FIREBall-2 2023: fine guidance system performance for UV balloon telescope flight

Ignacio Cevallos-Aleman; David Schiminovich; Meghna Sitaram; Johan Montel; Charles-Antoine Chevrier; Drew M. Miles; Vincent Picouet; Zeren Lin; Matthew Werneken

doi:10.1117/12.3020671

21 August 2024 FIREBall-2 2023: fine guidance system performance for UV balloon telescope flight

Ignacio Cevallos-Aleman, David Schiminovich, Meghna Sitaram, Johan Montel, Charles-Antoine Chevrier, Drew M. Miles, Vincent Picouet, Zeren Lin, Matthew Werneken

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13093, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray; 130932U (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020671
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2024, Yokohama, Japan

Conference Poster

Abstract

FIREBall-2 is a Balloon-Borne UV telescope designed to observe faint UV emission from the circumgalactic medium around low redshift galaxies (z 0.3 - 1.0). FIREBall-2 employs a 1m telescope with a multi-object spectrograph, custom-designed slit-masks and a delta-doped EMCCD detector. FIREBall-2 achieves steady 1-2” pointing with a CNES-provided coarse guidance system complemented by a fine guidance system which provides real time, on-sky feedback with an sCMOS camera embedded within the spectrograph enclosure. The guider system provides a live video stream, computes translational and rotational offsets and sends high rate (30 Hz) gondola pointing error corrections, while also handling slit mask selection and in-flight optimization of the image focus and PSF. We review the current state of the system after testing and use during FIREBall-2’s 2018 and 2023 campaigns and discuss its performance, challenges and development of its hardware and software functions ahead of its next flight campaign.

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

Citation Download Citation

Ignacio Cevallos-Aleman, David Schiminovich, Meghna Sitaram, Johan Montel, Charles-Antoine Chevrier, Drew M. Miles, Vincent Picouet, Zeren Lin, and Matthew Werneken "FIREBall-2 2023: fine guidance system performance for UV balloon telescope flight", Proc. SPIE 13093, Space Telescopes and Instrumentation 2024: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray, 130932U (21 August 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3020671

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available