U.V. astronomy with balloons

Balloon platforms are becoming more and more reliable as carriers of infrared and UV equipment. The balloon environment offers conditions of lower emissivity and higher transparency of the atmosphere. Precise photometric and spectroscopic measurements can be made in all spectral interval exceeding 1950 Å. Stabilized and unexpensive gondola are now available. Thus, high and low resolution spectra can be obtained for numerous stars. Accurate UV-multiband photometry and spectrophotometry are possible for stars members of large galactic clusters. A stabilized astronomical gondola was carrying a Schmidt photographic camera with UV microchannel plate image converter-intensifier. Systematic surveys of the galactic plane and the galactic poles are in progress. The quality of the UV image is good enough to allow a fine morphological analysis of the large galaxies, to detect a large number of nuclei of galaxies and nebulosities.