The Far Ultraviolet Background: Dust Scattering and the Extragalactic Continuum

Abstract

NASA's Ultraviolet Experiment (UVX) payload, which flew aboard space shuttle Columbia in January 1986, contained a spectrograph built by the Space Astrophysics Group at the University of California, Berkeley. The wavelength range is 1400–1850 Å with a FWHM resolution of ~15 ± 2 Å. A full description of the instrument can be found in Martin and Bowyer (1984). The instrument was pointed at various regions of the sky for 8 nighttime orbits. Targets spanning a wide range of galactic latitudes and neutral hydrogen column densities were observed.