Module, Electronics, Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope

This is an electronics module from the ultraviolet 36 inch reflector telescope that comprised one of the three instruments designed to observe the sky in the UV spectrum on the Space Shuttle based Astro observatory. The telescope was manufactured by the Center for Astrophysical Sciences and the Applied Physics Lab of Johns Hopkins University. The image from the reflector was directed into a spectrograph; the dispersed signal was then intensified with a microchannel plate and recorded by means of a diode array detector. On the first mission in December 1990 the instrument observed over 75 astronomical sources including active galactic nuclei, quasars, variable stars and supernova remnants. After this successful mission it was modified to concentrate on the relatively unknown far ultraviolet region and flown on Astro-2 in March 1995. Observations from this second flight provided a wealth of data including the first definitive detection of helium left over from the Big Bang. It was transferred from NASA in 2001.