Monitoring Cooling of the World’s Most Sensitive Astronomical Camera

Titan Enterprises has solved a high-tech problem - monitoring the flow of coolant to the world's most sensitive astronomical camera fitted to the 10.4m GTC telescope based on the Canary Island of La Palma. This camera, called HiPERCAM, was commissioned on the telescope in 2018 and can take over 1000 pictures every second simultaneously in five optical colours. After attempts to use turbine and ultrasonic flow sensors proved unsuccessful due to metallic film build-up on the propellers and micro bubbles in the coolant the HiPERCAM team turned to Titan Enterprises for advice. After detailed discussions around a type of sensor that could be used that is impervious to the unavoidable negative characteristics of the telescope’s cooling fluid - the Titan FT2 optical flow sensor that uses an LED and photodiode to measure flow was proposed. Following successful lab tests the FT2 optical flow sensors are now on their way to the GTC telescope for final commissioning on HiPERCAM to enable this powerful astronomical camera to finally achieve its full scientific potential.

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