4 OmegaCam camera for the VLT Survey Telescope (VST)

OmegaCam is planned as the first instrument for the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) on ESO's Paranal site. It is expected to operate for a period of ten years, and at least during the first 3-5 years of operations of the VST the OmegaCam is foreseen to be the only instrument on this telescope. OmegaCam is a 16,384 $\times$ 16,384 pixel (16k $\times$ 16k) imaging camera which will image a field of 1 square degree of sky.

The instrument is envisaged to execute dedicated observing programmes defined by individual users or teams. About 2/3 of the available observing time will be allocated by ESO's OPC. The remaining time is labeled as guaranteed time for the consortia involved in the construction of the telescope and the camera. Both small dedicated programmes, and bulk wide field sky surveys, are expected.

The VST and OmegaCam are built to provide an observing facility for the purpose of selecting targets for follow-up observations at the VLT, but also to conduct stand-alone observing programmes that require wide-field imaging. The camera and its associated data reduction will facilitate accurate photometry and astrometry over its entire field of view, following the requirements on the VST and its instrumentation. Primary Performance Characteristics for the VST wide-angle CCD camera are laid out in the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between OmegaCam and ESO.

The OmegaCam Consortium consists of: (i) NL - NOVA Kapteyn - PI Prof. K. Kuijken: Observation and calibration scenarios, data reduction. (ii) I - Osservatorio Padua - Dr. E. Cappellaro: Instrument software. (iii) D - Sternwarte München - Prof. R. Bender: Mechanical, electronics (Napoli). (iv) ESO - ODT Dr. O. Iwert: dewar and detectors.

The Dutch (NOVA) part of the consortium is split over two location: Kapteyn Sterrewacht, Groningen and the Leiden Observatory. In Groningen the following people are involved: (i) Dr. E.A. Valentyn - co-I, NOVA programme manager, (ii) Dr. K. Begeman - data reduction- crowded fields and (iii) Drs. D.R. Boxhoorn - data reduction- oodb. In Leiden the following people are involved: (i) Dr. E. Deul - pipeline coordinator, (ii) Dr. P. van der Werf - co-I and (iii) Dr. R. Rengelink - data reduction-pipeline DFS.

The Dutch group is responsible for the Observation and Calibration Scenarios, data reduction and builds on the experience gained in similar projects such as Denis and the ESO Imaging Survey. In Leiden major developmental work is done on the pipeline of data reduction software.