Rocket-borne instrument with a high-resolution microchannel plate detector for planetary UV spectroscopy.
A telescope-spectrograph employing a photon-counting microchannel plate (MCP)-CODACON detector has been built, tested, and flown on a sounding rocket. The detector uses a curved-channel MCP proximity focused onto a coded anode array of 1024 channels spaced 25.4-mm center to center. High quantum efficiency is obtained by depositing a cesium iodide photocathode on the front surface of the MCP. The instrument has obtained an ultraviolet (1500-1800-A) spectrum of Jupiter with a spectral resolution of 8 A, which is higher than that of any previously reported observation in this wavelength range.
McClintock
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University of Colorado, Laboratory for Atmospheric & Space Physics, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA.
Barth
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CA
Steele
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Lawrence
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Timothy
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