Canon's 8in CMOS sensor to power space telescope

An eight-inch CMOS sensor may be too big for an ordinary camera, but is it enough to power a giant space telescope? Canon Inc. said that the "ultra-large-scale, ultra-high-sensitivity" CMOS sensor it developed in 2010 can be used to capture meteors on video. "Detecting faint meteors with apparent magnitudes greater than 7 has proven difficult using conventional observation technologies, with sightings of meteors with an equivalent apparent magnitude of 10 limited to only 10 per year. However, video recorded using the ultra-large-scale, ultra-high-sensitivity CMOS sensor, combined with the Schmidt telescope, which enables observation across a wide field of view, yielded a one-minute segment during which more meteors with an equivalent apparent magnitude of 10 could be detected than could previously be identified during the span of a year," Canon said in a release posted on PhotographyBay.com. The results of the observations were to be presented at the Astronomical Society of Japan’s autumn 2011 meeting from September 19 to 22 at Kagoshima University in Kyushu, Japan. Canon noted statistical analysis of the video data could lead to an increased understanding of the influence that meteors may have exerted on the development of life on Earth. It noted the sensor video recording in dark conditions with as little as 0.3 lux of illumination. The 202-x-205-mm CMOS sensor, at the heart of video recording across a wide 3.3° x 3.3° field of view of meteors with an equivalent apparent magnitude of 10, was installed in the Schmidt telescope at the University of Tokyo’s Kiso Observatory, Institute of Astronomy, School of Science (Kiso-gun, Nagano prefecture). With a chip size of 202 x 205 mm, the CMOS sensor is about 40 times the size of Canon’s largest commercial CMOS sensor. Space debris, heavenly bodies On the other hand, Canon said the powerful CMOS chip makes possible the detection of an increased number of celestial phenomena in addition to meteors, such as space debris and heavenly bodies moving in the solar system. "Accordingly, the technology is expected to contribute to improved measuring accuracy in determining the position and speed of these objects," it said. — TJD, GMA News