The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT)

The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) and the Messier Objects

The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UIT) was designed for use on Space Shuttle missions. It was hitherto successfully flown twice, and has provided a considerable number of interesting images in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, which cannot be observed from the Earth's surface because of the atmosphere. Optically, UIT is a 38-cm f/9 Ritchey-Chretien telescope.

The telescope was used to study all kinds of astronomical objects, therefore including many clusters, nebulae, and galaxies from Messier's catalog. Consequently, we have a considerable percentage of these images included in our database.

M1: Near and Far UV images of M1, Visible and X-ray image (Astro-1)
M33: UIT images of M33 (Astro-1)
M74: UIT images of M74 (Astro-1)
M77: UIT images of M77 (Astro-1)
M79: UIT images of M79 (Astro-1)
M81: UIT images of M81 (Astro-1)
M82: UIT images of M82 (Astro-1)
M94: UIT images of M94 (Astro-2)
M100: UIT images of M100 (Astro-1)
M101: UIT images of M101 (Astro-2)

Links:

Nasa UIT page; Images from the Astro-1 Space Shuttle mission (STS-35); Images from the Astro-2 Space Shuttle mission (STS-67)
Astro-2 UIT info, University of Oregon
Astro-1 Shuttle Mission (STS-35) - Astro-1 info (NSSDC)
Astro-2 Shuttle Mission (STS-67) - Astro-2 info (NSSDC)
List of UIT publications (R.W. O'Connell, Univ. of Virginia)

Hartmut Frommert
Christine Kronberg
[contact]

Last Modification: March 8, 1998