OPTICAM: A triple-camera optical system designed to explore the fastest timescales in Astronomy

Abstract

We report the development of a high-time resolution, 3-colour, simultaneous optical imaging system for the 2.1 m telescope in San Pedro Mártir Observatory, México. OPTICAM will be equipped with three Andor Zyla 4.2-Plus sCMOS cameras and a set of SDSS filters allowing optical coverage in the 320-1,100 nm range. OPTICAM will nominally allow sub-second exposures. Given its instrumental design, a wide range of fast-variability astrophysical sources can be targeted with OPTICAM including X-ray binaries, pulsating white dwarfs, accreting compact objects, eclipsing binaries and exoplanets. OPTICAM observations will be proprietary for only six months and will then be made publicly available for the astronomical community.

Rev. Mex A. A. accepted manuscript, 20 pages, 11 figures

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• A quasi-periodic modulation of the iron line centroid energy in the black hole binary H 1743-322
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• Rapid optical and X-ray timing observations of GX 339-4: multi-component optical variability in the low/hard state
• Instrumentation for the detection and characterization of exoplanets
• The planets around NN Ser: still there
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• Gaia DR2 Distances and Peculiar Velocities for Galactic Black Hole Transients
• Black hole spin measurements through the relativistic precession model: XTE J1550-564
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• Rapid optical and X-ray timing observations of GX 339-4: flux correlations at the onset of a low/hard state
• A brown dwarf mass donor in an accreting binary
• Twelve years of X-ray and optical variability in the Seyfert galaxy NGC 4051
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• Detection of the first infra-red quasi periodic oscillation in a black hole X-ray binary
• SWIFT J1753.5-0127: a surprising optical/X-ray cross-correlation function
• Timing the warm absorber in NGC 4051
• X-ray and radio variability in the low luminosity Active Galactic Nucleus NGC 7213
• Broad-band spectrophotometry of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-12b from the near-UV to the near-IR
• Correlated X-ray/Ultraviolet/Optical variability in the very low mass AGN NGC 4395
• The Origin of UV-optical Variability in AGN and Test of Disc Models: XMM-Newton and ground based observations of NGC4395
• A jet model for the fast IR variability of the black hole X-ray binary GX 339-4
• An irradiated brown-dwarf companion to an accreting white dwarf
• Timing variations in the secondary eclipse of NN Ser
• High-Speed Photometry of Gaia14aae: An Eclipsing AM CVn That Challenges Formation Models
• Discovery of Fourier-dependent time lags in cataclysmic variables
• Regaining the FORS: optical ground-based transmission spectroscopy of the exoplanet WASP-19b with VLT+FORS2
• Expanding hot flow in the black hole binary SWIFT J1753.5-0127: evidence from optical timing
• Resolving different sources of fast X-ray variability of the dwarf nova RU Peg in quiescence
• Using Gaussian processes to model light curves in the presence of flickering: the eclipsing cataclysmic variable ASASSN-14ag
• Time-resolved photometry and spectroscopy of the new deeply-eclipsing SW Sextantis star HS 0728+6738
• Night sky brightness at San Pedro Martir Observatory
• Optical and X-ray Correlations During the 2015 Outburst of the Black Hole V404 Cyg
• Puzzling Blue Dips in the Black Hole Candidate Swift J1357.2-0933, from ULTRACAM, SALT, ATCA, Swift and NuSTAR
• An accurate centroid algorithm for PSF reconstruction
• Astroclimate at San Pedro Mártir I: 2004-2008 Seeing Statistics from the TMT Site Testing Data
• A VLT-ULTRACAM study of the fast optical quasi-periodic oscillations in the polar V834 Centauri
• Multi-filter transit observations of HAT-P-3b and TrES-3b with multiple Northern Hemisphere telescopes
• An estimate of the temporal fraction of cloud cover at San Pedro Mártir Observatory

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Large-scale changes of the cloud coverage in the $\epsilon$ Indi Ba,Bb system
• DW Cnc: a micronova with a negative superhump and a flickering spin
• Bridging the Gap: OPTICAM Reveals the Hidden Spin of the WZ Sge Star GOTO 065054.49+593624.51
• Light curve fingerprints: an automated approach to the extraction of X-ray variability patterns with feature aggregation -- an example application to GRS 1915+105