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
Gandhi P
(2009)
THE FLUX-DEPENDENT RMS VARIABILITY OF X-RAY BINARIES IN THE OPTICAL
in The Astrophysical Journal
Nieder L
(2019)
Detection and Timing of Gamma-Ray Pulsations from the 707 Hz Pulsar J0952-0607
in The Astrophysical Journal
Burdge K
(2020)
A Systematic Search of Zwicky Transient Facility Data for Ultracompact Binary LISA-detectable Gravitational-wave Sources
in The Astrophysical Journal
Nieder L
(2020)
Discovery of a Gamma-Ray Black Widow Pulsar by GPU-accelerated Einstein@Home
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Littlefair S
(2006)
Observations of Ultracool dwarfs with ULTRACAM on the VLT: a search for weather
Copperwheat C
(2008)
ULTRACAM observations of two accreting white dwarf pulsators
Besselaar E
(2007)
DE CVn: A bright, eclipsing red dwarf - white dwarf binary