Imaging With STIS on the {bold {ital Hubble Space Telescope}}: Astronomy at V=30

Journal Article · Mon Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1997 · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1086/133974· OSTI ID:560690

Gregg, M D; Minniti, D ^[1]

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1. Institute for Geophysics and Planetary Physics, L-413, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94550 (United States)

In 1997 February, the second Space Shuttle servicing mission to the {ital Hubble} Observatory installed the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). This new instrument greatly enhances the spectroscopic capabilities of the {ital Hubble Space Telescope} by providing a long-slit format and CCD detector technology. STIS can also be used as an imager, providing an alternative to the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. The optical filter set of STIS is limited and does not contain standard bandpasses, but we show here that this does not preclude useful two-color broadband photometry. Because the STIS bandpasses reach {approximately}1.5 mag deeper than WFPC2, the STIS photometric system may be preferable for many applications where a faint limiting magnitude and fine spatial resolution are overriding considerations. The two optical wideband choices on STIS are a clear aperture and a longpass ({lambda}{gt}5500 {Angstrom}) filter. We define an effective shortpass filter from the difference of these, making two-color photometry possible with STIS. We present preliminary transformations between the STIS system and Kron-Cousins {ital BVRI} bandpasses, showing that these transformations are very well behaved over almost all temperatures, luminosities, and abundances for normal stars. In an 8-orbit cycle, STIS will be able to reach signal-to-noise of {approximately}5{endash}10 at V=30.0 in its clear and longpass imaging modes, a significant increase in the power of {ital HST} to address a number of fundamental issues out of reach of current instrumentation capabilities on the ground or in space. {copyright} {ital 1997} {ital Astronomical Society of the Pacific}

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-48
• OSTI ID: 560690
• Journal Information: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Journal Name: Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Journal Issue: 739 Vol. 109; ISSN 0004-6280; ISSN PASPAU
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

66 PHYSICS
CALIBRATION
CHARGE-COUPLED DEVICES
IMAGES
LUMINOSITY
OPTICAL FILTERS
OPTICAL SPECTROMETERS
PERFORMANCE
PHOTOMETERS
PHOTOMETRY
SIGNAL-TO-NOISE RATIO
SPACE SHUTTLES
TELESCOPES