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M. Beasley, E. Wilkinson (University of Colorado at Boulder)
We present the Imaging Spectrograph for Interstellar Shocks (ISIS), a sounding rocket payload. The ISIS instrument is a novel spectrograph designed to image far ultraviolet OVI emission. The spectrograph design uses the optical prescription of a standard, two-optic folded telescope such as a Gregorian, with varied line space rulings placed on the secondary optic. These rulings correct the aberrations induced by imaging diffracted light away from the optical axis. This combination permits high quality imaging both in zero order (via the standard telescope focus) and in diffracted light. Because this design has no transmission optics and only two reflections it is particularly well suited for use in the Far and Extreme Ultraviolet.
The science goal of this instrument is to image OVI emission from a non-radiative shock on the northeastern edge of the Cygnus supernova remnant. With the ability to spatially resolve OVI emission relative to the optical emission (using the zero order focus) we will be able to determine the electron-ion equilibrium distance, the total amount of emitting matter, and the morphology of the shocked plasma.
This work is made possible through NASA grant NAG5-5096 for ultraviolet sounding rockets and the NASA Graduate Student Research Program grant NGT5-50340.