A prime focus camera for the Discovery Channel Telescope

The Discovery Channel Telescope (DCT) is a 4.2 meter telescope that will provide a two degree diameter well-corrected field of view at prime focus with wavelength coverage across the groundbased ultraviolet and optical range. The design of the telescope and the prime focus corrector are described in other papers at this conference. The prime focus of the DCT will be occupied by a CCD camera similar in scope to the SAO Megacam for the MMT, the CFHT MegaCam, and the Kepler focal plane, but with differences in detail. It will be used for a variety of planetary science and astrophysics observing programs, the most demanding technically being searches for near-Earth and Kuiper Belt objects. This paper describes the design requirements, major systems issues, current design, and expected performance of the prime focus camera for the DCT.