Argos: An optimized time-series photometer

Abstract

We designed a prime focus CCD photometer, Argos, optimized for high speed time-series measurements of blue variables (Nather & Mukadam 2004) for the 2.1 m telescope at McDonald Observatory. Lack of any intervening optics between the primary mirror and the CCD makes the instrument highly efficient. We measure an improvement in sensitivity by a factor of nine over the 3-channel PMT photometers used on the same telescope and for the same exposure time. The CCD frame transfer operation triggered by GPS synchronized pulses serves as an electronic shutter for the photometer. This minimizes the dead time between exposures, but more importantly, allows a precise control of the start and duration of the exposure. We expect the uncertainty in our timing to be less than 100μs.