Aqueye+ and Iqueye
The project
Our team at the University of Padova and the INAF- Astronomical Observatory of Padova is engaged in the design, construction and operations of instruments with very high time resolution in the optical band for applications to High Time Resolution Astrophysics and Quantum Astronomy. Two instruments were built to perform photon counting with sub-nanosecond temporal accuracy. The first of the two, AQUEYE+, is regularly mounted at the 1.8m Copernicus telescope in Asiago, while the second, IQUEYE, was mounted at the NTT telescope in Chile, and at the WHT and TNG telescopes on the Roque (La Palma, Canary Islands). Both instruments deliver extraordinarily accurate results in optical timing. Recently, IQUEYE was moved to Asiago to be mounted at the 1.2m Galileo telescope to attempt, for the first time ever, experiments of optical intensity interferometry on a baseline of a few kilometers. The scientific utilization of AQUEYE+ and IQUEYE concerns the phase coherent multicolor and multipolarization optical timing of pulsars, the follow-up of optical transients, lunar occultations, and the detection of tens of microsecond angular structures on stellar surfaces and in their environments.
Our team at the University of Padova and the INAF- Astronomical Observatory of Padova is engaged in the design, construction and operations of instruments with very high time resolution in the optical band for applications to High Time Resolution Astrophysics and Quantum Astronomy. Two instruments were built to perform photon counting with sub-nanosecond temporal accuracy. The first of the two, AQUEYE+, is regularly mounted at the 1.8m Copernicus telescope in Asiago, while the second, IQUEYE, was mounted at the NTT telescope in Chile, and at the WHT and TNG telescopes on the Roque (La Palma, Canary Islands). Both instruments deliver extraordinarily accurate results in optical timing. Recently, IQUEYE was moved to Asiago to be mounted at the 1.2m Galileo telescope to attempt, for the first time ever, experiments of optical intensity interferometry on a baseline of a few kilometers. The scientific utilization of AQUEYE+ and IQUEYE concerns the phase coherent multicolor and multipolarization optical timing of pulsars, the follow-up of optical transients, lunar occultations, and the detection of tens of microsecond angular structures on stellar surfaces and in their environments.