This paper describes the Faint Object Camera-launched with the Hubble Space Telescope nearly a year agoand its performance to date. In particular, the detector efficiency, the spatial uniformity of response, distortion characteristics, detector and sky background, detector linearity, spectrograph, and operation are discussed. The effect of the severe spherical aberration of the telescope's primary mirror on the camera's point spread function is reviewed, as well as the impact it has on the general performance of the cameras. Finally, the scientific implications of the performance and the spherical aberration are outlined. 16 / SPIE Vol. 1494 Space Astronomical Telescopes and Instruments (1991) 0-8194-0603-1/97 /$4.OO Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/25/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspxThe image memory is normally configured as 512 x 512 16-bit pixels, however, it can be reconfigured to a 512 x 1024 pixel format with 8 bits of storage per pixel with the corresponding reduced counting range.The detectors are sensitive to radiation between 1150 and 6500A; the lower limit being set by the MgF2 input window and the upper limit by the bialkali photocethode material. The useful photocathode area is about 2.5 cm square while the size of a pixel is, on average, normally 25 x 25 2; one dimension can be stretched (zoomed) to 50 to double the field of view. Zoomed pixels from hereafter will be denoted by a z suffix (i.e., 512z x 1024).The 1/48 has a maximum achievable field of view of 46 x 46 arcsec2 imaged with an approximate pixel size of 90 x 45 milliarcsec2 (512z x 1024, 50 x 25 t2 pixels). The corresponding values for the //96 relay are 23 x 23 arcsec2 and 44 x 22 mas2 (milliarcsec2) and for the 1/288 relay, 7.6 x 7.6 and 14 x 7.5 mas2.The key features of the FOC are its low noise, high angular resolution, high sensitivity in the UV range and extreme versatility due to its occultation, apodization, long slit spectrographic, polarization, objective prism and cross SPIE Vol. 1494 Space Astronomical Telescopes and Instruments (1991) / 17 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/25/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx SPIE Vol. 1494 Space Astronomical Telescopes atwi Instruments (1991)1 19 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/25/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx Arcseconds Radius Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/25/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx I I J J J SPIE Vol. 7494 Space Astronomical Telescopes and Instruments (7991) / 27 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/25/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx SPIE Vol. 1494 Space Astronomical Telescopes a,rI Instruments (1991) / 31 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/25/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx
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