Related papers: OPTIMA: A Photon Counting High-Speed Photometer

The Crab nebula and its pulsar have been observed for about 3 hours with the high-speed photo-polarimeter OPTIMA in January 2002 at the Calar Alto 3.5m telescope. The Crab pulsar intensity and polarization are determined at all phases of…

Precision photometric calibration is key to a number of astrophysical research areas such as supernova cosmology and dark energy studies. In the age of large surveys, pushing the limits of photometry is a worthy challenge, with traditional…

Aims. We describe a pilot study to explore a new generation of fast and low noise CMOS image sensors for time domain astronomy, using two remote telescopes with a baseline of 1800 km. Methods. Direct imaging with novel qCMOS image sensor…

We propose a novel approach to the important fundamental problem of detecting weak optical fields at the few photon level. The ability to detect with high efficiency (>99%), and to distinguish the number of photons in a given time interval…

Very little work has been done searching for astrophysical transient optical emission in the millisecond to nanosecond regime with significant sensitivity. We call this regime "Ultra-Fast Astronomy", or UFA. To investigate transients on as…

The paper presents a system for measuring photon statistics and photon timing in the few-photon regime down to the single-photon level. The measurement system is based on superconducting nanowire single photon detectors and a…

We have constructed an optical photometer with microsecond time resolution, which is currently being operated on one of the H.E.S.S. telescopes. H.E.S.S. is an array of four Cherenkov telescopes, each with a 107 m^2 mirror, located in the…

We propose an object detection algorithm which is efficient and fast enough to be used in (almost) real time with the limited computer capacities onboard satellites. For stars below the saturation limit of the CCD detectors it is based on a…

We present a new automatic tool for time-domain astronomy - the Cambridge Photometric Calibration Server 2.0 - developed under OPTICON H2020 programme. It has been designed to respond to the need of automated rapid photometric data…

The Visible Light Photon Counter (VLPC) features high quantum efficiency and low pulse height dispersion. These properties make it ideal for efficient photon number state detection. The ability to perform efficient photon number state…

A plug-and-play PhotonPix single-photon detector with a logical signal output is developed for applications requiring ultimate timing precision down to 10 ps over a wide dynamic photon flux range. The heart of the detector is an Exosens…

We describe a simple technique to both amplify incident photons and compress their angular x area phase space. These Optical Compressor Amplifier Tubes (OCA Tube) use techniques analogous to image intensifiers, using vacuum photocathodes to…

A novel and simple approach to optical wavelength measurement is presented in this paper. The working principle is demonstrated using a tunable waveguide micro ring resonator and single photodiode. The initial calibration is done with a set…

We have developed a photon counting detector system for combined neutron and gamma radiography which can determine position, time and intensity of a secondary photon flash created by a high-energy particle or photon within a scintillator…

The tip-tilt correction system at the Infrared Optical Telescope Array (IOTA) has been upgraded with a new star tracker camera. The camera features a backside-illuminated CCD chip offering doubled overall quantum efficiency and a four times…

We present a stroboscopic system developed for optical observations of pulsars and its application in the CLYPOS survey. The stroboscopic device is connected to a GPS clock and provides absolute timing to the stroboscopic shutter relative…

Photometric calibration is essential to many computer vision applications. One of its key benefits is enhancing the performance of Visual SLAM, especially when it depends on a direct method for tracking, such as the standard KLT algorithm.…

The EPIC pn CCD camera on board of XMM-Newton is designed to perform high throughput imaging and spectroscopy as well as high resolution timing observations in the energy range of 0.1-15 keV. A temporal resolution of milliseconds or…

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 $u_s g_s r_s i_s z_s$ ($320-1060$…

Fast variability of optical objects is an interesting though poorly explored subject in modern astronomy. Real-time data processing and identification of transient celestial events in the images is very important for such study as it allows…