HIPO is a special purpose instrument for SOFIA, the Stratospheric Observatory For Infrared Astronomy. It is a high-speed, imaging photometer that will be used for a variety of time-resolved precise photometry observations, including stellar occultations by solar system objects and transits by extrasolar planets. HIPO will also be used during the test program for the SOFIA telescope, a process that began with a series of ground-based tests in 2004. The HIPO requirements, optical design, overall description, and an early look at performance and planned data acquisition modes have appeared in earlier papers (e.g. Dunham, et al., Proc. SPIE 5492, 592-603 (2004)). This paper provides an update to the instrument description, final lab measurements of instrument performance, and a discussion of the data produced by the various observing modes.

Date Published: 11 July 2008
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 7014, Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy II, 70144Z (11 July 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.788040

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7014:
Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy II
Ian S. McLean; Mark M. Casali, Editor(s)