Daily 3626

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 3626

PERIOD COVERED: DOY 155

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/HRC/WFC 10060

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.

ACS/WFC 9779

Giant Lya Halos Around High Redshift Radio Galaxies

We propose to use the ACS + ramp filter to image the morphologies of
several high redshift, giant Lya emission line halos associated with
radio galaxies. High redshift radio galaxies are the likely precursors
of the most massive elliptical galaxies known today. There is
increasing evidence that they are forming in the centers of giant
halos in overdense galaxy regions or `protoclusters'. The halos
provide a unique diagnostic to study the formation of these massive
galaxies and determine the importance of AGN/starburst feedback during
this process. The capability of HST to resolve fine detail is
essential for the interpretation of their complex morphologies. Our
targets have also a number of Lya excess galaxies near the halos which
fall within the field-of-view of the ACS + ramp filters. Our images
will resolve these systems and we will investigate whether there is
morphological evidence for starburst outflows. Starburst winds have
been proposed as a source of heat and chemical enrichment for
protoclusters, which may significantly affect their evolution.

ACS/WFC 9891

A snapshot survey of rich stellar clusters in the Large and Small
Magellanic Clouds

Rich stellar clusters are vital to a wide variety of astrophysical
research, from stellar evolution studies to the formation and
evolution of galaxies. In this context, it is important to understand
how rich star clusters form and evolve. The cluster systems in the LMC
and SMC are particularly important in achieving this, because they are
the only systems which contain clusters at all stages of evolution
while being close enough to be studied as fully resolved stellar
populations - although in general this requires the capabilities of
HST. We have recently investigated the structural evolution of LMC and
SMC clusters using archival WFPC2 data, and demonstrated a dramatic
trend in the sizes of these clusters with age. We have shown that this
trend likely represents genuine structural evolution in these
clusters, although it is not clear whether we are observing a
dynamical process or the signature of changing formation conditions.
This result has implications for all astronomical research involving
massive stellar clusters. To develop this work further requires the
extension of our two samples, so that they are statistically
quantifiable. This will allow a number of key questions regarding the
structural evolution trend to be answered. We propose a two-colour
ACS/WFC SNAP survey of rich Magellanic Cloud clusters to achieve this
aim. The unique resolution and sensitivity of ACS/WFC is required for
success, because of the crowded nature of the targets. The SNAP data
will have a large number of additional applications, both to globular
cluster and Magellanic Cloud research.

NIC1/NIC2/NIC3 8792

NICMOS Post-SAA calibration - CR Persistence Part 3

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.

STIS 9786

The Next Generation Spectral Library

We propose to continue the Cycle 10 snapshot program to produce a Next
Generation Spectral Library of 600 stars for use in modeling the
integrated light of galaxies and clusters. This program is using the
low dispersion UV and optical gratings of STIS. The library will be
roughly equally divided among four metallicities, very low {[Fe/H] lt
-1.5}, low {[Fe/H] -1.5 to -0.5}, near-solar {[Fe/H] -0.3 to 0.1}, and
super-solar {[Fe/H] gt 0.2}, 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. Because of the universal utility and community-broad nature of
this venture, we waive the entire proprietary period.

STIS/CCD 10018

CCD Dark Monitor-Part 2

Monitor the darks for the STIS CCD.

STIS/CCD 10020

CCD Bias Monitor - Part 2

Monitor the bias in the 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, and 2x2 bin settings at gain=1,
and 1x1 at gain = 4, to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the
evolution of hot columns.

WFPC2 10070

WFPC2 CYCLE 12 Supplemental Darks Part 2/3

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

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTAR 9434: GS Acquisition (2,1,1) @ 155/12:45:02Z LOL at
155/13:39:58Z, spacecraft was in SAA Level 2 contour during the LOL.
Under investigation.

HSTAR 9435: During ZOE, GS Acquisition (2,1,2) @ 155/18:03:24Z
resulted in FL backup on FGS 2. Under investigation.

HSTAR 9348: GS Acquisition (2,1,2) @ 156/02:14:06Z failed to RGA
control at AOS 156/03:13:31Z, TDE. Four 486 ESB messages 'a0e' were
observed when telemetry was acquired @ 156/03:13:31Z, indicating FGS
Sequential Attitude update failed because roll error was too large to
correct (QDVEFGS1 = 150.907 arcsec). Under investigation.

COMPLETED OPS REQs:
17174-0 Continuous Engineering Recording for Battery #4 BCT @ 155/1427z
17178-0 K16ACLIM change @ 155/1353z
17179-0 GENSLEW pointing correction for prop 9987, slot 11 @ 155/1430z
17180-0 GENSLEW pointing corr for prop 9987, slot 12 @ 155/1432z
17181-0 GENSLEW ephemeris corr for prop 9985, slot 7 @ 155/1340z
17182-0 GENSLEW ephemeris corr for prop 9985, slot 8 @ 155/1345z
17183-0 GENSLEW ephemeris corr for prop 9985, slot 9 @ 155/1348z
17184-0 GENSLEW ephemeris correction for prop 9985, slot 10 @ 155/1349z


OPS NOTES EXECUTED:
1238-0 Table 213 dump @ 155/1450z
1242-0 Adjust ACS Error Count Limit @ 156/0012z

SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL FAILURE TIMES
FGS
GSacq 12 11 156/02:14:06

FGS REacq 03 03
FHST Update 20 20
LOSS of LOCK

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS:

EPS SE FLASH REPORT -- The Battery 4 Capacity commenced at DOY
156/01:34 GMT Following the commanding, EPS SE verified nominal
overall system performance with the system reaching trickle charge,and
EPS FSW reset during orbit night. Placing Battery 4 back on-line in
FSW is scheduled for June 4, DOY 156 at ~14:18 GMT (10:18 am local).
EPS SE will monitor the system for two full orbits after the
completion of the commanding.

OTA SE FLASH REPORT -- Flash Report: FGS-2 K16 change

On DOY 2004.155, Ops Request 17178 was successfully executed to change
the K16ACLIM for FGS-2 from 12,335.625 a-s/sec/cycle to 4982.625
a-s/sec/cycle. Commanding was successfully completed ~ 155/13:54. OTA
SE remained on console to monitor the successful GSAcq(1,2,2) at 14:36
and ReAcq(1,2,2) at 15:55.

Target Reacquisition Capability Test 156/14:12:50Z - 16:03:04Z; driven
entirely by SMS commanding (Proposal 10336). While the spacecraft
remains under 3-gyro control, the capability to perform a 2-gyro
target reacquisition is tested while STIS takes normal science data
over a period of two orbits.