Status Report

Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #2778 01/03/01

By SpaceRef Editor
January 3, 2001
Filed under ,

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE
 
  DAILY REPORT #2778
 
PERIOD COVERED:  0000Z (UTC) 01/02/01 – 0000Z (UTC) 01/03/01
 
Daily Status Report as of 003/0000Z
 
1.0 OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED AND ACCOMPLISHED:
 
    1.1 Completed Two Sets of WF/PC-2 8805 (POMS Test Proposal: WFII Parallel Archive Proposal Continuation)
 
        The WF/PC-2 was used to perform a generic target version of the WFPC2 Archival Pure Parallel program.  The program will be used to take parallel images of random areas of the sky, following the recommendations of the Parallels Working Group.  The proposal completed with no reported problems.
 
    1.2 Completed Six Sets of WF/PC-2 8827 (Cycle 9 Supplemental Darks pt2/3)
 
        The WF/PC-2 was used to obtain three dark frames every day to provide data for monitoring and characterizing the evolution of hot pixels.  The proposal completed nominally.
 
    1.3 Completed Two Sets of STIS/CCD 8837 (CCD Dark Monitor-Part 1)
 
        The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to monitor the darks.  The proposal completed with no reported problems.
 
    1.4 Completed Six Sets of WF/PC-2 8699 (The Origin of Short-Period Comets)
 
        The WF/PC-2 was used to detect and characterize cometary nuclei in order to determine the basic physical properties of a large fraction of the population of short-period comets.  By acquiring statistically significant data, we can study the origin of this family of comets and test the hypothesis that they are collisional fragments from the Kuiper Belt Objects.  The observations completed with no reported problems.
 
    1.5 Completed STIS/CCD 8838 (Bias Monitor – Part 1)
 
        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, to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the evolution of hot columns.  The proposal completed nominally.
 
    1.6 Completed Six Sets of WF/PC-2 8815 (Cycle 9 Earth Flats)
 
        The WF/PC-2 was used to monitor flatfield stability.  This proposal obtains sequences of Earth streak flats to construct high quality flat fields for the WF/PC-2 filter set.  These flat fields will allow mapping of the OTA illumination pattern and will be used in conjunction with previous internal and external flats to generate new pipeline superflats.  The proposal completed nominally.
 
    1.7 Completed Four Sets of STIS/MA1/MA2 8843 (Cycle 9 MAMA Dark Measurements)
 
        The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (MA1 and MA2) was used to perform the routine monitoring of the MAMA detector dark noise.  The proposal completed nominally.
 
    1.8 Completed WF/PC-2/STIS/CCD 8191 (The Faintest Radio Galaxies: Interacting Starbursts at z<1)
 
        Deep WF/PC-2 imaging and Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) slitless spectroscopy of two of our ultra-deep VLA fields were
performed.  There were no reported problems.
 
    1.9 Completed Two Sets of WF/PC-2 8584 (Calibrating the Metallicity Dependence of the Cepheid PL Relation)
 
        The WF/PC-2 was used to determine the uncertainty in the metal abundance dependence of the Cepheid PL relation that remains as one of the largest sources of systematic error in the Cepheid distance scale and in the extragalactic distance scale as a whole.  There were no reported problems.
 
    1.10 Completed Three Sets of STIS/CCD 8562 (Probing the Large Scale Structure: Cosmic Shear Observations)
 
        The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to probe the distortion of light bundles from distant galaxies, looking at the statistical properties of the intervening inhomogeneous {dark} matter distribution.  The proposal completed nominally.
 
    1.11 Completed WF/PC-2 8811 (Cycle 9 Standard Darks)
 
        The WF/PC-2 was used to obtain dark frames every week in order to provide data for the ongoing calibration of the CCD dark current rate, and to monitor and characterize the evolution of hot pixels.  Over an extended period these data will also provide a monitor of radiation damage to the CCDs.  The proposal completed with no reported problems.
 
2.0 FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:
 
    2.1 Guide Star Acquisitions:
      Scheduled Acquisitions:  7
Successful:  7
 
    Scheduled Re-acquisitions:  8
Successful:  8
 
    2.2 FHST Updates:
                  Scheduled: 19
Successful: 19
 
    2.3 Operations Notes:
 
        The SSR EDAC error counter was cleared twice per ROP SR-1A.
 
        The HST entered Software Sun Point at 003/1024Z, following a Solar Array Drive Electronics #2 (SADE-2) torque test failure.
 
3.0 SIGNIFICANT FORTHCOMING EVENTS:
 
        Continuation of normal science observations and calibrations.

SpaceRef staff editor.