THE BALLOON-BORNE LARGE APERTURE SUBMILLIMETER TELESCOPE (BLAST) 2006: CALIBRATION AND FLIGHT PERFORMANCE
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, Cardiff University, 5 The Parade, Cardiff, CF24 3AA (United Kingdom)
- Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099 (United States)
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, 6224 Agricultural Road, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1 (Canada)
- Department of Physics, University of Miami, 1320 Campo Sano Drive, Coral Gables, FL 33146 (United States)
- Instituto Nacional de AstrofIsica Optica y Electronica (INAOE), Aptdo. Postal 51 y 72000 Puebla (Mexico)
- Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8 (Canada)
- Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of Toronto, 50 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H4 (Canada)
- Physics Department, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, Box 23343, UPR Station, San Juan (Puerto Rico)
- Universite Paris Diderot, Laboratoire APC, 10 rue Alice Domon et Leonie Duquet 75205 Paris (France)
The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) operated successfully during a 250 hr flight over Antarctica in 2006 December (BLAST06). As part of the calibration and pointing procedures, the red hypergiant star VY CMa was observed and used as the primary calibrator. Details of the overall BLAST06 calibration procedure are discussed. The 1sigma uncertainty on the absolute calibration is accurate to 9.5%, 8.7%, and 9.2% at the 250, 350, and 500 mum bands, respectively. The errors are highly correlated between bands resulting in much lower errors for the derived shape of the 250-500 mum continuum. The overall pointing error is < 5'' rms for the 36'', 42'', and 60'' beams. The performance of optics and pointing systems is discussed.
- OSTI ID:
- 21392534
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 707, Issue 2; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/707/2/1723; ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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