The superiority of L3‐CCDs in the high‐flux and wide dynamic range regimes

Low Light Level CCD (L3‐CCD) cameras have received much attention for high cadence astronomical imaging applications. Efforts to date have concentrated on exploiting them for two scenarios: post‐exposure image sharpening and “lucky imaging”, and rapid variability in astrophysically interesting sources. We demonstrate their marked superiority in a third distinct scenario: observing in the high‐flux and wide dynamic range regimes. We realized that the unique features of L3‐CCDs would make them ideal for maximizing signal‐to‐noise in observations of bright objects (whether variable or not), and for high dynamic range scenarios such as faint targets embedded in a crowded field of bright objects. Conventional CCDs have drawbacks in such regimes, due to a poor duty cycle—the combination of short exposure times (for time‐series sampling or to avoid saturation) and extended readout times (for minimizing readout noise). For different telescope sizes, we use detailed models to show that a range of conventional imag...