Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope

The UIT aboard Columbia during the STS-35 mission

The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT), the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT), and the Wisconsin Ultraviolet Photo Polarimetry Experiment (WUPPE) in the hold during the STS-35 mission

Image of the galaxy Messier 101 with UIT. Areas of young hot stars appear bright in this ultraviolet image.

The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope UIT was a space telescope for the ultraviolet spectral range with a mirror diameter of 38 cm. Together with the HUT and WUPPE telescopes , the shuttle missions STS-35 (Astro-1, December 2–11, 1990) and STS-67 (Astro-2, March 2–18, 1995) were jointly carried out Mount in the loading bay of the shuttle for use.

UIT was a camera ultraviolet light and was from the Goddard Space Flight Center of NASA developed. A total of 12 different filters could be selected in the range from 120 to 330 nm wavelength. In addition, there was a diffraction grating for low-resolution spectroscopy over the entire field of view. The UV light was amplified with image intensifiers. The recordings were recorded on 70 mm photographic film and later digitized and processed on the ground.

The field of view of UIT was 40 arc minutes with a spatial resolution of 3 arc seconds. During the Astro-1 mission 821 images of 66 objects were obtained, with Astro-2 758 images of 193 objects.

literature

• Stecher, TP et al .: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific . 109, 584 (1997)

Web links

• NASA's UIT site
• UIT page of the Univ. Virginia