In conventional camera terms, it’s a 75mm lens at f/8.7

July 15, 2015 6:11 AM

A story in the Atlantic about "Ralph", the camera taking the tan-and-sepia-toned high-resolution photos of Pluto.

Because different materials shrink at different rates, “We actually built the mirrors and the chassis out of aluminum so that as they shrink, they would shrink together, to maintain the same focal length."
posted by artsandsci (6 comments total)

That's a little thin on details. Try this if you would like to know more: Ralph: A Visible/Infrared Imager for the New Horizons Pluto/Kuiper Belt Mission
posted by bdc34 at 7:31 AM on July 15, 2015 [4 favorites]

Wow bdc34 that's way more than I could ever ask for!
posted by seawallrunner at 11:05 AM on July 15, 2015

Here are 9 more: Articles in arXiv from special volume of Space Science Reviews on the New Horizons mission

Including
Overview of the New Horizons Science Payload
and
ALICE: The Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrograph aboard the
New Horizons Pluto-Kuiper Belt Mission
posted by bdc34 at 11:33 AM on July 15, 2015

Lovely post!
posted by mathiu at 12:39 PM on July 15, 2015

by happenstance i was just looking for info on LORRI, which is the long range imager.

as far as i can tell it has a mono CCD and no filters:

SSR-LORRI pdf
posted by joeblough at 1:29 PM on July 15, 2015

Pluto: The Ice Plot Thickens (NASA) - "The latest spectra from New Horizons Ralph instrument reveal an abundance of methane ice, but with striking differences from place to place across the frozen surface of Pluto."
posted by filthy light thief at 7:37 AM on July 28, 2015