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Q: What filter should I use?
A: Due to hardware limitations, the Clear (F583W) filter should not be used for
any target brighter than visual magnitude m = 8.1.
For Position Mode observations, Clear (F583W) is the recommended filter since
the Optical Field Angle Distortion (OFAD) calibration has been performed only
for this filter. For bright targets m < 8.0, the Neutral Density filter (F5ND) may
be used as this filter has had a preliminary cross-filter calibration performed
with respect to the Clear filter. If an OFAD correction is necessary to the
reduction of the data, no other filter should be used.
For Transfer Mode only the PUPIL, Clear (F583W) and Neutral Density (F5ND)
are currently calibrated. The user is, of course, always free to obtain his own
calibration scan with the filter of his choice. The Neutral Density (F5ND) must
be used for targets brighter than m = 7.5. the Clear filter (F583W) cannot be
used for targets brighter than m = 8.1. The PUPIL filter yields a Transfer
Function with a higher peak-to-peak but the data is intrinsically noisier than
data taken through the Clear filter since the object's effective magnitude is
about 1 mag fainter with the PUPIL in place. At the center of the field of view,
a good "rule of thumb" is: targets fainter than m = 13 should be observed with
the Clear (F583W) filter, brighter objects with PUPIL. In fields of high
background, the PUPIL should be used.
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