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
Muñoz-Darias T
(2007)
Echoes from the companion star in Sco X-1
Dhillon V
(2007)
ULTRACAM: an ultrafast, triple-beam CCD camera for high-speed astrophysics
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Van Den Besselaar E
(2007)
DE Canum Venaticorum: a bright, eclipsing red dwarf-white dwarf binary
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Vuckovic M
(2007)
An old puzzle in a new light: PG 1336-018
in Communications in Asteroseismology
Barros S
(2007)
ULTRACAM photometry of the ultracompact binaries V407 Vul and HM Cnc
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Kurtz D
(2008)
A search for a new class of pulsating DA white dwarf stars in the DB gap A new class of pulsating white dwarf stars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Durant M
(2008)
SWIFT J1753.5-0127: A Surprising Optical/X-Ray Cross-Correlation Function
in The Astrophysical Journal
Gandhi P
(2008)
Rapid optical and X-ray timing observations of GX 339-4: flux correlations at the onset of a low/hard state ?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters