We present the characteristics and some early scientific results of the firstinstrument at the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT), the Large Binocular Camera(LBC). Each LBT telescope unit will be equipped with similar prime focuscameras. The blue channel is optimized for imaging in the UV-B bands and thered channel for imaging in the VRIz bands. The corrected field-of-view of eachcamera is approximately 30 arcminutes in diameter, and the chip area isequivalent to a 23x23 arcmin2 field. In this paper we also present thecommissioning results of the blue channel. The scientific and technicalperformance of the blue channel was assessed by measurement of the astrometricdistortion, flat fielding, ghosts, and photometric calibrations. Thesemeasurements were then used as input to a data reduction pipeline applied toscience commissioning data. The measurements completed during commissioningshow that the technical performance of the blue channel is in agreement withoriginal expectations. Since the red camera is very similar to the blue one weexpect similar performance from the commissioning that will be performed in thefollowing months in binocular configuration. Using deep UV image, acquiredduring the commissioning of the blue camera, we derived faint UV galaxy-countsin a ~500 sq. arcmin. sky area to U(Vega)=26.5. These galaxy counts imply thatthe blue camera is the most powerful UV imager presently available and in thenear future in terms of depth and extent of the field-of-view. We emphasize thepotential of the blue camera to increase the robustness of the UGR multicolourselection of Lyman break galaxies at redshift z~3.
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