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P.W.A. Roming, S.D. Hunsberger, J.A. Nousek (PSU), K.O. Mason, A.A. Breeveld (MSSL)
The Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope (UVOT) aboard the Swift Gamma-ray Burst Observatory provides the Swift mission with the capability of detecting the early UV/optical photons of GRB afterglows. The UVOT is a Ritchey-Chrétien telescope with MCP intensified CCD detectors that can operate in either a photon-timing mode or an imaging mode while providing sub-arcsecond resolution. A filter wheel houses sensitive broadband UV and visual filters for determining photometric redshifts. The filter wheel also accommodates UV and visual grisms for performing low-resolution spectroscopy. We present an overview of the instrument as well as a summary of the calibration results. We also discuss some of the science to be accomplished with the UVOT. This work is sponsored at Penn State by NASA's Office of Space Science through contract NAS5-00136, and at MSSL by funding from PPARC.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 35 #3
© 2003. The American Astronomical Soceity.