ULTRACAM: an ultra-fast, triple-beam CCD camera for high-speed astrophysics

Abstract

ULTRACAM is a portable, high-speed imaging photometer designed to study faint astronomical objects at high temporal resolutions. ULTRACAM employs two dichroic beamsplitters and three frame-transfer CCD cameras to provide three-colour optical imaging at frame rates of up to 500 Hz. The instrument has been mounted on both the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope on La Palma and the 8.2-m Very Large Telescope in Chile, and has been used to study white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, pulsars, black-hole/neutron-star X-ray binaries, gamma-ray bursts, cataclysmic variables, eclipsing binary stars, extrasolar planets, flare stars, ultra-compact binaries, active galactic nuclei, asteroseismology and occultations by Solar System objects (Titan, Pluto and Kuiper Belt objects). In this paper we describe the scientific motivation behind ULTRACAM, present an outline of its design and report on its measured performance.

arXiv comment17 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (21)

• First science with SALT: peering at the accreting polar caps of the eclipsing polar SDSS J015543.40+002807.2
• Detection of a period decrease in NN Ser with ULTRACAM: evidence for strong magnetic braking or an unseen companion?
• Sub-electron read noise at MHz pixel rates
• A brown dwarf mass donor in an accreting binary
• Discovery of Five Very Low Mass Close Binaries, Resolved in the Visible with Lucky Imaging
• The periodic variations of a white-light flare observed with ULTRACAM
• Diffraction-limited 800nm imaging with the 2.56m Nordic Optical Telescope
• High Speed photometry of faint Cataclysmic Variables: I. V359 Cen, XZ Eri, HY Lup, V351 Pup, V630 Sgr, YY Tel, CQ Vel, CE-315
• High-speed, multi-colour optical photometry of the anomalous X-ray pulsar 4U 0142+61 with ULTRACAM
• Fast Photometry of Quiescent Soft X-ray Transients with the Gemini-South Acquisition Camera
• ULTRACAM photometry of the eclipsing cataclysmic variables XZ Eri and DV UMa
• RX J2130.6+4710 - an eclipsing white dwarf - M-dwarf binary star
• ULTRACAM Photometry of the ultracompact binaries V407 Vul and HM Cnc
• ULTRACAM observations of the black hole X-ray transient XTE J1118+480 in quiescence
• A double-frequency dwarf nova oscillation
• Observations of Ultracool dwarfs with ULTRACAM on the VLT: a search for weather
• A search for optical bursts from the rotating radio transient J1819-1458 with ULTRACAM
• Crab Pulsar Photometry and the Signature of Free Precession
• Keck II spectroscopy of mHz quasi-periodic oscillations in Hercules X-1
• CCD based phase resolved stroboscopic photometry of pulsars
• Multiband Echo Tomography of Sco X-1

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