HiPERCAM: a quintuple-beam, high-speed optical imager on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias. (arXiv:2107.10124v1 [astro-ph.IM])
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Dhillon_V/0/1/0/all/0/1">V. S. Dhillon</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Bezawada_N/0/1/0/all/0/1">N. Bezawada</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Black_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. Black</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Dixon_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">S. D. Dixon</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Gamble_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">T. Gamble</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Gao_X/0/1/0/all/0/1">X. Gao</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Henry_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. M. Henry</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Kerry_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">P. Kerry</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Littlefair_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">S. P. Littlefair</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Lunney_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. W. Lunney</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Marsh_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">T. R. Marsh</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Miller_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">C. Miller</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Parsons_S/0/1/0/all/0/1">S. G. Parsons</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Ashley_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. P. Ashley</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Breedt_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">E. Breedt</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Brown_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A. Brown</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Dyer_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. J. Dyer</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Green_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. J. Green</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Pelisoli_I/0/1/0/all/0/1">I. Pelisoli</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Sahman_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. I. Sahman</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Wild_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Wild</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Ives_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. J. Ives</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Mehrgan_L/0/1/0/all/0/1">L. Mehrgan</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Stegmeier_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Stegmeier</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Dubbeldam_C/0/1/0/all/0/1">C. M. Dubbeldam</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Morris_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">T. J. Morris</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Osborn_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Osborn</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Wilson_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. W. Wilson</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Casares_J/0/1/0/all/0/1">J. Casares</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Munoz_Darias_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">T. Muñoz-Darias</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Palle_E/0/1/0/all/0/1">E. Pallé</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Rodriguez_Gil_P/0/1/0/all/0/1">P. Rodríguez-Gil</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Shahbaz_T/0/1/0/all/0/1">T. Shahbaz</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Torres_M/0/1/0/all/0/1">M. A. P. Torres</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Postigo_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A. de Ugarte Postigo</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Cabrera_Lavers_A/0/1/0/all/0/1">A. Cabrera-Lavers</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Corradi_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. L. M. Corradi</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Dominguez_R/0/1/0/all/0/1">R. D. Domínguez</a>, <a href="http://arxiv.org/find/astro-ph/1/au:+Garcia_Alvarez_D/0/1/0/all/0/1">D. García-Alvarez</a>
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 $u_s g_s r_s i_s z_s$
($320-1060$ nm) images simultaneously on its five CCD cameras, each of 3.1
arcmin (diagonal) field of view. The detectors in HiPERCAM are frame-transfer
devices cooled thermo-electrically to 183 K, thereby allowing both
long-exposure, deep imaging of faint targets, as well as high-speed (over 1000
windowed frames per second) imaging of rapidly varying targets. A
comparison-star pick-off system in the telescope focal plane increases the
effective field of view to 6.7 arcmin for differential photometry. Combining
HiPERCAM with the world’s largest optical telescope enables the detection of
astronomical sources to $g_s sim 23$ in 1 s and $g_s sim 28$ in 1 h. In this
paper we describe the scientific motivation behind HiPERCAM, present its
design, report on its measured performance, and outline some planned
enhancements.
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 $u_s g_s r_s i_s z_s$
($320-1060$ nm) images simultaneously on its five CCD cameras, each of 3.1
arcmin (diagonal) field of view. The detectors in HiPERCAM are frame-transfer
devices cooled thermo-electrically to 183 K, thereby allowing both
long-exposure, deep imaging of faint targets, as well as high-speed (over 1000
windowed frames per second) imaging of rapidly varying targets. A
comparison-star pick-off system in the telescope focal plane increases the
effective field of view to 6.7 arcmin for differential photometry. Combining
HiPERCAM with the world’s largest optical telescope enables the detection of
astronomical sources to $g_s sim 23$ in 1 s and $g_s sim 28$ in 1 h. In this
paper we describe the scientific motivation behind HiPERCAM, present its
design, report on its measured performance, and outline some planned
enhancements.
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