HiPERCAM: a quintuple-beam, high-speed optical imager on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias

Dhillon, VS; Bezawada, N; Black, M; Dixon, SD; Gamble, T; Gao, X; Henry, DM; Kerry, P; Littlefair, SP; Lunney, DW; Marsh, TR; Miller, C; Parsons, SG; Ashley, RP; Breedt, E; Brown, A; Dyer, MJ; Green, MJ; Pelisoli, I; Sahman, DI; Wild, J; Ives, DJ; Mehrgan, L; Stegmeier, J; Dubbeldam, CM; Morris, TJ; Osborn, J; Wilson, RW; Casares, J; Muñoz-Darias, T; Pallé, E; Rodríguez-Gil, P; Shahbaz, T; Torres, MAP; de Ugarte Postigo, A; Cabrera-Lavers, A; Corradi, RLM; Domínguez, RD; García-Alvarez, D

doi:10.1093/mnras/stab2130

HiPERCAM: a quintuple-beam, high-speed optical imager on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias

Dhillon, VS; Bezawada, N; Black, M; Dixon, SD; Gamble, T; Gao, X; Henry, DM; Kerry, P; Littlefair, SP; Lunney, DW; Marsh, TR; Miller, C; Parsons, SG; Ashley, RP; Breedt, E; Brown, A; Dyer, MJ; Green, MJ; Pelisoli, I; Sahman, DI; Wild, J; Ives, DJ; Mehrgan, L; Stegmeier, J; Dubbeldam, CM; Morris, TJ; Osborn, J; Wilson, RW; Casares, J; Muñoz-Darias, T; Pallé, E; Rodríguez-Gil, P; Shahbaz, T; Torres, MAP; de Ugarte Postigo, A; Cabrera-Lavers, A; Corradi, RLM; Domínguez, RD; García-Alvarez, D

Authors

VS Dhillon

N Bezawada

M Black

SD Dixon

T Gamble

X Gao

DM Henry

P Kerry

SP Littlefair

DW Lunney

TR Marsh

C Miller

SG Parsons

RP Ashley

E Breedt

A Brown

MJ Dyer

MJ Green

I Pelisoli

DI Sahman

J Wild

DJ Ives

L Mehrgan

J Stegmeier

CM Dubbeldam

TJ Morris

Dr James Osborn james.osborn@durham.ac.uk
Associate Professor

RW Wilson

J Casares

T Muñoz-Darias

E Pallé

P Rodríguez-Gil

T Shahbaz

MAP Torres

A de Ugarte Postigo

A Cabrera-Lavers

RLM Corradi

RD Domínguez

D García-Alvarez

Abstract

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 four dichroic beamsplitters to record usgsrsiszs (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 gs ∼ 23 in 1 s and gs ∼ 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.

Citation

Dhillon, V., Bezawada, N., Black, M., Dixon, S., Gamble, T., Gao, X., …García-Alvarez, D. (2021). HiPERCAM: a quintuple-beam, high-speed optical imager on the 10.4-m Gran Telescopio Canarias. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 507(1), 350-366. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab2130

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Jul 20, 2021
Online Publication Date	Jul 26, 2021
Publication Date	2021-10
Deposit Date	Nov 6, 2021
Publicly Available Date	Nov 16, 2021
Journal	Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Print ISSN	0035-8711
Electronic ISSN	1365-2966
Publisher	Royal Astronomical Society
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	507
Issue	1
Pages	350-366
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab2130

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This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ©: 2021 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.