Abstract

One second of arc pointing accuracy has been achieved by servocontrolling the secondary mirror of a Dall-Kirkham telescope flown in an Aerobee 150 rocket. The primary mirror is weight-relieved, mounted at its nodal line and can resolve 2 arc sec. An objective LiF prism mounted near the focal plane provides a low-resolution far uv spectrum suitable for studying planetary atmospheres. Solar blind photomultiplier tubes with pulse counting electronics provide a dark current background of less than 1 count/sec. Spectra of Venus, Jupiter and η Ursa Majoris (U Ma) were obtained in a flight from White Sands, New Mexico, on 5 December 1967. Further flights are planned with the recovered package.

© 1969 Optical Society of America

Rocket-Borne Liquid Helium Cooled Telescope

Martin Harwit, J. R. Houck, and K. Fuhrmann
Appl. Opt. 8(2) 473-477 (1969)

Small LiF Prism Spectrometer for Space Applications

H. W. Moos, R. C. Vitz, J. R. Barry, and J. L. Buckley
Appl. Opt. 9(3) 601-603 (1970)

Rocket instrument for far-UV spectrophotometry of faint astronomical objects

G. F. Hartig, W. G. Fastie, and A. F. Davidsen
Appl. Opt. 19(5) 729-740 (1980)

A Rocket-Borne Liquid Helium-Cooled Infrared Telescope. I: Dewar and Optics

D. P. McNutt, K. Shivanandan, and P. D. Feldman
Appl. Opt. 8(11) 2199-2204 (1969)

Rocket-borne instrument with a high-resolution microchannel plate detector for planetary UV spectroscopy

William E. McClintock, Charles A. Barth, Robert E. Steele, George M. Lawrence, and J. Gethyn Timothy
Appl. Opt. 21(17) 3071-3079 (1982)