Daily # 4252

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 4252

PERIOD COVERED: UT December 04, 2006 (DOY 338)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/HRC 11041

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. For cycle 15 the program will cover 18
months 12.1.06-05.31.08 and it has been divied into three different
proposals each covering six months. The three proposals are
11041-11042-11043.

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}.

FGS 11021

HST Pre-SM4 Focal Plane Alignment & ACS Absolute Scale

This proposal will determine and monitor the FGSs and SI positions and
orientations in V2,V3 space. Accuracy goals are 50 mas for position
and between 0.04 and 0.004 degrees for angle {depending on SI}. An
astrometric open cluster {M35} is observed using guidestars with
positions determined to ~ 20 mas. One or more astrometric targets are
placed in the available SIs' major channels as well as each FGS, and
POS TARGs step the target{s} over a significant fraction of the
detector. This proposal will serve to update the FGS and SI positions
and angles, which have trended, uncalibrated, since ~2002, at a rate
between 0.1 and 0.2 arcseconds or more per year. This will execute
before 22 December 2006. A single orbit visit will execute later but
before SM4/SMOV and will only include position/angle checks of any SI
trends and not contain the more costly FGS-FGS alignment, which will
need to be performed during SM4/SMOV. Finally, a special visit is
included in this proposal which will yield the absolute scale of
ACS/WFC with an accuracy of ~2x10-5 by observing a subset of M35
astrometric cluster members with relative positions known to 1 mas
and absolute separations known to ~2x10-5 {via FGS calibrations over
mission life}. This transfers the well-determined FGS absolute scale
knowledge onto ACS/WFC, with the goal of then impressing that
calibration onto an HST-JWST common field {e.g. LMC} in order to
support JWST calibration requirements.

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, ACS/WFC 10802

SHOES-Supernovae, HO, for the Equation of State of Dark energy

The present uncertainty in the value of the Hubble constant {resulting
in an uncertainty in Omega_M} and the paucity of Type Ia supernovae at
redshifts exceeding 1 are now the leading obstacles to determining the
nature of dark energy. We propose a single, integrated set of
observations for Cycle 15 that will provide a 40% improvement in
constraints on dark energy. This program will observe known Cepheids
in six reliable hosts of Type Ia supernovae with NICMOS, reducing the
uncertainty in H_0 by a factor of two because of the smaller
dispersion along the instability strip, the diminished extinction, and
the weaker metallicity dependence in the infrared. In parallel with
ACS, at the same time the NICMOS observations are underway, we will
discover and follow a sample of Type Ia supernovae at z 1. Together,
these measurements, along with prior constraints from WMAP, will
provide a great improvement in HST's ability to distinguish between a
static, cosmological constant and dynamical dark energy. The Hubble
Space Telescope is the only instrument in the world that can make
these IR measurements of Cepheids beyond the Local Group, and it is
the only telescope in the world that can be used to find and follow
supernovae at z 1. Our program exploits both of these unique
capabilities of HST to learn more about one of the greatest mysteries
in science.

WFPC2 10748

WFPC2 CYCLE 14 Standard Darks

This dark calibration program obtains dark frames every week in order
to provide data for the ongoing calibration of the CCD dark current
rate, and to monitor and characterize the evolution of hot pixels.
Over an extended period these data will also provide a monitor of
radiation damage to the CCDs.

WFPC2 11029

WFPC2 CYCLE 15 Intflat Linearity Check and Filter Rotation Anomaly
Monitor

Intflat observations will be taken to provide a linearity check: the
linearity test consists of a series of intflats in F555W, in each gain
and each shutter. A combination of intflats, visflats, and earthflats
will be used to check the repeatability of filter wheel motions.
{Intflat sequences tied to decons, visits 1-18 in prop 10363, have
been moved to the cycle 15 decon proposal xxxx for easier scheduling.}
Note: long-exposure WFPC2 intflats must be scheduled during ACS
anneals to prevent stray light from the WFPC2 lamps from contaminating
long ACS external exposures.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

10541 - GSACQ(1,3,1) failed, Search Radius Limit Exceeded on FGS 1

Upon acquisition of signal at 338:14:56:14 vehicle was in gyro control
with FGS 1 search radius limit flag set. GSACQ(1,3,1) at 338:14:37:35
apparently failed with search radius limit exceeded. OBAD data prior
to GSACQ showed RSS attitude correction of 4.19 arcseconds, OBAD map
after GSACQ failure showed RSS error of 8.98 arcseconds. 486 ESB
status buffer A05 message (FGS Coarse Track failed- search Radius
Limit exceeded) was NOT received. QF2SSLEX flag was due to astrometry
activities on FGS 2.

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

SCHEDULED SUCCESSFUL
FGS GSacq 10 09
FGS REacq 02 02
OBAD with Maneuver 24 24

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)