2018 flight of the faint intergalactic medium redshifted emission balloon (FIREBall-2) (Conference Presentation)

Abstract

In this talk, I will describe briefly the telescope, instrument, and flight of the Faint Intergalactic medium Redshifted Emission Balloon (FIREBall-2). FIREBall-2 is a UV multi-object spectrograph fed by a 1 meter parabola mirror. The instrument was designed to observe 4 pre-selected fields and uses a UV optimized delta-doped EMCCD. The telescope flew on September 22, 2018 from Fort Sumner, NM, as part of the fall CSBF balloon campaign. The telescope collected data for several night hours before being cut down. I will describe the testing, flight, and hardware performance with an emphasis on the in flight performance of the instrument, including resolution, throughput, and the overall operation of the UV optimized EMCCD. Additional talks will be presented on other aspects of the flight and data.

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