The Optical Monitoring Camera OMC consists of a passively cooled CCD (2055 1056 pixels, imaging area: 1024 1024 pixels) working in frame transfer mode. The CCD is located in the focal plane of a 50mm (diameter) lens including a Johnson V-filter to cover the 500-850nm wavelength range. The OMC is mounted close to the top of the payload module structure.
The OMC observes the optical emission from the prime targets of the INTEGRAL main gamma-ray instruments and the X-Ray Monitor JEM-X. The OMC offers the first opportunity to make long observations in the optical band simultaneously with those at X-rays and gamma-rays. This capability provides diagnostic information on the nature and the physics of the sources over a broad wavelength range. Multiwavelength observations are particularly important in high-energy astrophysics where the source variability is typically rapid. If you want to know more about OMC we recommend you to start with the OMC Analysis User Manual [4].