Iqueye, a single photon-counting photometer applied to the ESO new technology telescope
Giampiero Naletto
(1)
,
Cesare Barbieri
(1)
,
T. Occhipinti
(1)
,
I. Capraro
(1)
,
Andrea Di Paola
(2)
,
C. Facchinetti
(3)
,
E. Verroi
(1)
,
P. Zoccarato
(1)
,
G. Anzolin
(4)
,
M. Belluso
(5)
,
S. Billotta
(5)
,
P. Bolli
(6)
,
G. Bonanno
(5)
,
Vania da Deppo
(7)
,
Sonia Fornasier
(8, 9)
,
C. Germanà
(1)
,
Enrico Giro
(10)
,
Simone Marchi
(1)
,
F. Messina
(6)
,
C. Pernechele
(6)
,
F. Tamburini
(1)
,
Mirco Zaccariotto
(1)
,
L. Zampieri
(10)
1
Unipd -
Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua
2 INAF-OAR - INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma
3 Italian Space Agency
4 ICFO - Institute of Photonic, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
5 INAF-OACt - INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania
6 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari
7 CNR-INFM Luxor
8 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
9 Pôle Planétologie du LESIA
10 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
2 INAF-OAR - INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma
3 Italian Space Agency
4 ICFO - Institute of Photonic, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
5 INAF-OACt - INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania
6 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari
7 CNR-INFM Luxor
8 LESIA - Laboratoire d'études spatiales et d'instrumentation en astrophysique
9 Pôle Planétologie du LESIA
10 INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova
Résumé
Context: A new extremely high speed photon-counting photometer, Iqueye, has been installed and tested at the New Technology Telescope, in La Silla.
Aims: This instrument is the second prototype of a ``quantum'' photometer being developed for future Extremely Large Telescopes of 30-50 m aperture.
Methods: Iqueye divides the telescope aperture into four portions, each feeding a single photon avalanche diode. The counts from the four channels are collected by a time-to-digital converter board, where each photon is appropriately time-tagged. Owing to a rubidium oscillator and a GPS receiver, an absolute rms timing accuracy better than 0.5 ns during one-hour observations is achieved. The system can sustain a count rate of up to 8 MHz uninterruptedly for an entire night of observation.
Results: During five nights of observations, the system performed smoothly, and the observations of optical pulsar calibration targets provided excellent results.
Aims: This instrument is the second prototype of a ``quantum'' photometer being developed for future Extremely Large Telescopes of 30-50 m aperture.
Methods: Iqueye divides the telescope aperture into four portions, each feeding a single photon avalanche diode. The counts from the four channels are collected by a time-to-digital converter board, where each photon is appropriately time-tagged. Owing to a rubidium oscillator and a GPS receiver, an absolute rms timing accuracy better than 0.5 ns during one-hour observations is achieved. The system can sustain a count rate of up to 8 MHz uninterruptedly for an entire night of observation.
Results: During five nights of observations, the system performed smoothly, and the observations of optical pulsar calibration targets provided excellent results.