Daily # 4216

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 4216

PERIOD COVERED: UT October 10, 2006 (DOY 283)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/HRC/WFC 10733

CCD Hot Pixel Annealing

Hot pixel annealing will continue to be performed once every 4 weeks.
The CCD TECs will be turned off and heaters will be activated to bring
the detector temperatures to about +20C. This state will be held for
approximately 6 hours, after which the heaters are turned off, the
TECs turned on, and the CCDs returned to normal operating condition.
To assess the effectiveness of the annealing, a bias and four dark
images will be taken before and after the annealing procedure for both
WFC and HRC. The HRC darks are taken in parallel with the WFC darks.
The charge transfer efficiency {CTE} of the ACS CCD detectors declines
as damage due to on-orbit radiation exposure accumulates. This
degradation has been closely monitored at regular intervals, because
it is likely to determine the useful lifetime of the CCDs. We combine
the annealling activity with the charge transfer efficiency monitoring
and also merge into the routine dark image collection. To this end,
the CTE monitoring exposures have been moved into this proposal . All
the data for this program is acquired using internal targets {lamps}
only, so all of the exposures should be taken during Earth occultation
time {but not during SAA passages}. This program emulates the ACS
pre-flight ground calibration and post-launch SMOV testing {program
8948}, so that results from each epoch can be directly compared.
Extended Pixel Edge Response {EPER} and First Pixel Response {FPR}
data will be obtained over a range of signal levels for both the Wide
Field Channel {WFC}, and the High Resolution Channel {HRC}.

ACS/WFC 10633

GRB afterglows and host galaxies at very high redshifts

Cosmology is beginning to constrain the nature of the earliest stars
and galaxies to form in the universe, but direct observation of
galaxies at z6 remains highly challenging due to their scarcity,
intrinsically small size, and high luminosity distance. GRB
afterglows, thanks to their extreme luminosities, offer the
possibility of circumventing these normal constraints by providing
redshifts and spectral information which couldn't be obtained by
direct observation of the hosts themselves. In addition, the
association of GRBs with massive stars means that they are a tracer of
star formation, and that their hosts are likely responsible for a
large proportion of the ionizing radiation during that era. Our
collaboration is mounting a campaign to rapidly identify and study
candidate very high redshift bursts, bringing to bear a network of 2,
4 and 8m telescopes with nIR instrumentation. The capabilities of
Swift to detect faint, distant GRBs, and to report accurate positions
for many bursts in near real-time makes our program now feasible. HST
is crucial to this endeavour, allowing us {a} to monitor the late time
afterglows and hence compare them to lower-z bursts and test the use
of GRBs as standard candles; and {b} characterise the basic
properties, luminosities, and in some cases morphologies, of the
hosts, which is essential to understanding these primordial galaxies
and their relationship to other populations.

ACS/WFC 10848

Relating the host galaxies of type-2 quasars to their infrared
properties

The obscured quasar population has been found to consist of a wide
variety of objects. In this proposal, we wish to study the host
galaxies of six z~0.6 type-2 quasars selected via their mid- infrared
emission. Infrared spectra and photometry of these objects show that
they include both actively star-forming and non-starforming galaxies,
and have dust columns to the AGN ranging from moderate to high. We
will relate the host galaxy properties to the infrared properties of
these type-2 quasars, and to the host galaxies of type-1 quasars of
similar redshift and bolometric luminosity. These observations will
thus help us to understand how the different types of obscured quasars
are related to each other, and to the normal quasar population.

FGS 10912

Trigonometric Calibration of the Distance Scale for Classical Novae

The distance scale for classical novae is important for understanding
the stellar physics of their thermonuclear runaways, their
contribution to Galactic nucleosynthesis, and their use as
extragalactic standard candles. Although it is known that there is a
relationship between their absolute magnitudes at maximum light and
their subsequent rates of decline--the well-known maximum-magnitude
rate-of-decline {MMRD} relation--it is difficult to set the zero-point
for the MMRD because of the very uncertain distances of Galactic
novae. We propose to measure precise trigonometric parallaxes for the
quiescent remnants of the four nearest classical novae. We will use
the Fine Guidance Sensors, which are proven to be capable of measuring
parallaxes with errors of ~0.2 mas, well below what is possible from
the ground.

NIC1 11061

NICMOS Imaging of Grism Spectrophotometric Standards

In this program we will take imaging observations with all 3 cameras
with a range of filters of a significant number of stars that are part
of the spectroscopic standard star project. These stars will form the
fainter reference star backbone for programs as JWST, Sophia, and
SNAP. With this program we will: 1. Accurately calibrate relative
brightness of standard stars, which can be done more accurately with
photometry than with spectroscopy. This has been proven to be vary
valuable to straighten out the problems in the spectroscopic data
reduction and calibrations so far. 2. Increase the number of stars
over a large magnitude range to provide a more accurate cross check of
our count rate dependent non-linearity correction 3. Include stars
with radically different {very red} spectra to investigate whether the
filter curves as measured before flight are still valid by comparing
the throughput estimates from these stars to those used for the
standard calibration. 4. Repeat a few standard star observations from
cycle 7 and post-NCS installation SMOV, to increase the accuracy in
the change in sensitivity measurement with just a few observations
thanks to the long baseline.

NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8794

NICMOS Post-SAA calibration - CR Persistence Part 5

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.

NIC2 10893

Sweeping Away the Dust: Reliable Dark Energy with an Infrared Hubble
Diagram

We propose building a high-z Hubble Diagram using type Ia supernovae
observed in the infrared rest-frame J-band. The infrared has a number
of exceptional properties. The effect of dust extinction is minimal,
reducing a major systematic tha may be biasing dark energy
measurements. Also, recent work indicates that type Ia supernovae are
true standard candles in the infrared meaning that our Hubble diagram
will be resistant to possible evolution in the Phillips relation over
cosmic time. High signal-to-noise measurements of 9 type Ia events at
z~0.4 will be compared with an independent optical Hubble diagram from
the ESSENCE project to test for a shift in the derived dark energy
equation of state due to a systematic bias. Because of the bright sky
background, H-band photometry of z~0.4 supernovae is not feasible from
the ground. Only the superb image quality and dark infrared sky seen
by HST makes this test possible. This experiment may also lead to a
better, more reliable way of mapping the expansion history of the
universe with the Joint Dark Energy Mission.

NIC3 10792

Quasars at Redshift z=6 and Early Star Formation History

We propose to observe four high-redshift quasars {z=6} in the NIR in
order to estimate relative Fe/Mg abundances and the central black hole
mass. The results of this study will critically constrain models of
joint quasar and galaxy formation, early star formation, and the
growth of supermassive black holes. Different time scales and yields
for alpha-elements {like O or Mg} and for iron result into an iron
enrichment delay of ~0.3 to 0.6 Gyr. Hence, despite the well-known
complexity of the FeII emission line spectrum, the ratio iron/alpha -
element is a potentially useful cosmological clock. The central black
hole mass will be estimated based on a recently revised back hole mass
- luminosity relationship. The time delay of the iron enrichment and
the time required to form a supermassive black hole {logM8 Msol, tau
~0.5Gyr} as evidenced by quasar activity will be used to date the
beginning of the first intense star formation, marking the formation
of the first massive galaxies that host luminous quasars, and to
constrain the epoch when supermassive black holes start to grow by
accretion.

WFPC2 10745

WFPC2 CYCLE 14 INTERNAL MONITOR

This calibration proposal is the Cycle 14 routine internal monitor for
WFPC2, to be run weekly to monitor the health of the cameras. A
variety of internal exposures are obtained in order to provide a
monitor of the integrity of the CCD camera electronics in both bays
{both gain 7 and gain 15 -- to test stability of gains and bias
levels}, a test for quantum efficiency in the CCDs, and a monitor for
possible buildup of contaminants on the CCD windows. These also
provide raw data for generating annual super-bias reference files for
the calibration pipeline.

WFPC2 11027

Visible Earth Flats

This proposal monitors flatfield stability. This proposal obtains
sequences of Earth streak flats to construct high quality flat fields
for the WFPC2 filter set. These flat fields will allow mapping of the
OTA illumination pattern and will be used in conjuction with previous
internal and external flats to generate new pipeline superflats. These
Earth flats will complement the Earth flat data obtained during cycles
4-14.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

10463 - REacq(1,2,1) failed to RGA Control

Upon acquisition of signal at 283/14:02:15, REacq(1,2,1) scheduled at
283/13:53:22 - 14:01:26 was observed to have failed to RGA Hold due to
search radius limit exceeded on FGS-1. One 486 ESB "a05" (FGS Coarse
Track failed - Search Radius Limit Exceeded) was received at
283/14:02:15. Pre-acquisition OBADs had (RSS) attitude error
corrections values of 34.82 and 29.85 arcseconds. ESB 1805 (FHST
moving target detected) was received at 283/13:36:14 pre-acquisition.
Post-acquisition OBAD/MAP not scheduled.

10466 - Vehicle not in Fine Lock upon AOS

Upon acquisition of signal at 284/02:01:34 vehicle was not in fine
lock. Unknown if this is failure of REACQ(2,1,2) at 01:21:33 or a loss
of lock. Initial GSACQ(2,1,1) at 284/00:03:44 was nominal.

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES:
1533-3 - Open ACS HRC CEB ACPC@+35V

SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL
FGS GSacq 07 07
FGS REacq 06 05
OBAD with Maneuver 26 26