Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #3126 – 29 May 2002

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

DAILY REPORT # 3126

PERIOD COVERED: 0000Z (UTC) 05/28/02 – 0000Z (UTC) 05/29/02

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED AND ACCOMPLISHED:

NICMOS 8790

NICMOS Post-SAA calibration – CR Persistence Part 1.

A new procedure proposed to alleviate the CR-persistence problem of NICMOS.
Dark frames will be obtained immediately upon exiting the SAA contour 23, and
every time a NICMOS exposure is scheduled within 50 minutes of coming out
of the
SAA. The darks will be obtained in parallel in all three NICMOS Cameras. The
POST-SAA darks will be non-standard reference files available to users with a
USEAFTER date/time mark.

STIS/CCD 8902

Dark Monitor-Part 2.

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to monitor the darks.

STIS/CCD 8904

Bias Monitor-Part 2.

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to monitor the bias in
the 1×1, 1×2, 2×1, and 2×2 bin settings at gain=1, and 1×1 at gain = 4 in order
to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the evolution of hot columns.

WFPC2 8938

WFPC2 CYCLE 9 SUPPLEMENTAL DARKS pt3/3.

characterizing the evolution of hot pixels.

WF/PC-2 8941

Cycle 10 UV Earthflats.

improve the quality of pipeline flat fields for the WFPC2 UV filter set.

ACS/WFC/HRC 8947

Weekly Test.

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (WFC and HRC) was used to perform basic
tests to
monitor, the read noise, the development of hot pixels and test for any source
of noise in ACS CCD detectors. This program will be executed at least once
a day
for the entire lifetime of ACS.

FGS/1 9034

The Masses and Luminosities of Population II Stars.

Fine Guidance Sensor 11R was used to observe the mass-luminosity relation {MLR}
of Population II stars of which very little is currently known. With the advent
of the Hipparcos Catalogue, improved distances to many spectroscopic binaries
known to be Pop II systems are now available. After surveying the
literature and
making reasonable estimates of the secondary masses, we find 13 systems whose
minimum separation should be larger than the resolution limit of FGS #1.

WF/PC-2 9043

Cepheid Distances to Early-type Galaxies.

The WF/PC-2 was used to continue observations in the HST Key Project on the
Extragalactic Distance Scale and the HST project on the “Calibration of Nearby
Type Ia Supernovae” that have greatly improved our knowledge of the Hubble
Constant by providing a solid zero point for the Tully- Fisher {TF}
relation and
Type Ia Supernovae {SNIa}. However, severe inconsistencies remain for distance
estimators to early-type galaxies such as surface brightness fluctuations
{SBF},
the planetary nebula luminosity function {PNLF}, the fundamental plane
{FP}, and
the globular cluster luminosity function {GCLF}. As a result, the distance to
the Virgo cluster core remains uncertain by as much as 20 determination is
directly affected by a lingering 0.1 mag {5 uncertainty in the photometric
calibration of the WFPC2. Resolving these issues is essential not only to firm
up the extragalactic distance scale, but also to understand the mass and
velocity structure of the local universe. SBF in particular is emerging as the
method of choice for mapping local velocity fields to 10, 000 kms because it
offers an order of magnitude less Malmquist bias than TF, and SNIa are too rare
to study large scale flows effectively. This project will tighten the
photometric calibration of the WFPC2, and provide a solid Cepheid calibration
for SBF and PNLF.

STIS/CCD/MA1 9051

Identifying Damped Lyman-alpha Galaxies at z~1.

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD and MA1) was used to look for
damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems that contain the bulk of the neutral gas
in the Universe in the redshift range z = 0.5 – 5, yet the nature of the
galaxies responsible for the absorption is not well understood. Only recently
have observers found more than a handful of damped absorbers at redshifts z < 1.5. Using the FIRST Bright Quasar Survey {FBQS}, with over a 1000 quasars, the proposers have undertaken a survey to build a complete picture of he nature of the galaxies responsible for damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems at z~1 and to double the sample size at this redshift.

STIS/CCD 9066

Closing in on the Hydrogen Reionization Edge of the Universe.

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used in parallel constrain
the Hydrogen reionization edge in emission that marks the transition from a
neutral to a fully ionized IGM at a predicted redshifts.

ACS/WFC/HRC 9075

Cosmological Parameters from Type Ia Supernovae at High Redshift.

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (WFC and HRC) was used to obtain a Hubble
diagram of Type Ia supernovae {SNe Ia} that will be of long lasting value as a
record of the expansion history of the universe.

STIS/MA1/MA2 9151

UV Snapshot Observation of Nearby Star Forming Galaxies.

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (MA1 and MA2) was used to obtain FUV
and NUV images of nearby emission- line galaxies with existing star-formation
rate {SFR} measurements from their HAlpha flux. Recently, the use of the UV
flux
as a measure of SFR has gained much popularity for estimating SFRs at different
cosmic epochs. However, the SFR estimated from UV flux could be greatly biased
due to dust extinction. The KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey {KISS}
provides a large sample of nearby HAlpha-selected starforming galaxies for
which
rich optical spectra are available for measuring metallicity and dust
extinction
through line ratios. By observing a subset of nearby emission-line galaxies in
the KISS sample with the STIS FUV and NUV MAMA, a direct comparison between UV
and Halpha SFR estimates will be possible. This will allow us to understand the
effect of dust extinction on UV flux for star- forming galaxies over a wide
range of HAlpha luminosity, metallicity absolute magnitude, and B-V color . A
rough dust extinction curve will be constructed for such objects, making it
possible to test plausible dust extinction curves used in previous SFR studies
of the distant universe. Also, high-resolution UV images will allow us to
search
for plausible local counterparts to high redshift galaxies whose rest-frame UV
morphology is available from existing optical HST data.

NICMOS 9269

NICMOS Parallel Thermal Background

NICMOS Camera 3 pure parallel exposures in the F222M filter will be
obtained for
the entire duration of SMOV to establish the stability of the
HST+NCS+Instrument
thermal emission.

STIS/CCD 9317

Pure Parallel Imaging Program: Cycle 10.

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to perform the default
archival pure parallel program for STIS during cycle 10.

WF/PC-2 9318

POMS Test Proposal: WFII Parallel Archive Proposal Continuation.

The WF/PC-2 was used to perform the generic target version of the WFPC2
Archival
Pure Parallel program. The program was used to take parallel images of random
areas of the sky, following the recommendations of the Parallels Working
Group.

WF/PC-2 9319

POMS Test Proposal: WFII Backup Parallel Archive Proposal II.

The WF/PC-2 was used to execute a POMS test proposal, designed to simulate
future scientific plans.

HST 9382

A Large Targeted Survey for z < 1.6 Damped Lyman Alpha Lines in SDSS QSO MgII-FeII Systems.

We have searched the first public release of SDSS QSO spectra for low-z
{z<1.65} metal absorption lines and found over 200 large rest equivalent width MgII-FeII systems. Previously, we empirically showed that such systems are good tracers of large neutral gas columns, with ~50% being classical damped Lyman alpha {DLA} systems {N_HI>=2*10^20 cm^-2}. Here we propose to follow up a well-defined
subset of 79 of them to search for DLAs with 0.47

ACS 9476

Galaxy Evolution in the Richest Clusters at z=0.8: the EDisCS Cluster Sample

The study of distant cluster galaxies requires two key ingredients: {1} deep
high-resolution imaging, to constrain galaxy structure; and {2} 8m-class
spectroscopy, to measure stellar content, star-formation rates, dynamics, and
cluster membership. We will reach both conditions with the addition of HST/ACS
imaging to our suite of VLT {36 nights} and NTT {20 nights} observations of 10
confirmed clusters at z~0.8, drawn from the ESO Distant Cluster Survey
{EDisCS}.
The proposed HST/ACS data will complement our existing optical/IR imaging and
spectroscopy with quantitative measures of cluster galaxy morphologies {i.e.
sizes and shapes, bulge-disk decompositions, asymmetry parameters}, and with
measurements of cluster masses via weak lensing. Major advantages unique to the
EDisCS project include: {i} uniform selection of clusters; {ii} large enough
sample sizes to characterize the substantial cluster-to-cluster variation in
galaxy populations; {iii} large quantities of high quality data from 8m
telescopes; {iv} uniform measurements of morphologies, spectroscopic and
photometric redshifts, SEDs, star-formation/AGN activities, and internal
kinematics; {v} optical selection of clusters to complement the X-ray selection
of almost all high-z clusters in the ACS GTO programs; {vi} forefront numerical
simulations designed specifically to allow physical interpretation of observed
differences between the high-z and local clusters.

ACS/WFC 9575

Default {Archival} Pure Parallel Program.

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (WFC) was used to test ACS pure parallels in
POMS.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

HSTARs: None

COMPLETED OPS REQs: None

OPS NOTES EXECUTED:

1004- 2 Update Pressure Based Battery Capacity Equations.

                    SCHEDULED     SUCCESSFUL    FAILURE TIMES

FGS GSacq             7                   7

FGS REacq             8                   8

FHST Update           15                 15

LOSS of LOCK         None

Operations Notes

FOT is now in building 23 with C String Prime, Due to isolation test.

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:

Continuation of Servicing Mission Orbital Verification and the gradual
resumption of normal science observations and calibrations.