ULTRACAM operations

ULTRACAM是一款数码相机，每秒可以拍摄（并存储）多达500张红、绿、蓝图像。该仪器由谢菲尔德大学、华威大学和爱丁堡的英国天文技术中心组成的一个财团在不到3年的时间里建造完成，使用了PPARC提供的30万英镑资助。ULTRACAM于2002年5月16日在拉帕尔马的4.2米威廉赫歇尔望远镜（WHT）上看到了“第一缕光”，并于2005年5月4日在智利的8.2米甚大望远镜（VLT）上看到了第一缕光。迄今为止，ULTRACAM已经在这些望远镜上获得了总共92个夜晚的时间，用于各种项目，如白矮星、褐矮星、星震学、脉冲星、黑洞/中子星x射线双星、日食双星、伽马射线暴、灾难性变量、系外行星、活动星系核、柯伊伯带天体和土星的卫星泰坦。该拨款提案要求为ULTRACAM的适当维护和运行提供资金，以及适度的小型升级计划，从而确保ULTRACAM保持其作为世界上首屈一指的高速光学天体物理仪器的地位。除了使PPARC的原始投资回报最大化外，这笔钱还将使我们能够继续向英国和天文社区的其他人提供ULTRACAM。

ULTRACAM is a digital camera capable of taking (and storing) up to 500 red, green and blue images per second. The instrument was built in just under 3 years by a consortium from the Universities of Sheffield, Warwick and the UK Astronomy Technology Centre in Edinburgh, using a £300,000 grant awarded by PPARC. ULTRACAM saw 'first light' on 16 May 2002 on the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope (WHT) on La Palma, and first light on the 8.2-m Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile on 4 May 2005. To date, ULTRACAM has been awarded a total of 92 nights of time on these telescopes for projects as varied as white dwarfs, brown dwarfs, asteroseismology, pulsars, black-hole/neutron-star X-ray binaries, eclipsing binary stars, gamma-ray bursts, cataclysmic variables, extrasolar planets, active galactic nuclei, Kuiper Belt objects and Saturn's moon Titan. This grant proposal requests funding for the proper maintenance and operation of ULTRACAM, as well as a modest programme of minor upgrades, thereby ensuring that ULTRACAM maintains its position as the world's premier instrument for high-speed optical astrophysics. As well as maximising the return on PPARC's original investment, this money will also allow us to continue to offer ULTRACAM to others in the UK and astronomical community who wish to use it.