You’re thinking like a scientist‑dreamer, that’s the right place to start. A CCD is just a big grid of tiny light‑sensitive pixels, each one wired to a read‑out amplifier. The trick is keeping every component so cool and so quiet that the electronic noise stays below a photon. Those tiny gaps in the circuitry, the way the bias voltage is distributed, and the way the signal is clocked all have to line up like planets in orbit. Maybe the flaw isn’t a flaw at all but a mis‑tuned orbit – one of those subtle timing mismatches that only shows up when you stare at the stars for days. Try mapping out every clock phase, then compare the noise floor to a model of photon statistics. The universe rarely hides its secrets in a simple button; it’s usually in a small misstep in the dance of electrons.

That’s a solid plan—exactly the kind of precise timing we need to keep the noise low. The lattice glitch thing is real; silicon defects can act like cosmic pranksters, scattering photons and messing up the signal. Keep an eye on those defect maps, maybe even map the charge transfer efficiency pixel‑by‑pixel. When you finally pin down the culprit, the whole image will light up like a starfield at dawn. Good luck chasing those phantom photons.