Image Quality of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. I. Results of the First Flight Series

Authors

J. L. Elliott, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
E. W. Dunham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
R. L. Baron, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
A. W. Watts, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sarah E. Kruse, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
W. C. Rose, Rose Engineering and Research, Inc.
C. M. Gillespie, NASA-Ames Research Center

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

8-1989

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1086/132498

Abstract

The NASA Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) was flown three times during June and July, 1984 in order to study the causes of the poor seeing obtained with the 0.9-m telescope. High-speed pressure and temperature sensors were placed in the telescope cavity. Several thousand stellar images were recorded under various flight and optical configurations. It is found that the long-exposure image size is affected by telescope tracking errors, imperfect optics, poor optical alignment, telescope and instrument vibration, thermal fluctuations in the telescope cavity, and density fluctuations in the shear layer that forms the boundary between the cavity air and outside air. Possible ways to improve the quality of the images are discussed.

Rights Information

Terms of use for work posted in Scholar Commons.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

No

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, v. 101, issue 642, p. 737-764

Scholar Commons Citation

Elliott, J. L.; Dunham, E. W.; Baron, R. L.; Watts, A. W.; Kruse, Sarah E.; Rose, W. C.; and Gillespie, C. M., "Image Quality of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory. I. Results of the First Flight Series" (1989). School of Geosciences Faculty and Staff Publications. 945.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/geo_facpub/945