ULTRACAM operations
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
ULTRACAM is a digital camera capable of taking (and storing) up to 500 red, green and blue images per second. The instrument was built in just under 3 years by a consortium from the Universities of Sheffield, Warwick and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh, using a £300,000 grant awarded by PPARC. ULTRACAM saw 'first light' on 16 May 2002 on the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) on La Palma, and first light on the 8.2-m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile on 4 May 2005. To date, ULTRACAM has been awarded a total of 92 nights of time on these telescopes for projects as varied as white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, asteroseismology, pulsars, black-hole/neutron-star X-ray binaries, eclipsing binary stars, gamma-ray bursts, cataclysmic variables, extrasolar planets, active galactic nuclei, Kuiper Belt objects and Saturn's moon Titan. This grant proposal requests funding for the proper maintenance and operation of ULTRACAM, as well as a modest programme of minor upgrades, thereby ensuring that ULTRACAM maintains its position as the world's premier instrument for high-speed optical astrophysics. As well as maximising the return on PPARC's original investment, this money will also allow us to continue to offer ULTRACAM to others in the UK and astronomical community who wish to use it.
Organisations
Publications
Zalucha A
(2007)
The 2003 November 14 occultation by Titan of TYC 1343-1865-1
in Icarus
Unda-Sanzana E
(2009)
The not-so-extreme white dwarf of the CV GD 552
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Aerts C
(2006)
High-speed colourimetry of the subdwarf B star SDSS J171722.08+58055.8 with ULTRACAM
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Föhring D
(2019)
Atmospheric scintillation noise in ground-based exoplanet photometry
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hynes R
(2019)
Optical and X-ray correlations during the 2015 outburst of the black hole V404 Cyg
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Munoz-Darias T
(2007)
Echoes from the companion star in Sco X-1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Casewell S
(2020)
WD1032 + 011, an inflated brown dwarf in an old eclipsing binary with a white dwarf
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Barros S
(2007)
ULTRACAM photometry of the ultracompact binaries V407 Vul and HM Cnc
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Littlefair S
(2008)
On the evolutionary status of short-period cataclysmic variables
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Clark C
(2021)
Einstein@Home discovery of the gamma-ray millisecond pulsar PSR J2039-5617 confirms its predicted redback nature
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society