Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report 28 Jun 2002

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

DAILY REPORT # 3147

PERIOD COVERED: DOY 178

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED (see HSTARS below for possible observation problems)

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.

STIS/MA1/MA2 8920

Cycle 10 MAMA Dark Measurements.

the MAMA detector dark noise, and is the primary means of checking on health of
the MAMA detectors systems through frequent monitoring of the background count
rate.

WFPC2 8938

WFPC2 CYCLE 9 SUPPLEMENTAL DARKS pt3/3.

This dark calibration program obtains 3 dark frames every day to provide data
for monitoring and characterizing the evolution of hot pixels.

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.

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.

STIS/CCD/MA2 9166

Fossil Gaseous Halos of Massive Galaxies at z~1.

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD and MA2) was used to observe host
galaxies of high-redshift, powerful radio sources that are likely the
progenitors of present-day gE and cD galaxies, and therefore provide important
laboratories in which to investigate the formation of massive galaxies in the
early Universe. Many high-redshift radio galaxies exhibit giant, Ly-alpha
halos.
Similar nebulae without associated radio sources have recently been discovered
in a galaxy over density at z = 3.09. The LyAlpha luminosity of these halos is
comparable to the total X-ray luminosities of low–z X–ray clusters, and may
reflect the hot, cooling gas reservoir from which the galaxy/cluster is
forming.

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.

GTO/ACS 9290

The Nature of Galaxies at z > 4.

The Morphological, Photometric, and Spectroscopic Properties of Intermediate
Redshift Cluster.New and fundamental constraints on the evolutionary state of
high redshift clusters will be made by obtaining deep, multiband images
{SDSS g,
r, i, z} over the central 1.5 Mpc regions of seven distant clusters in the
range
0.76 < z < 1.27. In addition, slitless spectroscopy, using the WFC GRISM, will
be performed over the central 750 kpc region of each system galaxy.

ACS/HRC/WFC 9292

The Nature of Galaxies at z > 4

The Advanced Camera for Surveys (HRC and WFC) was used to further look into
recent discoveries of a number of galaxies and quasars at redshifts greater
than
5 that has identified the z>5-6 epoch as key to understanding the earliest
formation phases for galaxies. However, establishing the characteristics and
properties of these earliest galaxies is proving to be a particularly
difficult.
They are faint, with I{AB} magnitudes around 26-27. Thus, substantial
investments of time are needed to obtain high S/N images, while ground-based
spectroscopy, even with 8-10 m class telescopes, has provided little more than
redshifts. Establishing the physical properties of these galaxies will be a
challenge for the foreseeable future. However, there is a subset of this high
redshift population that is amenable to more detailed study. These are sources
that have been strongly lensed by low redshift clusters.

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, follonvg the recommendations of the Parallels Working
Group.

ACS/WFC 9442

Optical Counterparts for Low-Luminosity X-ray Sources in Omega Centauri

We propose to use narrow-band HAlpha imaging with ACS to search for the optical
counterparts of low-luminosity X-ray sources {Lx ~ 2 x 10^30 – 5 x 10^32 erg/s}
in the globular cluster Omega Centauri. With 9 WFC fields, we will cover the
inner two core radii of the cluster, and encompass about 90 of the faint
sources
we have identified with Chandra. Approximately 30-50 of these sources should be
cluster members, the remainder being mostly background galaxies plus a smaller
number of foreground stars. This large population of low-Lx cluster X-ray
sources is second only to the more than 100 faint sources recently
discovered in
47 Tuc with Chandra {Grindlay et al. 2001a}, which have been identified as a
mixture of cataclysmic variables, quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries,
millisecond
pulsars, and coronally active main-sequence binaries. Our Cycle 6 WFPC2 program
successfully identified 2 of the 3 then-known faint X-ray sources in the
core of
Omega Cen using H-alpha imaging. We now propose to expand the areal coverage by
a factor of about 18 to encompass the much larger number of sources that have
since been discovered with Chandra. The extreme crowding in the central regions
of Omega Cen requires the resolution of HST to obtain optical IDs. These
identifications are key to making meaningful comparisons between the
populations
of faint X-ray sources in different clusters, in an effort to understand their
origins and role in cluster dynamics.

STIS 9505

The Evolution of Molecular Clouds.

of ablation in the evolution of the central clouds.

ACS/CAL 9558

ACS weekly Test

This program consists of basic tests to monitor, the read noise, the
development
of hot pixels and test for any source of noise in ACS CCD detectors. This
programme will be executed once a day for the entire lifetime of ACS.

ACS/WFC 9575

Default {Archival} Pure Parallel Program.

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

CAL/WF2 9597

Intflat Sweep, Visflat Sweep, and Filter Anomaly Check

No abstract available.

STIS 9646

Wind Accretion and State Transitions in the Black Hole Binary Cyg X-1

The black hole binary, Cyg X-1, is now {May 2002} in the high/soft X-ray state,
the first one to occur since 1996. Models predict that this state
corresponds to
a high mass transfer phase in the binary, but several lines of observational
evidence cast doubt on this assumption. The best test of this hypothesis is to
observe the UV P Cygni lines of the supergiant that are formed in its wind
outflow. We propose to obtain the first ever high resolution UV spectra of the
system using STIS to determine {1} the mass loss rate and the dynamical
{density
and velocity} structure of the wind of the supergiant star in both X-ray
states,
and {2} how the X-ray source ionizes the wind. These spectra will be useful for
many investigations and will form an important resource for many in the
research
community.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

HSTARS: (For details see http://hst-sers.hst.nasa.gov/SERS/HST/HSTAR.nsf)

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COMPLETED OPS REQs: NONE

OPS NOTES EXECUTED: NONE

                           SCHEDULED     SUCCESSFUL    FAILURE TIMES

FGS GSacq               6                    6

FGS REacq               7                    7

FHST Update             11                 11

LOSS of LOCK           None

Operations Notes: FOT moved to building 23 control center facility
to accommodate PMs on PDU-1

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: None