First technological steps toward opening a near-IR window at stratospheric altitudes

摘要

The possibility to open a near-IR window at stratospheric altitude is crucial for a large variety of astronomical issues,from cosmology to the star formation processes. Up to now, one of the main issue is the role of the OH and thermal skyemission that are rising the sky background level when such observations are performed through ground basedtelescopes. We present the results of our technological activity aimed at affording some critical aspects typical of balloonflights. In particular, the obtained performances of prototype systems for rough and fine tracking will be illustrated. Boththese systems constitute a high precision device (≤ 1 arcsec) for pointing and tracking light telescopes on boardstratospheric balloons. We give the details concerning the optical and mechanical layout, as well as the detector and thecontrol system. We demonstrate how such devices, when used at the focal plane of enough large telescopes(2-4m, F/10),may be capable to provide diffraction limited images in the near infrared bands. We have also developed a prototypalsingle channel photometer NISBA (Near Infrared Sky Background at Arctic pole), working in the H band (1.65 μm), ableto evaluate, during a high-latitude balloon flight, how OH emission affects the sky background during the arctic night.The laboratory tests and performance on sky are presented and analyzed.© (2012) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.