Status Report

NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report # 3513

By SpaceRef Editor
December 21, 2003
Filed under , ,

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE

DAILY REPORT # 3513

PERIOD COVERED: DOY 352

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/CCD/WFC 9978

The Ultra Deep Field with ACS

The ACS Ultra Deep Field {UDF} is a survey carried out by using
Director’s Discretionary time. The main science driver are galaxy
evolution and cosmology. The primary instrument is the Advanced Camera
for Surveys but WFPC2 and NICMOS will also be used in parallel. The
data will be made public. The UDF consists of a single ultra-deep
field {410 orbits in total} within the CDF-S GOODS area. The survey
will use four filters: F435W {55 orbits}, F606W {55 orbits}, F775W
{150 orbits}, and F850LP {150 orbits}. The F435W {B} and F606W {V}
exposures will be one magnitude deeper than the equivalent HDF
filters. The F775W {I} exposure will be 1.5 magnitude deeper than the
equivalent HDF exposure. The depth in F775W and F850LP is optimized
for searching very red objects – like z=6 galaxies – at the detection
limit of the F850LP image. The pointing will be RA{J2000}=3 32 40.0
and Decl.{J2000}=-27 48 00. These coordinates may change slightly due
to guide star availability and implementation issues. We will attempt
to include in the field both a spectroscopically confirmed z=5.8
galaxy and a spectroscopically confirmed type Ia SN at z=1.3. The
pointing avoids the gaps with the lowest effective exposure on the
Chandra ACIS image of CDFS. This basic structure of the survey
represents a consensus recommendation of a Scientific Advisory
Committee to the STScI Director Steven Beckwith. A local Working Group
is looking in detail at the implementation of the survey.

ACS/HRC 9851

Host Galaxies of Reverberation-Mapped AGNs

We propose to obtain unsaturated ACS high-resolution images of all
reverberation-mapped active galactic nuclei in order to remove the
point-like nuclear light from each image, thus yielding a
“nucleus-free” image of the host galaxy. This will allow investigation
of host-galaxy properties: our particular interest is determination of
the host-galaxy starlight contribution to the reverberation mapping
observations, which is necessary for accurate determination of the
relationship between the AGN continuum flux and the size of the broad
Balmer-line emitting region of AGNs. Because this relationship is used
to estimate black-hole masses of large samples of distant AGNs,
correct determination of the slope of this relationship is critically
important.

ACS/HRC/WFC 10042

CCD Daily Monitor

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.

NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 9996

Flats Stability

This calibration proposal is the Cycle 12 NICMOS bi-monthly monitor A
series of camera 1, 2, & 3 flat fields will be obtained to monitor the
health of the cameras.

NIC3 9979

The Ultra Deep Field – NICMOS Parallels

This is a plan to manage the NICMOS pure parallels of the ACS Ultra
Deep Survey. We will obtain a mix of F110W and F160W images along
sight-lines within the mosaiced ACS fields of the CDF-S GOODS and GEMS
surveys, with these sight-lines enabling an examination of the space
density and morphologies of the reddest galaxies.

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 10000

STIS Pure Parallel Imaging Program: Cycle 12

This is the default archival pure parallel program for STIS during
cycle 12.

STIS/CCD 10017

CCD Dark Monitor-Part 1

Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD.

STIS/CCD 10019

CCD Bias Monitor – Part 1

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.

STIS/CCD 9981

The Ultra Deep Field – STIS parallels

We propose to obtain slitless spectroscopy of objects in the GEMS and
GOODS area around the UDF.

WFPC2 10069

WFPC2 CYCLE 12 Supplemental Darks, Part 1/3

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

WFPC2 9980

The Ultra Deep Field – WFPC2 Parallels

The ACS Ultra Deep Field {UDF} is a survey carried out by using
Director’s Discretionary time. The main science drivers are galaxy
evolution and cosmology. The primary instrument is the Advanced Camera
for Surveys but WFPC2, NICMOS, and STIS will also be used in pure
parallel mode. The data will be made public. The UDF consists of a
single ultra-deep field {410 orbits in total} within the CDF-S GOODS
area. We request a modification of the default pure parallel programs.
Rather than duplicate the redder bands which will be done much better
with ACS, we propose to observe in the near-ultraviolet F300W filter.
These data will enable study of the rest-frame ultraviolet morphology
of galaxies at 0

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary
reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be
investigated.)

HSTAR 9246: GS Acquisition (1,2,1) @ 352/20:02:53Z (during LOS)
resulted in FL backup. There were no flags indicating SSLE at AOS.
GS Re-acquisition @ 352/21:39:28Z will also result in FL backup.
Under investigation.

COMPLETED OPS REQs:
17073-0 ESM Diagnostic Data collection.

OPS NOTES EXECUTED:
1180-0 EMTS2T and ESPID6T Limit Change.

                          SCHEDULED     SUCCESSFUL    FAILURE TIMES
FGS GSacq              06                        06
FGS REacq              08                         08
FHST Update            06                         06
LOSS of LOCK

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:

Collected ESM 8051 diagnostic data on several key software parameters
using the Min/Max buffer in order to provide additional information
for the future FSW changes related to SEU mitigation (OR 17073 with
attached script).

SpaceRef staff editor.