Hubble Space Telescope · 1990–94
WFPC2
Instrument Scientist for the camera that restored Hubble's vision.
- Role
- WFPC2 Instrument Scientist; Investigation Definition Team member
- Deliverables
- WFPC2 Instrument Handbook (ed., v2.0, May 1994); initial commissioning and calibration
- Recognition
- NASA Public Service Medal, 1994
Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 carried its own optical correction for the primary mirror's aberration, built to the prescription derived from the flight data. Chris was its Instrument Scientist and a member of the Investigation Definition Team. He wrote the WFPC2 handbook and was responsible for the initial commissioning and calibration of the camera after the first servicing mission in December 1993.
For the photometric calibration, Chris and Jon Holtzman observed at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia with a ground-based system similar to the flight camera, providing the ground data that tie the WFPC2 photometric system to the standard Landolt UBVRI system. The result, Holtzman et al. (1995), The Photometric Performance and Calibration of WFPC2, became the standard WFPC2 photometry reference, with more than a thousand citations.
In recognition of your outstanding contributions to the optical correction of the Hubble Space Telescope and to the development of the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC 2). — NASA Public Service Medal citation, 1994
Papers
- 1994Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 Instrument Handbook, Version 2.0 (May 1994)Burrows, C. J. (Ed.), with Griffiths, R. E.; Krist, J.; MacKenty, J. W.; et al.STScI
- 1995