Instruments
OMC
| Principal Investigator | | Miguel Mas-Hesse
LAEFF-INTA
Madrid
Spain |
 | | The OMC | The optical camera on-board INTEGRAL offers the first opportunity to make long observations of the visible light coming from gamma-ray and X-ray sources. Multiwavelength observations are particularly important in high-energy astrophysics where variability is typically rapid. Using wide-band observation, INTEGRAL provides simultaneous observations over seven orders of magnitude in photon energy for some of the most energetic objects in the Universe for the first time. The optical monitoring camera OMC is placed on top of the satellite and is sensitive to stars with a visual magnitude up to 19.7. The OMC is a standard optical refractor with a 5-centimetre lens and a CCD (charge-coupled device, 2055 x 1056 pixels, imaging area: 1024 x 1024 pixels) in the focal plane. The CCD is located in the focal plane of a 50 mm (diameter) lens including a Johnson V-filter to cover the 500 - 600 nm wavelength range. These silicon chips consist of pixels (picture elements), which convert impinging photons into an electric charge. The accumulated charge is transferred out of the device and recorded. The data can then be converted into an image. To reduce noise, the CCD head of the OMC is cooled to -80 °C. The instrument has been built by collaborating scientific institutes in Spain (INTA/LAEFF Madrid, U Valencia, U Barcelona), Ireland (UC Dublin), Belgium (U Liege), United Kingdom (MSSL Dorking), Czech Republic (Astroph. Institute).
 |
JEM-X |
 |
IREM |
____________________________________
Last Update: 07 Jan 2009
|
