The Wide Field/Planetary Camera ( WFPC ) (pronounced as wiffpick (Operators of the WFPC1 were known as "whiff-pickers")) was a camera installed on the Hubble Space Telescope launched in April 1990 and operated until December 1993. It was one of the instruments on Hubble at launch, but its functionality was severely impaired by the defects of the main mirror optics which afflicted the telescope. However, it produced uniquely valuable high resolution images of relatively bright astronomical objects, allowing for a number of discoveries to be made by HST even in its aberrated condition.
17-620: Wide Field Camera may refer to these instruments: Aboard the Hubble Space Telescope: Wide Field and Planetary Camera (1990–1993) Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 (1993–2009) Wide Field Camera 3 (installed 2009) Wide Field Camera, at the Isaac Newton Telescope in the Canaries Wide Field Camera, aboard CALIPSO Topics referred to by
34-496: A near infrared detector array that covers the wavelength range from 800 to 1700 nm. The UV/optical channel has two CCDs, each 2048×4096 pixels , while the IR detector is 1024×1024. The focal planes of both channels were designed specifically for this camera. The optical channel has a field of view of 164 by 164 arcsec (2.7 by 2.7 arcminute, about 8.5% of the diameter of the full moon as seen from Earth) with 0.04 arcsec pixels. This view
51-662: A replacement version. The Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 improved on its predecessor and incorporated corrective optics needed to overcome the main mirror defect. To avoid potential confusion, the WFPC is now most commonly referred to as WFPC1. On its return to Earth, the WFPC was disassembled and parts of it were used in Wide Field Camera 3 , which was installed in Hubble on May 14, 2009, as part of Servicing Mission 4 , replacing WFPC2 . The instrument had two different cameras within,
68-437: Is a pathfinder for the future James Webb Space Telescope . Both channels have a variety of broad and narrow-band filters, as well as prisms and grisms , which enable wide-field, very-low-resolution spectroscopy that is useful for surveys. The optical channel covers the visible spectrum (380 nm to 780 nm) with high efficiency, and is also able to see into the near ultraviolet (down to 200 nm). The IR channel
85-517: Is comparable to the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and is slightly smaller than that of the Advanced Camera for Surveys . The near infrared channel has a field of view of 135 by 127 arcsec (2.3 by 2.1 arcminutes) with 0.13 arcsec pixels, and has a much larger field of view than Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer , which it was designed to largely replace. The near infrared channel
102-405: Is designed to lack sensitivity beyond 1700 nm (as compared with the 2500 nm limit for NICMOS) to avoid being swamped by thermal background coming from the relatively warm HST structure. This allows WFC3 to be cooled using a thermoelectric cooler instead of carrying a consumable cryogen to cool the instrument. The camera makes use of returned space hardware as the structure is built from
119-462: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Wide Field and Planetary Camera WFPC was proposed by James A. Westphal , a professor of planetary science at Caltech , and was designed, constructed, and managed by JPL . At the time it was proposed, 1976, CCDs had barely been used for astronomical imaging, though the first KH-11 KENNEN reconnaissance satellite equipped with CCDs for imaging
136-735: The Pillars of Creation , which was unveiled in January 2015 at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Seattle. The image was photographed by the Hubble Telescope's Wide Field Camera 3, installed in 2009, and produced using near-infrared and visible light exposure. The 1995 version of this picture of part of the Eagle nebula was taken with WFPC2. On January 8, 2019, the instrument experienced
153-609: The Wide Field Camera 3 in 2009. After return to Earth, WFPC was disassembled and its parts cannibalized to make WFC3. Wide Field Camera 3 The Wide Field Camera 3 ( WFC3 ) is the Hubble Space Telescope 's last and most technologically advanced instrument to take images in the visible spectrum. It was installed as a replacement for the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 during the first spacewalk of Space Shuttle mission STS-125 (Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4) on May 14, 2009. As of April 2023 , WFC3
170-564: The Wide Field and the Planetary Camera. The Wide Field camera had a wider field of view compared to the Planetary Camera. Although there was nothing known to be wrong with this instrument, the spherical aberration in HST's mirror severely limited the performance. WFPC was replaced by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 which included its own internal corrective optics. WFPC2 was replaced by
187-485: The original Wide Field and Planetary Camera as well as the filter assembly. These were switched for the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 by the servicing mission STS-61 in December 1993. WFC3 was originally conceived as an optical channel only; the near infrared channel was added later. WFC3 is intended to ensure that Hubble retains a powerful imaging capability through to the end of its lifetime. WFC3 had been in
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#1732845044673204-672: The planning since the Spring of 1998. It was built by a team of highly experienced Hubble engineers and scientists drawn from many organizations, with leadership at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland . WFC3 was constructed mostly at Goddard Space Flight Center and Ball Aerospace in Colorado. Various parts were built by contractors across the United States and the United Kingdom. The instrument
221-431: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Wide Field Camera . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wide_Field_Camera&oldid=1167761219 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
238-416: Was intended for the panoramic observations of faint sources at the cost of angular resolution . The Planetary Camera had a 0.043 arcsecond per pixel resolution and was intended for high-resolution observations. Selection between the two cameras was done with a four-facetted pyramid that rotated by 45 degrees. As part of the corrective service mission ( STS-61 in December 1993) the WFPC was swapped out for
255-411: Was launched in December 1976. The high sensitivity offered such promise that many astronomers strongly argued that CCDs should be considered for Hubble Space Telescope instrumentation. This first WFPC consisted of two separate cameras, each comprising 4 800x800 pixel Texas Instruments CCDs arranged to cover a contiguous field of view. The Wide Field camera had a 0.1 arcsecond per pixel resolution and
272-547: Was scheduled by NASA to launch with STS-125 on 14 October 2008, but the mission was postponed due to additional repairs that were required. The mission launched on 11 May 2009 and the WFC3 was installed on 14 May. by astronauts John M. Grunsfeld and Andrew J. Feustel . In celebration of the 25th anniversary since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers assembled a larger and higher-resolution photograph of
289-406: Was still operating. The instrument is designed to be a versatile camera capable of imaging astronomical targets over a very wide wavelength range and with a large field of view. It is a fourth-generation instrument for Hubble. The instrument has two independent light paths: a UV and optical channel that uses a pair of charge-coupled devices (CCD) to record images from 200 to 1000 nm ; and
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