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SOFIA eNewsletter for Scientists

v13 October 6, 2005

This is our thirteenth SOFIA Electronic Newsletter to the astronomical community.  Please email comments and/or inquiries to SOFIA@usra.edu.

Regards and Best Wishes,

• HIPO, the 0.3-1.1 μm High-speed Imaging Photometer for Occultations
     (PI Ted Dunham, Lowell Observatory)
• FLITECAM, the 1-5.5 μm First Light Infrared Test Experiment CAMera
     (PI Ian McLean, UCLA)
• FORCAST, the 5-40 μm Faint Object infraRed CAmera for the Sofia Telescope
     (PI Terry Herter, Cornell University)
• GREAT, the 63-188 μm German REceiver for Astronomy at THz frequencies
     (PI Rolf Guesten, MPIfR/Bonn)
• FIFI-LS, the 42-210 μm Far-Infrared Field Imaging Line Spectrometer
     (PI Albrecht Poglitsch, MPE/Garching)
• HAWC, the 40-300 μm High-resolution Airborne Wideband Camera
     (PI Al Harper, University of Chicago)
• CASIMIR, the 150-600 μm Caltech Airborne Submillimeter Interstellar Medium
     Investigations Receiver (PI Jonas Zmuidzinas, Caltech)
• EXES, the 5-28.5 μm Echelon Cross Echelle Spectrograph
     (PI John Lacy, University of Texas/Austin)
• SAFIRE, the 100-655 μm Submillimeter And Far-InfraRed Experiment
     (PI Harvey Moseley, NASA-GSFC)

Here we highlight recent progress on four instruments expected to see first light early in the flight program. The earliest experience with the science instruments will help to characterize and debug the observatory. After initial in-flight testing, SOFIA will complete commissioning of several science instruments while ramping up to its full flight rate over a period of roughly two years. During this period there will be opportunities for general investigators from the community to propose observations with any of the commissioned instruments.

HIPO saw first light in October 2003 on the 1.8-meter Perkins telescope at Lowell Observatory. In May, 2004 the co-mounted HIPO and FLITECAM instruments were used for engineering tests on the same telescope. HIPO was used for first-light testing of the SOFIA telescope in August and September 2004 on the ground in Waco Texas. HIPO's sensitivity and optical properties are close to those described in its Performance Summaries on the SOFIA website. The hardware is complete, the documentation is nearly so, and the software is operational and in the final stages of development. HIPO's flight electronics are shown in Figure 1.

FLITECAM has made observations from the Lick 3-meter telescope on several occasions, most recently in July 2005. The SOFIA pipeline and software interfaces were used to reduce data on-line. Photometric zeropoints were obtained and confirmed the throughput of the camera. Three KRS5 grisms enable spectroscopy over the entire 1-5.5 μm range with almost no gaps; 60 arcsecond-length slits of either 1 or 2 arcseconds width are available. Using the 1 arcsecond slit, the resolving power is ~2000, as demonstrated by measurement of 3.3 μm PAH features in several pre-planetary nebulae (Figure 2.) Throughput of the grisms is still being evaluated.

FORCAST took data in late June on the Palomar 5-meter telescope. The optical performance was shown to be well within SOFIA's requirements. The instrument team is currently developing calibration instrumentation and software for interfacing to the SOFIA data system. See Figure 3.

GREAT has had its first end-to-end test in the laboratory at Bonn in July 2005. The double-side-band system noise temperature of the 1.9THz channel tuned to the [C II] line at 158um is <2500K over the whole band. This is roughly six times better than the sensitivity of the heterodyne receiver used for this line on the KAO. This implies extended sources can be mapped roughly 36 times faster on SOFIA than was possible on the KAO with 3 times better angular resolution! These measurements were done using the internal calibration system and the final observing software. The instrument is shown in Figure 4.

More details on all the instruments and their expected performance on SOFIA (excluding the FLITECAM and FORCAST grisms) can be found here:
http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/instruments/sci_instruments.html

PROJECT REORGANIZATION

After the Columbia accident, NASA revisited many of its flight safety policies for both aircraft and spacecraft. Consequently it was decided that NASA will directly manage SOFIA's flight operations contract. USRA will retain responsibility for science and mission operations, with substantial support from the Deutsches SOFIA Institut (Stuttgart) funded by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). As a result of independent project reviews late in 2004, the project-management structure for completing development is being reorganized by NASA's SOFIA Program Office at Ames Research Center. A new, comprehensive schedule for completion and flight-testing of the aircraft with the telescope cavity-door closed is being developed.

SCIENCE PROGRAM INFORMATION

Please contact Dana Backman (dbackman@sofia.usra.edu) if your institution would like a science presentation - including information on SOFIA's capabilities and future observing opportunities - by a member of SOFIA's science staff. A 6-page program summary for astronomers is available at: http://www.sofia.usra.edu/Science/SOFIA_ProgramSummary/04EricksonDustyConf.pdf.

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