Jayant Murthy,* M. Safonova, R. Mohan and P. Gopakumar
Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Koramangala, Bangalore 560 034, India
Abstract. The TAUVEX Observatory consists of three identical co-aligned telescopes operating in several bands in the 1200 - 3500 ° bandpass from geo- A stationary orbit. The ma jor science ob jectives of TAUVEX are (a) searches for QSOs and AGNs based on their UV properties, (b) surface photometry of galaxies in the UV, (c) studies of stars and nebulae within the Galaxy, (d) the nature of the UV background, and (d) studies of variable sources in the UV domain. The Principal Investigators and TAUVEX Science Team have created a coherent observing programme to address several key science ob jectives that will constitute the Core Science Programme pro jects. Along with this pro ject, which will contribute up to 85% of observing time, the Science and Core Group teams have identified a small number of more modest programmes to pursue. We present a description of the TAUVEX mission, including details of the in- strument design and its estimated performance, assess the status of the mission development and describe in brief the main research categories. Additional in- formation on the TAUVEX programme and development can be obtained on the World Wide Web at http://tauvex.iiap.res.in.
Keywords: space vehicles: instruments - ultraviolet: general - surveys