Wide Field Survey for Sub-Second Optical Variability

Abstract

An Andor Ixon+EMCCD was used to monitor stellar variability and search, in the optical, for transient astronomical events at high time resolution (<1 sec) over a relatively large (9‐degree) area of sky. A monitoring program, which targeted a 9‐degree field in Lyra, was conducted during July 2006. The detector was equipped with a wide‐angle lens and mounted piggyback on a commercial telescope located at the Roque de los Muchachos observing site on the island of La Palma. The field was monitored for 5 consecutive nights with a time resolution of a tenth of a second and an unfiltered limiting magnitude of 10. At present only a handful of astronomical objects have been monitored at this time resolution and there is limited survey data for large areas of sky. It is hoped the experiment will provide statistical analysis of optical variability of astronomical sources on sub‐second timescales and potentially discover high‐energy transient sources. The experiment will also investigate the applicability of the current generation of EMCCD detectors for such astronomical projects.