Papa Camera

The PAPA camera was initially developed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophsyics in the early to mid 1980's. It uses a set of parallel aligned optical systems feeding an ever finer coded mask to measure precise stellar positions. The present project is the result of a cooperative arrangement between Lexitek Corp., working under a NASA SBIR grant,  and SAO; to develop a smaller, lighter version of the camera. One of the main goals is to determine how well the camera can be adapted to space applications.