The Astronomical Journal (Jan 2024)

SuperBIT Superpressure Flight Instrument Overview and Performance: Near-diffraction-limited Astronomical Imaging from the Stratosphere

  • Ajay S. Gill,
  • Steven J. Benton,
  • Christopher J. Damaren,
  • Spencer W. Everett,
  • Aurelien A. Fraisse,
  • John W. Hartley,
  • David Harvey,
  • Bradley Holder,
  • Eric M. Huff,
  • Mathilde Jauzac,
  • William C. Jones,
  • David Lagattuta,
  • Jason S.-Y. Leung,
  • Lun Li,
  • Thuy Vy T. Luu,
  • Richard Massey,
  • Jacqueline E. McCleary,
  • Johanna M. Nagy,
  • C. Barth Netterfield,
  • Emaad Paracha,
  • Susan F. Redmond,
  • Jason D. Rhodes,
  • Andrew Robertson,
  • L. Javier Romualdez,
  • Jürgen Schmoll,
  • Mohamed M. Shaaban,
  • Ellen L. Sirks,
  • Georgios N. Vassilakis,
  • André Z. Vitorelli

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad5840
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 168, no. 2
p. 85

Abstract

Read online

SuperBIT was a 0.5 m near-UV to near-infrared wide-field telescope that launched on a NASA superpressure balloon into the stratosphere from New Zealand for a 45-night flight. SuperBIT acquired multiband images of galaxy clusters to study the properties of dark matter using weak gravitational lensing. We provide an overview of the instrument and its various subsystems. We then present the instrument performance from the flight, including the telescope and image stabilization system, the optical system, the power system, and the thermal system. SuperBIT successfully met the instrument’s technical requirements, achieving a telescope pointing stability of 0.″34 ± 0.″10, a focal plane image stability of 0.″055 ± 0.″027, and a point-spread function FWHM of ∼0.″35 over 5-minute exposures throughout the 45-night flight. The telescope achieved a near-diffraction-limited point-spread function in all three science bands ( u , b , and g ). SuperBIT served as a pathfinder to the GigaBIT observatory, which will be a 1.34 m near-UV to near-infrared balloon-borne telescope.

Keywords