Instrumentation and Operations

The general design of the Tübingen Ultraviolet Echelle Spectrograph (TUES) was discussed by Grewing et al. (1991; in Extreme Ultraviolet Astronomy, ed. R. Malina & S. Bowyer, p. 422), and a general review of the instrument and mission can be found in Appenzeller et al. (1998, in Ultraviolet Astrophysics: Beyond the Final IUE Archive, ed. W. Wamsteker & R. Gonzalez-Riestra, p. 757).

A summary of the in-flight and calibration results is given by Barnstedt et al. (1999). Wavelength calibration results from interstellar molecular lines are reported in Barnstedt et al. (2000)

Descriptions can be found in the Tübingen project's home websites of the

• ORFEUS telescope/spectrograph (in German)
• echelle spectrograph (in German)
• detector (in German)

The TUES was deployed as part of the ORFEUS/SPAS-2 platform by the Columbia Space Shuttle on November 19, 1996, and operated for 14 days of the Shuttle's 17-day mission (STS-80). Once deployed, ORFEUS conducted program observations by receiving real-time ground commands from Drs. Ron Polidan, Richard Miller, and Peter Vedder at the Kennedy Spacecraft Center Operations & Control Center.