Date: October 7th 2006

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 4212

PERIOD COVERED: UT October 03, 2006 (DOY 276)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

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

ACS/WFC 10886

The Sloan Lens ACS Survey: Towards 100 New Strong Lenses

As a continuation of the highly successful Sloan Lens ACS {SLACS} Survey for new strong gravitational lenses, we propose one orbit of ACS-WFC F814W imaging for each of 50 high- probability strong galaxy-galaxy lens candidates These observations will confirm new lens systems and permit immediate and accurate photometry, shape measurement, and mass modeling of the lens galaxies The lenses delivered by the SLACS Survey all show extended source structure, furnishing more constraints on the projected lens potential than lensed-quasar image positions In addition, SLACS lenses have lens galaxies that are much brighter than their lensed sources, facilitating detailed photometric and dynamical observation of the former When confirmed lenses from this proposal are combined with lenses discovered by SLACS in Cycles 13 and 14, we expect the final SLACS lens sample to number 80--100: an approximate doubling of the number of known galaxy-scale strong gravitational lenses and an order-of-magnitude increase in the number of optical Einstein rings By virtue of its homogeneous selection and sheer size, the SLACS sample will allow an unprecedented exploration of the mass structure of the early-type galaxy population as a function of all other observable quantities This new sample will be a valuable resource to the astronomical community by enabling qualitatively new strong lensing science, and as such we will waive all but a short {3-month} proprietary period on the 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 56 5 Conversely, finding fewer objects would be an indication that the bulk of reionization is done by galaxies at z=6 By spending 204 orbits of prime HST time we will capitalize on the investment of 544 prime orbits already made on the Hubble Ultra Deep Field {UDF} We have verified that the program as proposed is schedulable and that it will remain so even if forced to execute in the 2-gyro mode The data will be non-proprietary and the reduced images will be made public within 2 months from the completion of the observations

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

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

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS:

10459 - GSAcq (1,2,1) failed due to search radius limit exceeded on FGS 2

At AOS 276/22:44:40, GSAcq (1,2,1) scheduled 276/22:32:34-22:39:59 had failed due to search radius limit exceeded on FGS 2 Received 486 ESB "a05" Exceeded SRL OBAD #1: RSS= 4831 92 OBAD #2: RSS= 9 83 OBAD MAP: RSS= 5 19

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

                      SCHEDULED      SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSacq 11 10 FGS REacq 03 03 OBAD with Maneuver 28 28

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

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