3.2 Instrument Capabilities

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ACS is a versatile instrument that can be applied to a broad range of scientific programs. The three prime capabilities of ACS are: Deep, wide-field imaging from visible to near-IR wavelengths.

High spatial resolution imaging from near-UV to near-IR wavelengths.
Solar blind UV imaging.

ACS has three channels, each optimized for a specific goal:

Wide Field Channel (WFC): 202 x 202 arcsecond field of view from ~3500 Å to 11,000 Å, and peak efficiency of 48% (including the Optical Telescope Assembly (OTA)). The plate scale of ~0.05 arcseconds/pixel provides critical sampling at 11,600 Å.
High Resolution Channel (HRC): 29 x 26 arcsecond field of view from ~1700 Å to 11,000 Å, and peak efficiency of 29%. The plate scale of ~0.027 arcseconds/pixel provides critical sampling at 6300 Å.
Solar Blind Channel (SBC): 34.6 x 30.5 arcsecond field of view from 1150 Å to 1700 Å, plate scale of ~0.032 arcseconds/pixel, and peak efficiency of 7.5%.

In addition to these three prime capabilities, ACS also provides:

Grism spectroscopy: Low resolution (R ~100 @ 8000 Å) wide field spectroscopy from 5500 Å to 10,500 Å available in both the WFC and the HRC.
Prism spectroscopy: Low resolution (R = 59 @ 2500 Å) near-UV spectroscopy from 1700 Å to 3900 Å available in the HRC.
Prism spectroscopy: Low resolution (R ~100 @ 1500 Å) far-UV spectroscopy from 1250 Å to 1800 Å available in the SBC.
Coronagraphy: Aberrated beam coronagraphy in the HRC from 2000 Å to 11,000 Å with 1.8 arcsecond and 3.0 arcsecond diameter occulting spots.
Imaging Polarimetry: Polarimetric imaging in the HRC and WFC with relative polarization angles of 0°, 60°, and 120°.