Abstract
A high-speed photo-polarimeter, “OPTIMA” short for Optical Pulsar Timing Analyzer, has been designed and developed in the group for gamma-ray astronomy of the Max-Planck-Institut für Extraterrestrische Physik. This sensitive, portable detector is used to observe optical emissions of sources that radiate mainly at X- and gamma-ray energies, like pulsars and other highly variable compact sources. The single photon counting instrument is based on fiber fed avalanche photodiodes (APDs), a GPS timing receiver,a CCD camera for target acquisition and a stand-alone data acquisition and control system. Several configurations are available: for photometry a hexagonal bundle with seven channels and one fiber offset for sky background monitoring; for polarimetry a rotating polarization filter in front of the photometer or a newly developed 4-channel double Wollaston system; and for coarse spectroscopy a 4-colour prism spectrograph.
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Kanbach, G. et al. (2008). OPTIMA: A High Time Resolution Optical Photo-Polarimeter. In: Phelan, D., Ryan, O., Shearer, A. (eds) High Time Resolution Astrophysics. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 351. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6518-7_8
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