A lighthouse in space: the time resolved lightcurve of the Crab pulsar.

A lighthouse in space: the time resolved lightcurve of the Crab pulsar. Tube. Duration : 0.02 Mins.

Entry submitted by Mr Felix Hormuth, Max-Planck-Institute for Astronomy, Heidelberg, Germany. The pulse profile of the Crab pulsar in the visible light, as seen by AstraLux, a high speed, high sensitivity camera system based on an Andor electron multiplying CCD at the Calar Alto 2.2m telescope. The reconstructed profile with a period of 33.6ms is based on 700000 images with a single frame exposure time of 1.6ms. The inset shows the pulsar at maximum brightness. In long-exposure images, the star to the northeast would appear considerably brighter than the pulsar. Obtaining such a lightcurve is only possible with cameras providing superb sensitivity, speed, noise and timing characteristics. Together with a custom GPS timing system, the Andor EMCCD clearly fulfills these requirements. For more visually stunning and scientifically captivating images please visit www.andor.com Andor EMCCD - www.andor.com

Keywords: crabfast, Andor, Technology