Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #3052 – 8 Feb 2002

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

DAILY REPORT #3052

PERIOD COVERED: 0000Z (UTC) 02/07/02 – 0000Z (UTC) 02/08/02

Daily Status Report as of 039/0000Z

1.0 OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED AND ACCOMPLISHED:

1.1 Completed Two Sets of 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. There
were no reported problems.

1.2 Completed WF/PC-2 9180 (Gamma-ray Burst Progenitors: Probing Their
Environment)

The WF/PC-2 was used to perform a target of opportunity observation
of gamma ray burster (GRB), GRB-011121. GRB astronomy is a field maturing
at a phenomenal rate. Three important new observational and theoretical
discoveries, formulated over the last twelve months, allow the proposer to
address new, and in many cases, more sophisticated questions than could
have been posed previously. These developments: the discovery of X-ray
lines in GRB 991216; the observation that N_H as deduced from X-ray
afterglow are one to two orders of magnitude larger than the dust
extinction inferred from optical afterglow; and the growing realization
that the afterglow emission may exhibit features of dust echoes, appear to
offer unexpected and new diagnostics that will directly inform us about the
progenitor, the circum-progenitor material and the immediate interstellar
environs. There were no reported problems.

1.3 Completed Seven Sets of WF/PC-2 8940 (Cycle 10 Earth Flats)

The WF/PC-2 was used to monitor flatfield stability by obtaining
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 without incident.

1.4 Completed Two Sets of WF/PC-2 8937 (Cycle 9 Supplemental Darks pt2/3)

The WF/PC-2 was used obtain three dark frames every day to provide
data for monitoring and characterizing the evolution of hot pixels. No
problems were encountered.

1.5 Completed Three Sets of STIS/CCD 8901 (Dark Monitor-Part 1)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to monitor
the darks. There was no anomalous activity.

1.6 Completed Two Sets of STIS/CCD 8903 (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. There were no problems.

1.7 Completed STIS/CCD 9088 (Next Generation Spectral Library of Stars)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to produce
a “Next Generation” Spectral Library of 600 stars for use in modeling the
integrated light of galaxies and clusters by using the low dispersion UV
and optical gratings of STIS. The library will be roughly equally divided
among four metallicities, very low {Fe/H < -1.5}, low {-1.5 < Fe/H < -0.5}, near-solar {-0.5 < Fe/H < 0.1}, and super-solar {Fe/H > 0.1}, well-sampling
the entire HR-diagram in each bin. Such a library will surpass all extant
compilations and have lasting archival value, well into the Next Generation
Space Telescope era. No problems occurred.

1.8 Completed Eight Sets of 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. There were no reported problems.

1.9 Completed STIS/CCD 9051 (Identifying Damped Lyman-alpha Galaxies at
z~1)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) 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. No problems were encountered.

1.10 Completed WF/PC-2 9060 (Photometry of a Statistically Significant
Sample of Kuiper Belt Objects)

The WF/PC-2 was used to propel the physical study of KBOs forward
by performing accurate photometry at V, R, and I on a sample of up to 150
KBOs. The sample is made up of objects that will be observed at thermal
infrared wavelengths by SIRTF and will be used with those data to derive
the first accurate diameters and albedos for a large sample of KBOs. The
observations completed nominally.

1.11 Completed Two Sets of STIS/CCD/MA1 8571 (Metallicity and D/H
Abundance in Low-Z LyAlpha Absorbers towards PG 1211+143)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD and MA1) was used to
continue previous observations along the sightline toward PG 1211+143 that
reveal numerous LyAlpha absorption lines including two very strong LyAlpha
absorbers {cz = 15, 300 and 19, 550 km s^- 1} with associated Si III
absorption. These are the first definite detections of metals in a low-z
LyAlpha forest cloud. Simple photoionization models suggest metallicities
in the range 1–10 sim10^17 cm^-2 in each system. The proposers should be
able to detect deuterium LyAlpha at 10–20 mAngstrom equivalent width,
thereby testing models of D/H astration as a function of IGM metallicity,
an issue of cosmological significance. There were no problems.

1.12 Completed STIS/MA1 8920 (Cycle 10 MAMA Dark Measurements)

The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (MA1) was used to perform
the routine monitoring of 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. The proposal completed with no
reported anomalous activity.

1.13 Completed WF/PC-2 8942 (Cycle 10 Intflat Sweeps and Linearity Test)

The WF/PC-2 was used to monitor the pixel-to-pixel flatfield
response and provide a linearity check. These intflat sequences are done
once during the year and the images will provide a backup database in the
event of complete failure of the visflat lamp as well as allow monitoring
of the gain ratios. There were no reported problems.

2.0 FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

2.1 Guide Star Acquisitions:

Scheduled Acquisitions: 9

Successful: 9

During a successful acquisition there was a loss-of-lock at
038/193311Z. HSTAR 8493 was written. There was no reported loss of science.

Scheduled Re-acquisitions: 5

Successful: 5

2.2 FHST Updates:

Scheduled: 24

Successful: 24

2.3 Operations Notes:

The four-day Servicing Mission Ground Test, SR-4, part 2, flight
readiness end-to-end test, now in its third day, continues.

The target-of-opportunity (TOO) intercept Science Mission
Specification was successfully processed and signed off.

Using ROP SR-1A, the SSR-1 EDAC error counter was cleared twice.

A TTR was generated when there was a required re-transmit at
038/1923Z during a NSSC-1 load uplink. Accordingly, at 038/1930Z, SI C&DH
errors were reset per ROP NS-5.

The NSSC-1 status buffer was dumped and reset at 038/2114Z, using
ROP NS-3.

There were STIS EMC re-tries at 038/225142Z and at 039/044718Z. In
each case, ROP NS-12 was used to reset the STIS flight software error counter.

3.0 SIGNIFICANT FORTHCOMING EVENTS:

The beginning of the TOO, STIS 9576, tomorrow afternoon.

Continuation of normal science observations and calibrations.