Puoko-nui: a flexible high-speed photometric system
Abstract
We describe a portable CCD-based instrumentation system designed to efficiently undertake high time precision fast photometry. The key components of the system are (1) an externally triggered commercial frame-transfer CCD, (2) a custom Global Positioning System-derived time source and (3) flexible software for both instrument control and online analysis/display. Two working instruments that implement this design are described. The New Zealand-based instrument employs a Princeton Instruments (PI) 1k × 1k CCD and has been used with the 1 m telescope at Mt John University Observatory, while the other uses a newer 1k × 1k electron-multiplying CCD supplied by PI and is based at the University of Texas at Austin. We include some recent observations that illustrate the capabilities of the instruments.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- May 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/stu348
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1412.5724
- Bibcode:
- 2014MNRAS.440.1490C
- Keywords:
-
- instrumentation: photometers;
- methods: data analysis;
- white dwarfs;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables