Vacuum-UV testing of CMOS sensors being developed for CASTOR*

CASTOR is the acronym for the Cosmological Advanced Survey Telescope for Optical and UV Research, a planned mission led by the Canadian Space Agency and the National Research Council of Canada. It will offer a similar resolution to the Hubble Space Telescope, but with a field of view about 100 times as large. Through simultaneous observations in the UV, blue, and green optical bands, CASTOR will carry out a program of legacy surveys, guest observer programs, and target-of-opportunity science, with research objectives including cosmology, time-domain/multi-messenger astronomy, active galactic nuclei, galaxies, near-field cosmology, stellar astrophysics, exploplanets, and solar system studies. This talk will focus on UCalgary's contribution in characterizing the performance of CASTOR's UV imaging sensors over the 115 to 200nm spectral region, and will provide an overview of the high vacuum cleanroom facility where this work is being carried out. It will include a discussion of the hardware and conditions necessary to carry out testing of astronomical instruments meant for this range of the electromagnetic spectrum.