UVscope and its application aboard the ASTRI-Horn telescope

TL;DR

UVscope is a photon detector instrument used on the ASTRI-Horn telescope to measure night sky brightness, aiding in calibration and environmental monitoring for high-energy astrophysics observations.

Contribution

This paper introduces UVscope, a multi-pixel photon detector instrument, and details its application on the ASTRI-Horn telescope for environmental measurement and calibration.

Findings

UVscope successfully measures night sky brightness in real-time.

It provides calibration support for the ASTRI-Horn telescope.

The instrument operates without interfering with main observations.

Abstract

UVscope is an instrument, based on a multi-pixel photon detector, developed to support experimental activities for high-energy astrophysics and cosmic ray research. The instrument, working in single photon counting mode, is designed to directly measure light flux in the wavelengths range 300-650~nm. The instrument can be used in a wide field of applications where the knowledge of the nocturnal environmental luminosity is required. Currently, one UVscope instrument is allocated onto the external structure of the ASTRI-Horn Cherenkov telescope devoted to the gamma-ray astronomy at very high energies. Being co-aligned with the ASTRI-Horn camera axis, UVscope can measure the diffuse emission of the night sky background simultaneously with the ASTRI-Horn camera, without any interference with the main telescope data taking procedures. UVscope is properly calibrated and it is used as an independent reference instrument for test and diagnostic of the novel ASTRI-Horn telescope.