High-speed SALT instrument CCD detectors

SALT, the Southern African Large Telescope, is a 10-m class telescope presently under construction and designed along the lines of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at McDonald Observatory in West Texas. The two first light instruments are a simple science imager, SALTICAM, which also doubles as the telescope acquisition camera, and a low resolution spectrometer, the Prime Focus Imaging Spectrograph (PFIS). The detector packages for both instruments, which are being supplied by the South African Astronomical Observatory, will have the capability of readout of a sub-array with a frequency of up to 10 Hz. This is not available on most 8-10 in class telescopes and enables deeper exploration of high-time resolution parameter space. This paper will describe general features of the detector packages, emphasizing the high speed capability, and also touching on the kind of science which is envisaged.