Evaluation of Pinholes in Unbacked Metal Film Filters to be Used in Rocket- and Satellite-Borne XUV Spectroheliographs.

Extreme ultraviolet (XUV) spectroheliographs require thin metal film filters that transmit the XUV radiation and eliminate scattered visible and near-uv radiation that would fog the photographic film on which the XUV images are recorded. Pinholes in the filters cause local fogging of the film during exposures in flight. It will be shown that the best way for preflight evaluation of pinhole effects is by using the filter in the flight instrument and photographing the sun from the earth's surface. An alternative method that appears to be as good, and is more convenient. is to test the filters in a simulated flight instrument. The results of evaluations using both the flight instrument and a simulated flight instrument will be shown.