NASA Hubble Space Telescope Daily Report #3970
HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE – Continuing to collect World Class Science
DAILY REPORT # 3970
PERIOD COVERED: UT October 19, 2005 (DOY 292)
OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED
ACS/HRC 10547
A SNAP Program to Obtain Complete Wavelength Coverage of Interstellar Extinction
We propose a SNAP program to obtain ACS/HRC spectra in the near-UV {PR200L} and near-IR {G800L} for a set of main sequence B stars with available IUE UV spectrophotometry, optical photometry, and 2MASS IR photometry. Together with these existing data, the new observations will provide complete photometric and spectrophotometric coverage from 1150 to 11000 A and enable us to produce complete extinction curves from the far-UV to the near-IR, with well- determined values of R{V}. The proposed set of 50 program sight lines includes the full range of interstellar extinction curve types and a wide range of color excesses. The new data will allow us to examine variability in the near-UV through near-IR spectral regions, including the UV-optical “knee” and the “Very Broad Structure.” We will examine the response of these features to different interstellar environments and their relationship to other curve features. These are largely unexplored aspects of extinction curves which will provide additional constraints on the properties of interstellar grains. The curves will be derived using stellar atmosphere models to represent the intrinsic spectral energy distributions of the program stars, eliminating the need to observe unreddened “standard stars.” This approach virtually eliminates “mismatch error”, allowing us to derive extinction curves with much higher precision than previously possible. In addition, the new spectra will provide higher S/N data for the peak of the 2175 A bump than previously available.
ACS/HRC/WFC 10729
ACS CCDs daily monitor
This program consists of a set of basic tests to monitor, the read noise, the development of hot pixels and test for any source of noise in ACS CCD detectors. The files, biases and dark will be used to create reference files for science calibration. This programme will be for the entire lifetime of ACS. Changes from cycle 13:- The default gain for WFC is 2 e-/DN. As before bias frames will be collected for both gain 1 and gain 2. Dark frames are acquired using the default gain {2}. This program cover the period Oct, 2 2005- May, 29-2006. The second half of the program has a different proposal number: 10758.
ACS/WFC 10412
The host galaxies of dust-reddened quasars
We have used the 2MASS near-infrared and FIRST radio surveys, together with the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey plates to select a sample of dust-reddened, radio-intermediate quasars. We wish to use ACS to study the host galaxies of these quasars. The dust reddening of the quasars makes it possible to study the hosts at rest-frame optical-UV wavelengths much more easily than the hosts of normal quasars of similar bolometric luminosity. Our study will compare the hosts of our dust-reddened quasars to those of normal quasars from the HST archive to test the hypothesis that dust-reddened quasars are young objects, whose hosts still show morphological evidence of recent merger events which triggered the quasar.
ACS/WFC 10491
A Snapshot Survey of the most massive clusters of galaxies
We propose a snapshot survey of a sample of 124 high X-ray luminosity clusters in the redshift range 0.3-0.7. Similarly luminous clusters at these redshifts frequently exhibit strong gravitational lensing. The proposed observations will provide important constraints on the nature of the cluster mass distributions and a set of optically bright, lensed galaxies for further 8-10m spectroscopy. We acknowledge the broad community interest in this sample and waive our data rights for these observations.
ACS/WFC/NIC3 10632
Searching for galaxies at z>6.5 in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field
We propose to obtain deep ACS {F606W, F775W, F850LP} imaging in the area of the original Hubble Ultra Deep Field NICMOS parallel fields and – through simultaneous parallel observations – deep NICMOS {F110W, F160W} imaging of the ACS UDF area. Matching the extreme imaging depth in the optical and near-IR bands will result in seven fields with sufficiently sensitive multiband data to detect the expected typical galaxies at z=7 and 8. Presently no such a field exist. Our combined optical and near-IR ultradeep fields will be in three areas separated by about 20 comoving Mpc at z=7. This will allow us to give a first assessment of the degree of cosmic variance. If reionization is a process extending over a large redshift interval and the luminosity function doesn’t evolve strongly beyond z=6, these data will allow us to identify of the order of a dozen galaxies at 6.5
NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8793
NICMOS Post-SAA calibration – CR Persistence Part 4
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. The keyword ‘USEAFTER=date/time’ will also be added to the header of each POST-SAA DARK frame. The keyword must be populated with the time, in addition to the date, because HST crosses the SAA ~8 times per day so each POST-SAA DARK will need to have the appropriate time specified, for users to identify the ones they need. Both the raw and processed images will be archived as POST-SAA DARKSs. Generally we expect that all NICMOS science/calibration observations started within 50 minutes of leaving an SAA will need such maps to remove the CR persistence from the science images. Each observation will need its own CRMAP, as different SAA passages leave different imprints on the NICMOS detectors.
FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:
Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary reports of potential non-nominal performance that will be investigated.)
HSTARS: 9981 – GSacq(1,2,2) failed due to Search radius limit exceeded on FGS 1 @ 293/00:16:09z GSacq(1,2,2) schedules at 293/00:16:09 – 00:23:34 failed during ZOE. At AOS 293/00:27:00 mnemonics were flagging indicationg that the GSacq failed due to search radius limit exceeded on FGS 1. The OBADs showed errors of:
OBAD1 V1= 2251.02 V2= 1154.69 V3= -882.80 RSS= 2679.50 OBAD2 V1= 0.35 V2= -650.06 V3= -0.46 RSS= 650.06
COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)
COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)
SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL FAILURE TIMES
FGS
Gsacq 10 09
293/00:16:09z (HSTAR # 9981)
FGS
Reacq 04 03
293/01:46:22z (HSTAR # 9981)
OBAD with Maneuver 25 25
SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)
