Chandra Operations CXO Status Report Friday 15 March 2002

During the last week the observing schedule was replanned twice to include two observations accepted as Targets Of Opportunity (TOO). The X-ray transient RX J170930.2-263927 was accepted on 11 March and observed on 12 March, and the supernova SN20020B was accepted on 12 March and observed on 14 March. Observations of IRAS20051-1117, PSS 0958+0740 and FTM0738+2750 were impacted by the TOOs and will be observed in a later schedule.

Real-time procedures were completed nominally on 12 March to update the spacecraft ephemeris and on 14 March to perform a charge injection test with ACIS.

A press release was issued on March 13 announcing that the “twin” quasars Q2345+007 A,B previously considered to be an optical illusion, are now thought to have been produced by merging galaxies. For details
see: http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/02_releases/press_031302.html.

Of note this week is the deadline for submission of Chandra cycle 4 proposals a 19:00 EST on March 15.

The observing schedule for the next week is shown below and includes a follow-up observation of the TOO RX J170930.2-263927 and a phase constrained observation of Cgynus X-1.

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GRS 1758-258            ACIS-S/HETG  Mar 17
RX J170930.2-263927     ACIS-S       Mar 18
Cyg X-1                 ACIS-S/HETG
A2259                   ACIS-I
IC 342 X-1              ACIS-S
L1527                   ACIS-I
IRAS 18325-5926         ACIS-S/HETG  Mar 19
Radiation Belts
NGC 4038/NGC 4039       ACIS-S       Mar 20
3C 279                  ACIS-S/HETG  Mar 21
Radiation Belts                      Mar 22
MACS-J1115.2+5320       ACIS-I
HS 0830+1833            ACIS-S       Mar 23
HS 0854+0915            ACIS-S
Q1231+481               ACIS-S
SGR A*                  ACIS-I
IRAS 18325-5926         ACIS-S/HETG
SC 1120-1202            ACIS-I       Mar 24
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All spacecraft subsystems continued to operate nominally