo slight
modifications to meet different
needs. As told before DECam
will be mounted on the Victor
M. Blanco Telescope, also
known as the Blanco 4m,
located at the Cerro Tolono
Inter-American Observatory
(CTIO) in Chile. CTIO is
located on top of two
mountains in the Chilean
Andes; Cerro Tolono, which is
7,200 feet (2,200 meters) high,
and Cerro Pachon, which is
8,900 feet (2,700 meters)
high. Given below is the above
mentioned telescope.

To give a sense of the
immense scale of the
telescope, compare its size to
the human highlighted by the
red circle. The green circle
indicates the prime focus cage
where the DES imaging
device, DECam, will be
installed. The Blanco is ideally
suited to receive this new
device because it was originally
built to hold a heavy load at this
top end. When it was built,
people rode in the prime focus
cage and took astronomical
pictures using heavy glass
photographic plates. Now,
DECam will be taking pictures
of roughly the same size with
electronic CCD's.

The Data management
System:
Each DECam image is
a gigabyte in size. The Dark
Energy Survey will take about
400 of these extremely large
images per night. This presents
a very high data-collection rate
for an astronomy experiment.
The data are sent via a
microwave link to La Serena.
From there, an optical link
forwards them to the National
Centre for Supercomputer
Applications (NCSA) in Illinois
for storage and reduction.
Reduction consists of standard
image corrections of the raw
CCD information to remove
instrumental signatures and
artefacts and the joining of
these images into 0.5 square
degrees combined images.
Then galaxies and stars in the
images are identified,
catalogued, and finally their
properties measured and
stored in a database.



Other Application:
In addition to its use
for the Dark Energy Survey,
DECam will be a facility
instrument on the Blanco
telescope. This means it will be
available for general use by the
astronomical community,
providing an order of
magnitude increase in reach
over the current Blanco imager,
MOSAIC II. Apart from the
main application of the DEcam,
it can be used for various other
astronomical applications
mainly due to its use of CCDs.
The DEcam can help in
knowing various untouched
areas of the universe and the
other parts of our own galaxy.

The DEcam is not in
regular use and its still in the
development stages. The Dark
Energy Mission was begun by
September 2012 and
continuing for five years, DES
will survey a large swath of the
southern sky out to vast
distances in order to provide
new clues to this most
fundamental of questions
regarding the universe.