Letter to the Editor

OMC: An Optical Monitoring Camera for INTEGRAL

Instrument description and performance

¹ Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC–INTA), 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain
² Laboratorio de Astrofísica Espacial y Física Fundamental, LAEFF–INTA, PO Box 50727, 28080 Madrid, Spain
³ Research and Scientific Support Department, ESA, ESTEC, Postbus 299, 2200 AG Noordwijk, The Netherlands
⁴ Mullard Space Science Laboratory, University College London, Holmbury St. Mary, Dorking, Surrey, RH5 6NT, UK
⁵ Centre Spatial de Liège, Université de Liège, Av. du Pré-Aily, 4031 Angleur, Belgium
⁶ Department of Experimental Physics, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland
⁷ Departament d'Astronomia i Meteorologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain
⁸ Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC), Gran Capità 2-4, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
⁹ Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, 251 65 Ondrejov, Czech Republic
¹⁰ Departamento de Astronomía y Astrofísica, Universidad de Valencia, 46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain
¹¹ Dunsink Observatory, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Castleknock, Dublin 15, Ireland
¹² Institut d'Astrophysique et de Geophysique, Université de Liège, Sart Tilman, 4000 Liège, Belgium
¹³ Instituto Nacional de Técnica Aeroespacial–INTA, 28850 Torrejón de Ardoz, Spain
¹⁴ INTEGRAL Science Data Centre, Chemin d'Écogia 16, 1290 Versoix, Switzerland

Corresponding author: J. M. Mas-Hesse, mm@laeff.esa.es

Received: 15 July 2003
Accepted: 12 September 2003

Abstract

The Optical Monitoring Camera (OMC) will observe the optical emission from the prime targets of the gamma-ray instruments onboard the ESA mission INTEGRAL, with the support of the JEM-X monitor in the X-ray domain. This capability will provide invaluable diagnostic information on the nature and the physics of the sources over a broad wavelength range. Its main scientific objectives are: (1) to monitor the optical emission from the sources observed by the gamma- and X-ray instruments, measuring the time and intensity structure of the optical emission for comparison with variability at high energies, and (2) to provide the brightness and position of the optical counterpart of any gamma- or X-ray transient taking place within its field of view. The OMC is based on a refractive optics with an aperture of 50 mm focused onto a large format CCD ( pixels) working in frame transfer mode ( pixels imaging area). With a field of view of it will be able to monitor sources down to magnitude . Typical observations will perform a sequence of different integration times, allowing for photometric uncertainties below 0.1 mag for objects with .