Telescope calibration facility (TCF)

Description:

The Telescope Calibration Facility (TCF) was designed to support the NIST Stars project by providing a facility to radiometricly calibrate long focal length instruments. The TCF consists of a source room, a 40-meter tunnel, and a 40-meter viewing hall. The source room contains a variety of laser and broadband light sources which can be fiber coupled into an integrating sphere. An irradiance meter calibrated at the SIRCUS facility or the Spectral comparator facilities (SCFs) is used to measure the irradiance from the sphere. A telescope with a detector (CCD camera or spectrometer) at the focal plane is placed on a sled in the viewing hall and observes the light from the source room. An encoder on the sled allows precise changes in the source-telescope distance. Knowledge of the irradiance from the source and the source-telescope distance allow the irradiance calibration to be transferred to the telescope-detector system.

Experimental setup for Telescope calibration facility

Associated Programs/Projects:

NIST Stars

Image of the spectrometer, telescope, and source used at the Telescope calibration facility

Contact

Name: Keith Lykke
Phone: 301-975-3216
Fax: 301-840-8551
Email: keith.lykke@nist.gov
Address:
100 Bureau Drive, M/S 8444
Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8444

Name: Steven Brown
Phone: 301-975-5167
Email: steven.brown@nist.gov

Name: Allan Smith
Phone: 301-975-8536
Email: allan.smith@nist.gov

Name: John Woodward
Phone: 301-975-5495
Email: john.woodward@nist.gov

Name: Mike Lin
Phone: 301-975-5327
Email: mike.lin@nist.gov