Astronomers looking for planets around other stars or trying to pick out individual objects in a galactic blur depend on the faint-object camera.

That riddle has already been largely solved by analyzing images taken by the telescope's faint-object camera.

The faint-object camera will be considerably degraded, but its observations in ultraviolet light could still make discoveries beyond the capability of ground-based telescopes.

The faint-object camera will lose up to 40 percent of its capability to see visible light and some of its capabilities in ultraviolet light.

The faint-object camera will still be useful, scientists said, because most of its observations were to be in ultraviolet light.

In fact, the faint-object camera should be able to make observations comparable to detecting the light of a firefly 8,000 miles away.

The mirrors were then deployed to correct the focus of light entering the faint-object camera and two spectrographs.

In a few more days, ground controllers operated the faint-object camera for the first test of the other important piece of equipment installed by the astronauts.

The faint-object camera, for example, has produced images of a fascinating 'Einstein cross'.

The faint-object camera has also been looking at the remnants of the supernova which excited astronomers in 1987.