Image acquisition system for the Italian panoramic monochromator of the THEMIS telescope

The authors describe the image acquisition system of the italian panoramic monochromator which will be in operation at the focus F2 of the THEMIS solar telescope to acquire images of the Sun in the visible spectrum (between 420 and 700 nm) with a spectral resolving power of about 300 000. The system consists of two CCD cameras (using either 512 x 512 or 1024 x 1024 square-pixel sensors) controlled and readout by dedicated electronics and a personal computer. The data transmission between the sensors and the computer is performed by means of an optical link