Spectroradiometry with Space Telescopes

Abstract

Radiometry, i.e., measuring the power of electromagnetic radiation -hitherto often referred to as "photometry" -is of fundamental importance in astronomy. We provide an overview of how to achieve a valid laboratory calibration of space telescopes and discuss ways to reliably extend this calibration to the spectroscopic telescope's performance in space. A lot of effort has been, and still is going into radiometric "calibration" of telescopes once they are in space; these methods use celestial primary and transfer standards and are based in part on stellar models. The history of the calibration of the Hubble Space Telescope serves as a platform to review these methods. However, we insist that a true calibration of spectroscopic space telescopes must directly be based on and traceable to laboratory standards, and thus be independent of the observations.