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D. A. Golimowski (Johns Hopkins University), J. E. Krist, M. Clampin, G. F. Hartig (Space Telescope Science Institute), H. C. Ford (Johns Hopkins University), G. D. Illingworth (University of California at Santa Cruz)
The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) is a new instrument installed in the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) during Servicing Mission 3B. ACS includes a High Resolution Camera (0.025 arcsec/pixel) with a selectable coronagraphic mode. Added to ACS after construction of the instrument commenced, this classical Lyot coronagraph operates in the uncorrected, spherically aberrated beam from HST. Because the occulting spots are placed at the circle of least confusion, they have relatively large diameters of 1.8 and 3.0 arcseconds. The Lyot stop is coincident with the correcting mirror that compensates for spherical aberration. Despite this nonoptimal configuration, the diffraction pattern should be attenuated by a factor of 5 to10, bringing it below the level of light scattered by the mid-spatial-frequency errors in the HST optics. The coronagraph will provide for high-resolution, high-contrast imaging over a large wavelength range (200-1000 nm). Results of the on-orbit performance obtained to date are described.
This work was supported by a NASA contract and a NASA grant.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.