The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) 2006: Calibration and Flight Performance

• Published in: The Astrophysical Journal
• Main Authors: Truch, M.D.P., Ade, Peter A. R., Bock, James J., Chapin, Edward L., Devlin, Mark J., Dicker, Simon R., Griffin, Matthew, Gundersen, Joshua O., Halpern, Mark, Hargrave, Peter C., Hughes, David H., Klein, Jeff, Marsden, Gaelen, Martin, Peter G., Mauskopf, Philip, Moncelsi, Lorenzo, Netterfield, Calvin B., Olmi, Luca, Pascale, Enzo, Patanchon, G., Rex, Marie, Scott, Douglas, Semisch, Christopher, Thomas, Nicholas E., Tucker, Carole, Tucker, Gregory S., Viero, Marco P., Wiebe, Donald V.
• Other Authors: APC - Cosmologie, AstroParticule et Cosmologie (APC (UMR_7164)), Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives (CEA)-Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physique des Particules du CNRS (IN2P3)-Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL)-Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7 (UPD7)-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: HAL CCSD 2009
• Subjects: balloons; submillimeter; telescopes; [PHYS.ASTR.IM]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; [SDU.ASTR.IM]Sciences of the Universe [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]/Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://hal.in2p3.fr/in2p3-00376764; https://doi.org/10.1088/0004-637X/707/2/1723

Maps available at http://blastexperiment.info/ The Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (BLAST) operated successfully during a 250-hour flight over Antarctica in December 2006 (BLAST06). As part of the calibration and pointing procedures, the red hypergiant star VY CMa was observed and used as the primary calibrator. Details of the overall BLAST06 calibration procedure are discussed. The 1-sigma absolute calibration is accurate to 10, 12, and 13% at the 250, 350, and 500 micron bands, respectively. The errors are highly correlated between bands resulting in much lower error for the derived shape of the 250-500 micron continuum. The overall pointing error is <5" rms for the 36, 42, and 60" beams. The performance of the optics and pointing systems is discussed.