Dhillon, V.S. orcid.org/0000-0003-4236-9642, Bezawada, N., Black, M. et al. (36 more authors) (2021) HiPERCAM : a quintuple-beam, high-speed optical imager on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 507 (1). pp. 350-366. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
HiPERCAM is a portable, quintuple-beam optical imager that saw first light on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC) in 2018. The instrument uses re-imaging optics and 4 dichroic beamsplitters to record us gs rs is zs (320 − 1060 nm) images simultaneously on its five CCD cameras, each of 3.1 arcmin (diagonal) field of view. The detectors in HiPERCAM are frame-transfer devices cooled thermo-electrically to 183 K, thereby allowing both long-exposure, deep imaging of faint targets, as well as high-speed (over 1000 windowed frames per second) imaging of rapidly varying targets. A comparison-star pick-off system in the telescope focal plane increases the effective field of view to 6.7 arcmin for differential photometry. Combining HiPERCAM with the world’s largest optical telescope enables the detection of astronomical sources to gs ∼ 23 in 1 s and gs ∼ 28 in 1 h. In this paper we describe the scientific motivation behind HiPERCAM, present its design, report on its measured performance, and outline some planned enhancements.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s). This is an author-produced version of a paper subsequently published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | instrumentation: detectors; instrumentation: photometers; techniques: photometric |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Science and Technology Facilities Council ST/R003424/1 Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council 2263443 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 28 Jul 2021 09:42 |
Last Modified: | 09 Mar 2022 12:15 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press (OUP) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/stab2130 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:176606 |