Far-ultraviolet astronomical narrowband imaging

We describe an all-reflective system for narrowband imaging suitable for imaging emission lines in the far ultraviolet. The system, which we call a monochromatic imager, combines a pupil plane grating monochromator with a telescope and camera to image a scene in one or more very narrow bands. The monochromator uses physical stops at its input and output apertures, and, as a result, the system has excellent rejection of out-of-band and off-axis light. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America