With that, how about using this nice mobile 2.5m reflector telescope for high speed imaging sprites and other electric features above thunderstorms?SOFIA has not met operational or science productivity expectations, which has caused stakeholders to question whether the $83 million spent annually on the Program can be put to better use.
The current field of view of the FPI+ CCD camera is a square of 8x8 arcmin (1/3 lunar angular size) which might be too small for that purpose but it could be usable for trying to capture extreme detail views.
The minimum exposure time appears to be 1/1000 s of the FPI+ camera which is most likely an Ixon 3 888 with its e2v CCD201-20 1024 x 1024 CCD:
https://physiology.case.edu/media/eq_ma ... _guide.pdf
Other current instruments which can be screwed on the telescope:
https://www.sofia.usra.edu/science/prop ... ok-cycle-9
Earlier, in cycle 5 a high speed 1024x1024 2 band photometer was in use:
https://www.sofia.usra.edu/science/prop ... -viii-hipo
The optical wavelength limits are from far IR down to 300nm (UV) and would fit.
I read about the usable telescope elevation of 20 - 60 degree, which would be outside of the typical sprites observation near the horizon from the flight level. But with flying a curve it could be reached...
Comments?