First results from the balloon flight of the NCT prototype

Wayne Coburn; Steven E. Boggs; Jason D. Bowen; Mark E. Bandstra; Mark S. Amman; Morgan T. Burks; William Craig; Pierre Jean; Robert P. Lin; Paul N. Luke; Norman W. Madden; David M. Smith; Peter von Ballmoos

doi:10.1117/12.615876

18 August 2005 First results from the balloon flight of the NCT prototype

Wayne Coburn, Steven E. Boggs, Jason D. Bowen, Mark E. Bandstra, Mark S. Amman, Morgan T. Burks, William Craig, Pierre Jean, Robert P. Lin, Paul N. Luke, Norman W. Madden, David M. Smith, Peter von Ballmoos

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 5898, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XIV; 589802 (2005) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.615876
Event: Optics and Photonics 2005, 2005, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We flew a prototype of the Nuclear Compton Telescope (NCT) on a high altitude balloon from Fort Sumner, New Mexico on 2005 June 1. The NCT prototype is a soft gamma-ray (0.2-15 MeV) telescope designed to study, through spectroscopy, imaging, and timing, astrophysical sources of nuclear line emission and gamma-ray polarization. Our program is designed to develop and test the technologies and analysis techniques crucial for the Advanced Compton Telescope satellite, while studying gamma-ray radiation with very high spectral resolution, moderate angular resolution, and high sensitivity. The NCT prototype utilizes two, 3D imaging germanium detectors (GeDs) in a novel, ultra-compact design optimized for nuclear line emission (0.5-2 MeV) and polarization in the 0.2-0.5 MeV range. Our prototype flight was a critical test of the novel instrument technologies, analysis techniques, and background rejection procedures we have developed for high resolution Compton telescopes.

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Wayne Coburn, Steven E. Boggs, Jason D. Bowen, Mark E. Bandstra, Mark S. Amman, Morgan T. Burks, William Craig, Pierre Jean, Robert P. Lin, Paul N. Luke, Norman W. Madden, David M. Smith, and Peter von Ballmoos "First results from the balloon flight of the NCT prototype", Proc. SPIE 5898, UV, X-Ray, and Gamma-Ray Space Instrumentation for Astronomy XIV, 589802 (18 August 2005); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.615876

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