Abstract
The advent of solid-state imaging devices transformed astronomy. Beginning with the introduction into astronomy of charge-coupled devices in 1976, followed a decade later by infrared arrays, astronomers gained access to near-perfect imaging devices. The consequences have been nothing short of revolutionary, perhaps especially so in the infrared. Witness, for example, the spectacular pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope cameras, or the impressive infrared imagery from the 2MASS project. Within the last decade CCD formats deployed or planned for use in ground-based cameras have become huge. Infrared mosaics, stimulated by the Next Generation Space Telescope, are coming soon. In addition, new technologies such as CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductors) and STJs (Superconductiong Tunnel Junctions) are being developed and the future of astronomical detectors looks very exciting, especially in an era of giant telescopes performing at their diffraction-limit.
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References
McLean, I.S., 1997, Electronic Imaging in Astronomy: detectors and instrumentation, Praxis Publishing Ltd., Chichester, UK. [Please note that this book is not out of print but it can no longer be obtained from John Wylie & Sons. Instead, you can go directly to Praxis Publishing at www.praxis-publishing.co.uk/ ]
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McLean, I.S. 1994, Infrared Arrays: the next generation, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Netherlands.
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McLean, I.S. (2004). A Golden Era for Astronomy: The Advent of CCDS and Infrared Arrays. In: Amico, P., Beletic, J.W., Beletic, J.E. (eds) Scientific Detectors for Astronomy. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 300. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2527-0_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-2527-0_1
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