| Affiliation: | (1) Gemini Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hi, USA;(2) W. M. Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea, Hi, USA;(3) European Southern Observatory, Garching near Munich, Germany;(4) Anglo Australian Observatory, Eastwood, Australia;(5) Stanford/SLAC, Menlo Park, CA, USA;(6) Calar Alto Observatory, Almeria, Spain;(7) University of British Colombia, Vancouver, BC, Canada;(8) National Optical Astronomy Observatory, Tucson, AZ, USA;(9) GranTeCan/Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain;(10) University of Texas, Austin, TX, USA;(11) Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia;(12) Subaru Telescope, Hilo, HI, USA;(13) South African Astronimical Observatory, Sutherland, South Africa;(14) INAF/ Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, La Palma, Spain;(15) Canada France Hawaii Telescope, Mauna Kea, HI, USA;(16) National Astronomical Observatories, CAS, Bejing, China;(17) ISAAC Newton Group/Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, La Palma, Spain;(18) Large Binocular Telescope Observatory, Tucson, AZ, USA;(19) Lowell Observatory, Flagstaff, AZ, USA;(20) WIYN Observatory, Tucson, AZ, USA |
| Abstract: | Results of a survey of instrumentation and detector systems, either currently deployed or planned for use at telescopes larger than 3.5 m, in ground based observatories world-wide, are presented. This survey revealed a number of instrumentation design trends at optical, near, and mid-infrared wavelengths. Some of the most prominent trends include the development of vastly larger optical detector systems (> 109 pixels) than anything built to date, and the frequent use of mosaics of near-infrared detectors – something that was quite rare only a decade ago in astronomy. Some future science applications for detectors are then explored, in an attempt to build a bridge between current detectors and what will be needed to support the research ambitions of astronomers in the future. |
