High-temporal resolution multimode photospectropolarimeter

A hardware and software complex of the MANIA experiment designed to search for and study the photometric variability of astrophysical objects with a temporal resolution of 10−6 s is described. The panoramic photospectropolarimeter uses interchangeable optical units, which allow the observations to be performed in four modes—spectroscopic, spectropolarimetric, photometric, and polarimetric. A coordinate—sensitive detector equipped with a set of microchannel plates is capable of recording flux fluctuations from objects and comparison stars simultaneously in different photometric bands and in different polarization planes. The Quantochron 4–48 data acquisition facility operating on line with a computer acquires observational data with a temporal resolution of 1microsecond. The methods of analysis of panoramic data with high temporal resolution are discussed.