Related papers: OPTIMA: A Photon Counting High-Speed Photometer
Optical observations with high time resolution are essential for understanding the origin of sub-millisecond timescale astronomical phenomena, including giant radio pulses from the Crab Pulsar. We have developed a high-speed imaging system…
The realization of low-cost instruments with high technical performance is a goal which deserves some efforts in an epoch of fast technological developments: indeed such instruments can be easily reproduced and therefore allow to open new…
Astrophysical transient phenomena on sub-millisecond timescales, such as fast radio bursts and giant radio pulses from the Crab pulsar, have been primarily observed in radio wavebands. To investigate their origins, a photon detector with…
We report the design, operation, and performance of a next generation high-speed data acquisition system for multi-channel infrared and optical photometry based on the modern technologies of Field Programmable Gate Arrays, the Peripheral…
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…
A stroboscope designed to observe pulsars in the optical spectrum is presented. The absolute phase of the stroboscope is synchronized to better than 2.5 microseconds with the known radio ephemerides for a given pulsar. The absolute timing…
In the new era of HL-LHC experiments, fast-timing detectors are emerging as critical tools for background rejection. Typical requirements include a temporal hit resolution of about 50 ps, a spatial resolution of around 12 $\mu$m, and…
We have developed a sensor system based on an optical photon-counting imager with high timing resolution, aiming for highly time-variable astronomical phenomena. The detector is a monolithic Geiger-mode avalanche photodiode array customized…
We have developed an optical photon-counting imaging system, IMONY, as an instrument for short-scale time-domain astronomy. In this study, we utilized a Geiger avalanche photodiode array with a $4\times 4$ pixel configuration, with each…
MicroLux is a GPS-based high precision and high speed timing add-on to the Calar Alto Lucky Imaging camera AstraLux. It allows timestamping of individual CCD exposures at frame rates of more than 1 kHz with an accuracy better than one…
We have built and tested a compact, low-cost, but very-high-performance astronomical polarimeter based on a continuously rotating half-wave plate and a high-speed imaging detector. The polarimeter is suitable for small telescopes up to ~1 m…
We describe the design, operation, and performance of a new high-speed infrared photometer using the Solid-State Photomultiplier (SSPM) detector. The SSPM was developed by Rockwell International Science Center and has single-photon counting…
We report the development of a high-time resolution, 3-colour, simultaneous optical imaging system for the 2.1 m telescope in San Pedro M\'artir Observatory, M\'exico. OPTICAM will be equipped with three Andor Zyla 4.2-Plus sCMOS cameras…
We report the first observations of an astronomical object using a superconducting tunnel junction (STJ) device, a pixel detector with intrinsic energy resolution in the optical wavelength range. The Crab pulsar was observed using a 6 times…
The linear polarisation of the Crab pulsar and its close environment was derived from observations with the high-speed photo-polarimeter OPTIMA at the 2.56-m Nordic Optical Telescope in the optical spectral range (400 - 750 nm). Time…
We are developing a compact UV Imager using light weight components, that can be flown on a small CubeSat or a balloon platform. The system has a lens-based optics that can provide an aberration-free image over a wide field of view. The…
We report on the first astronomical observations with a photon counting pixel detector that provides arrival time- (delta t = 100ns) and energy- (delta E_gamma < 0.15eV) resolved measurements from the near IR through the near UV. Our test…
The development of detectors with a high time resolution has been pivotal to our comprehension of neutron stars and the accurate measurement of their properties. While high-time resolution astronomy has become a standard in the radio and…
The poor angular resolution of imaging gamma-ray telescopes is offset by the large reflector areas of next generation telescopes such as MAGIC (17~m diameter), which makes the study of optical emission associated with some gamma-ray sources…
HQM is an optical broad-band photometric monitoring program carried out since Sept.~1988. We use a CCD camera equipped to the MPIA 1.2$\,$m telescope. Fully automatic photometric reduction relative to stars in the frames is done within a…