Precision Photometry with the new generation of fast readout Scientific CMOS Cameras

This project involves the usage of new scientific CMOS (sCMOS) cameras produced by Andor for high-precision astronomical photometry. sCMOS cameras have recently been tested under laboratory conditions, and the results are extremely promising for astronomical purposes (Karpov et al., 2019).

The Next Generation Transit Survey (NGTS; Wheatley et al., 2018) facility is a set of 12 identical 20cm telescopes situated at Paranal Observatory in Chile (one of the best sites in the world).

NGTS surveys bright stars with high precision photometry in order to detect transiting "exoplanets" - planets orbiting other stars (e.g. NGTS-1b; Bayliss et al., 2018). We propose to couple a new generation Andor sCMOS detector to an NGTS telescope.

The primary goal is, for the first time ever, to obtain high precision photometry of bright stars to detect transiting exoplanets.

We will run this experiment alongside another NGTS telescope with an existing CCD camera for comparative purposes. sCMOS detectors have yet to be embraced by the astronomical community, however peer-reviewed publications of in-depth and meaningful on-sky assessments are the key to unlocking such acceptance.