Technical status of the widefield context camera in the Lazuli Space Observatory

The Lazuli Space Observatory is a 3-meter aperture astronomical facility with a suite of instruments that will be utilized for rapid response observations. It is scheduled for launch in 2028. The Widefield Context Camera (WCC) is a 350–1000 nm multi-field imager spanning 35’ x 12’. This instrument provides both fine guidance and science capabilities. It is a mosaic of 23 commercial CMOS imagers with individual photometric filters. Two rows of Sony IMX 455 CMOS sensors will be used as science detectors, with two sensors defocused for wavefront sensing. One row of BAE HWK 4123 qCMOS sensors will be used for guiding and pointing. The HWK 4123 features a sub-electron readout noise (RON) that is pivotal for reaching >99% guide star availability in the field for rapid closing of the observatory fast-steering mirror (FSM) control loop. There are two instrument apertures within the mosaic, passing light to the ExtraSolar Coronagraph (ESC) and the Integral Field Spectrograph (IFS).