9.3 Spectral Element Movement Overheads

For any COS exposure, including target-acquisition exposures, any change of spectral elements incurs an overhead. A transition from FUV to NUV requires movement of OSM1 to the NCM1 position, followed by a possible OSM2 movement. On the other hand, a transition from NUV to FUV requires only the movement of OSM1 from NCM1 to the desired FUV grating and cenwave. Table 9.3 gives the times required for movement between OSM1 spectral elements. These depend mildly on cenwave, so typical values are shown. Table 9.4 gives the times for movement between OSM2 spectral elements. These do not depend on cenwave.

All COS visits start with OSM1 at the G130M position (with central wavelength 1291 Å) and OSM2 at the MIRRORA position. These gratings are highlighted in Table 9.3 and Table 9.4. OSM1 and OSM2 move sequentially, so the total overhead is the sum of the two separate overheads. The time required to move from one optical element to another is independent of the FP-POS settings.

Table 9.3: Overhead Times for Motions Between OSM1 Spectral Elements (seconds)

¹ Use these entries if the G130M cenwave is 1055 or 1096.

Table 9.4: Overhead Times for Motions Between OSM2 Spectral Elements (seconds).