Related papers: Calibration and flight performance of the long-sli…
In absence of a lens to form an image, incoherent or partially coherent light scattering off an obstructive or reflective object forms a broad intensity distribution in the far field with only feeble spatial features. We show here that…
We present the photometric calibration of the Swift UltraViolet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) which includes: optimum photometric and background apertures, effective area curves, colour transformations, conversion factors for count rates to…
We describe calibration data, and discuss performance of the photon-counting flight detectors for the Ultraviolet Imaging Telescopes on the Astrosat observatory. The paper describes dark current, flat field and light-spot images for FUV,…
Next year the second generation instrument SPHERE will begin science operations at the Very Large Telecope (ESO). This instrument will be dedicated to the search for exoplanets through the direct imaging techniques, with the new generation…
Dual-field interferometric observations with VLTI/GRAVITY sometimes require the use of a "binary calibrator", a binary star whose individual components remain unresolved by the interferometer, with a separation between 400 and 2000 mas for…
The Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS), an astrophysics NASA probe mission currently in phase A, will provide high-throughput, high-spatial resolution X-ray imaging in the 0.3 to 10 keV band. We report on the notional ground…
We provide an overview of the robotic Super-LOTIS (Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System) telescope and present results from gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglow observations using Super-LOTIS and other Steward Observatory telescopes. The…
We discuss techniques that allow for long coherence times in laser spectroscopy experiments with two trapped ions. We show that for this purpose not only entangled ions prepared in decoherence-free subspaces can be used but also a pair of…
Aims. We study the 2D spectral line profile of HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher), measuring its variation with position across the detector and with changing line intensity. The characterization of the line profile and…
Context: The NIRSpec instrument for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) can be operated in multiobject (MOS), long-slit, and integral field (IFU) mode with spectral resolutions from 100 to 2700. Its MOS mode uses about a quarter of a…
Dispersive interferometry (DPI) takes a major interest in optical frequency comb (OFC) based long distance laser-based light detection and ranging (LIDAR) for the merits of strong anti-interference ability and long coherent length. However,…
We present a demonstration of the in-flight polarization angle calibration for the JAXA/ISAS second strategic large class mission, LiteBIRD, and estimate its impact on the measurement of the tensor-to-scalar ratio parameter, r, using…
The International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) is a pan-European radio interferometer with baselines up to 2,000 km. This provides sub-arcsecond resolution at frequencies of <200 MHz. Since starting science operations in 2012, the ILT has carried…
To optimize the performance of the Collinear Resonance Ionization Spectroscopy (CRIS) experiment at CERN-ISOLDE, technical upgrades are continuously introduced, aiming to enhance its sensitivity, precision, stability, and efficiency.…
Astronomical precision spectroscopy underpins searches for life beyond Earth, direct observation of the expanding Universe and constraining the potential variability of physical constants across cosmological scales. Laser frequency combs…
We present the design and performance of the multi-object fiber spectrographs for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and their upgrade for the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (BOSS). Originally commissioned in Fall 1999 on the…
The Imaging and Slitless Spectroscopy Instrument (ISSIS) will be flown as part of the Science Instrumentation in the World Space Observatory-Ultraviolet (WSO-UV). ISSIS will be the first UV imager to operate in a high Earth orbit from a 2-m…
EFOSC2 (the European Southern Observatory Faint Object Spectrograph and Camera v2) is one of the workhorse instruments on ESO's New Technology Telescope (NTT), and is one of the most popular instruments at La Silla observatory. It is…
Spectral characterization of sub-stellar companions is essential to understand their composition and formation processes. However, the large contrast ratio of the brightness of each object to that of its parent star limits our ability to…
CUBES (Cassegrain U-Band Efficient Spectrograph) is the recently approved high-efficiency VLT spectrograph aimed to observe the sky in the UV ground-based region (305-400 nm) with a high-resolution mode (~20K) and a low-resolution mode…