Sheffield: High-Speed Camera Captures Movies of Space

[bystander]

Revolutionary High-Speed Camera Captures Movies of Space on World's Largest Telescope
University of Sheffield, GB | 2018 Apr 02

First light with HiPERCAM - the spiral galaxy NGC 4800, which lies at a distance of 80 million light years

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A new camera which can take more than 1,000 images per second and will revolutionise scientists’ understanding of stars and black holes has gone live on the world’s largest optical telescope.

HiPERCAM will take high-speed images of objects in the Universe, allowing their rapid brightness variations - due to phenomena such as eclipses and explosions - to be studied in unprecedented detail.

Data captured by the camera, taken in five different colours simultaneously, will let scientists study the remnants of dead stars such as white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.

These are key objects within astrophysics as their extreme gravities, densities and pressures allow researchers to test theories of fundamental physics, such as general relativity and quantum mechanics.

By observing objects in our Solar System pass in front of background stars, HiPERCAM will also teach scientists about the sizes and shapes of the minor planets beyond Pluto’s orbit, and whether or not they possess atmospheres, rings and satellites. ...

[Chris Peterson]

Revolutionary High-Speed Camera Captures Movies of Space on World's Largest Telescope
University of Sheffield, GB | 2018 Apr 02

First light with HiPERCAM - the spiral galaxy NGC 4800, which lies at a distance of 80 million light years

---

A new camera which can take more than 1,000 images per second and will revolutionise scientists’ understanding of stars and black holes has gone live on the world’s largest optical telescope.

HiPERCAM will take high-speed images of objects in the Universe, allowing their rapid brightness variations - due to phenomena such as eclipses and explosions - to be studied in unprecedented detail.

Data captured by the camera, taken in five different colours simultaneously, will let scientists study the remnants of dead stars such as white dwarfs, neutron stars and black holes.

These are key objects within astrophysics as their extreme gravities, densities and pressures allow researchers to test theories of fundamental physics, such as general relativity and quantum mechanics.

By observing objects in our Solar System pass in front of background stars, HiPERCAM will also teach scientists about the sizes and shapes of the minor planets beyond Pluto’s orbit, and whether or not they possess atmospheres, rings and satellites. ...

Signal-to-noise is determined primarily by the number of photons collected. To image astronomical objects at millisecond exposures is only possible with very large telescopes. Good cameras already record close to 100% of the photons they collect (even amateur cameras). The only way to get improvements beyond that is to collect more photons, and the only way to do that is to increase aperture.