Telescope stray light: early experience with SOFIA

Effective stray light control is a key requirement for wide dynamic range performance of scientific optical and infrared systems. SOFIA now has over 325 mission flights including extended southern hemisphere deployments; science campaigns using 7 different instrument configurations have been completed. The research observations accomplished on these missions indicate that the telescope and cavity designs are effective at suppressing stray light. Stray light performance impacts, such as optical surface contamination, from cavity environment conditions during mission flight cycles and while on-ground, have proved to be particularly benign. When compared with earlier estimates, far fewer large optics re-coatings are now anticipated, providing greater facility efficiency.