S082A: Extreme Ultraviolet Spectroheliograph flown on SKYLAB



SKYLAB image The XUV spectroheliograph of the Naval Research Laboratory was the outgrowth of a small, photographic, objective-type grating instrument first flown on 10 May 1963 by J. D. Purcell, D. L. Garrett, and R. Tousey. The potential of the instrument, which produced simultaneous, monochromatic images of the entire sun over a broad range of the XUV, was apparent from the beginning, and larger and better ones in succession were flown in rockets. It was converted into a photoelectric instrument for orbital flight in OSO-2 and did indeed record successfully solar images in H-Lyman-a and He II 304 A. A very large photoelectric instrument of the OSO-2 type was accepted for AOSO, but after cancellation of AOSO, when the opportunity arose to make use of ATM, it was decided to make use of photographic recording. This instrument produced over the 171630-A range a spectrum of solar images each 18.6 mm in diameter. The instrument produced results of extreme interest and acquired a total of 1023 useful exposures.

The image opposite was taken by S082A on August 17, 1973. Click on the image for a larger version. You can download images like this from the links opposite. Note though that the images are VERY large (tens of megabytes), so it is recommended that you do not attempt to display them directly in the browser window itself, but instead download them to your computer.