Photometer, Far Ultraviolet

Unflown example of a far ultraviolet photometer and associated accessories of the type flown on Aerobee sounding rockets by the Aeronomy group at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). This instrument was transferred to NASM by NRL in March 1986.

As part of its studies of the upper atmosphere the NRL sent specialized instruments to extreme altitudes on Aerobee sounding rockets. Maximum altitude for the rockets was close to 230 kilometers. This far ultraviolet photometer is representative of those sent up in rockets in about 1967 for observations of the Earth's nightglow, called the geocorona. This photometer was designed to detect the ultraviolet radiation emitted by hydrogen at the Lyman beta wavelength. A collimator and an indium filter to exclude stray signals guard the aperture of the tube; it uses a conventional photomultiplier to amplify the signal.