Internal to external wavelength calibration

The spectra of Hen 1357 (the Stingray nebula) were used to check the internal to external wavelength calibration of the STIS first order CCD modes. The radial velocity of the Stingray nebula is known to high accuracy (< 1 km/sec) and the line with of the nebular line is very narrow (< 8 km/sec for the integrated nebula). Thus the observations of the Stingray nebula are ideal to check the internal to external wavelength calibration of the first order modes. The observations were taken in G430L and G750M modes using a 52 x 0.05 arcsec slit covering the wavelength range 2900 to 5700 A and 6295 to 6867 A, respectively. The observed wavelength range includes many nebular emission lines. The wavelengths of the nebular lines derived using the pipeline internal wavelength calibration were compared with the wavelengths derived from other ground based observations. In all cases, the wavelength match between the two is of the same order as the accuracy to which the line center can be measured. These results imply that there is no significant offset between the internal and external wavelength calibrations for these modes. The HDF-S QSO observations were also used for this test both for the first order and the Echelle modes. The results of the HDF-S QSO observations further confirm the above finding for the first order modes, and imply that there is no significant offset between the internal and external wavelength calibration for the Echelle modes.