Solar X-Ray Monitor

Description

The X-ray counter was composed of a collimator, two ionization chambers, and two electrometers. A small angular aperture was chosen for the telescope collimator, which was mounted so that the declination of its axis could be controlled by ground command to ensure that the sun was viewed by the telescope once during every vehicle rotation. One ion chamber was filled with argon at 1 atm for detection of 1- to 8-A X rays and had a 0.127-mm beryllium window to exclude X rays of longer wavelengths. The other chamber was filled with xenon at 1.5 to 2 atm, and had a 1.27-mm beryllium window for measurements of X rays in the wavelength range 0.5 to 3 A.