The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT) was a space telescope designed to make spectroscopic observations in the far-ultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum. It was flown into orbit on the Space Shuttle and operated from the Shuttle's payload bay on two occasions: in December 1990, as part of Shuttle mission STS-35, and in March 1995, as part of mission STS-67.[1]
HUT was designed and built by a team based at Johns Hopkins University, led by Arthur Davidsen.[2][3] The telescope consisted of a 90 cm main mirror used to focus ultraviolet light onto a spectrograph situated at the prime focus. This instrument had a spectroscopic range of 82.5 to 185 nms, and a spectral resolution of about 0.3 nm.[2]
It weighed 789 kilograms (1736 pounds).[2]
HUT was used to observe a wide range of astrophysical sources, including supernova remnants, active galactic nuclei, cataclysmic variable stars, as well as various planets in the Solar System.[4] During the 1990 flight, HUT was used to make 106 observations of 77 astronomical targets. During the 1995 flight, 385 observations were made of 265 targets.[5]
