Date: November 1st 2006

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT # 4230

PERIOD COVERED: UT October 30, 2006 (DOY 303)

OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED

ACS/HRC 10738

Earth Flats

Sky flats will be obtained by observing the bright Earth with the HRC and WFC These observations will be used to verify the accuracy of the flats currently in the pipeline and to monitor any changes Weekly coronagraphic monitoring is required to assess the changing position of the spots

ACS/HRC 10833

Host Galaxies of Reverberation Mapped AGNs

We propose to obtain unsaturated high-resolution images of 17 reverberation-mapped active galactic nuclei in order to remove the point-like nuclear light from each image, thus yielding a "nucleus-free" image of the host galaxy This will allow investigation of host galaxy properties: our particular interest is determination of the host-galaxy starlight contribution to the reverberation-mapping observations This is necessary {1} for accurate determination of the relationship between the AGN nuclear continuum flux and the size of the broad Balmer-line emitting regions of AGNs, which is important in estimating black hole masses for large samples of QSOs, and {2} for accurate determination of the bolometric luminosity of the AGN proper Through observations in Cycles 12 and 14, we have obtained or will obtain images of 18 of the 35 objects in the reverberation-mapping compilation of Peterson et al {2004} These observations revealed that the host-galaxy contribution, even in the higher-luminosity AGNs, is higher than expected and that all of the reverberation-mapped AGNs will have to be observed, not just the lower-luminosity sources; each source is different, and each source is important Therefore we request time to observe the 17 remaining reverberation-mapped AGNs

ACS/HRC/WFC 10758

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 May, 31 2006- Oct, 1-2006 The first half of the program has a different proposal number: 10729

ACS/WFC 10876

SL2S: The Strong Lensing Legacy Survey

Strong Gravitational Lensing is an invaluable tool to constrain the absolute mass distribution of structures irrespective of their light distribution Strong Lensing has successfully been applied to single galaxies lensing quasars into multiple images, and to massive clusters lensing background sources into giant arcs More recently, the Sloan Lens ACS Survey also found numerous examples of isolated, yet massive ellipticals lensing background galaxies into Einstein rings We have started the Strong Lensing Legacy Survey {SL2S} looking for strong lenses in the 170 sq degree CFHT-Legacy Survey, using dedicated automated search procedures, optimized for detection of arcs and Einstein rings Thanks to the unsurpassed combined depth, area and image quality of the CFHT-LS, we uncovered a new population of lenses: the intermediate mass halo and sub-halo lenses This new population effectively bridges the gap between single galaxies and massive clusters Here, we propose to obtain SNAPSHOT ACS images of the 50 first strong lens candidates with Einstein radii 2"

ACS/WFC 10880

The host galaxies of QSO2s: AGN feeding and evolution at high luminosities

Now that the presence of supermassive black holes in the nuclei of galaxies is a well established fact, other questions related to the AGN phenomena still have to be answered Problems of particular interest are how the AGN gets fed, how the black hole evolves and how the evolution of the black hole is related to the evolution of the galaxy bulge Here we propose to address some of these issues using ACS/WFC + F775W snapshot images of 73 QSO2s with redshifts in the range 0 3

ACS/WFC/HRC 10920

High-Resolution Imaging of Nearby Lyman Break Galaxy Analogs in the GALEX All-Sky Survey

We have used the ultraviolet all-sky imaging survey currently being conducted by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer {GALEX} to identify for the first time a rare population of low-redshift starbursts with properties remarkably similar to high-redshift Lyman Break Galaxies These compact UV luminous galaxies {UVLGs} resemble Lyman Break Galaxies in terms of size, UV luminosity, star-formation rate, surface brightness, mass, metallicity, kinematics, dust content, and color They have characteristic ``ages'' {stellar mass/SFR} of only a few hundred Myr This population of galaxies is thus worthy of study in its own right and as a sample of local analogs of Lyman Break Galaxies We propose to image a sample of the 9 nearest and brightest compact UVLGs in the near-ultraviolet, near-infrared, and H-alpha using ACS With these images we will 1} characterize their structure and morphology, 2} look for signs of interactions and mergers, 3} investigate the distribution and propogation of star formation over varying time scales, and 4} quantify the stellar populations and star formation history, in order to determine whether a previous generation of stars formed long before the current burst These data will perfectly complement our existing Spitzer, GALEX, and SDSS data, and will provide important information on star-formation in the present-day universe as well as shed light on the earliest major episodes of star formation in high-redshift galaxies

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 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 10915

ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey

Existing HST observations of nearby galaxies comprise a sparse and highly non-uniform archive, making comprehensive comparative studies among galaxies essentially impossible We propose to secure HST's lasting impact on the study of nearby galaxies by undertaking a systematic, complete, and carefully crafted imaging survey of ALL galaxies in the Local Universe outside the Local Group The resulting images will allow unprecedented measurements of: {1} the star formation history {SFH} of a >100 Mpc^3 volume of the Universe with a time resolution of Delta[log{t}]=0 25; {2} correlations between spatially resolved SFHs and environment; {3} the structure and properties of thick disks and stellar halos; and {4} the color distributions, sizes, and specific frequencies of globular and disk clusters as a function of galaxy mass and environment To reach these goals, we will use a combination of wide-field tiling and pointed deep imaging to obtain uniform data on all 72 galaxies within a volume-limited sample extending to ~3 5 Mpc, with an extension to the M81 group For each galaxy, the wide-field imaging will cover out to ~1 5 times the optical radius and will reach photometric depths of at least 2 magnitudes below the tip of the red giant branch throughout the limits of the survey volume One additional deep pointing per galaxy will reach SNR~10 for red clump stars, sufficient to recover the ancient SFH from the color-magnitude diagram This proposal will produce photometric information for ~100 million stars {comparable to the number in the SDSS survey} and uniform multi-color images of half a square degree of sky The resulting archive will establish the fundamental optical database for nearby galaxies, in preparation for the shift of high-resolution imaging to the near-infrared

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

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

HSTARS: 10491 - GSacq(2,0,2) failed to RGA control GSacq(2,0,2) scheduled at 303/01:14:21 failed to RGA control due to receiving stop flag QF2STOPF The OBAD before the GSacq showed errors of V1= -3 37, V2= -12 88, V3= 1 98, RSS= 13 46 The Map at 01:19:51 showed errors of V1= 3 99, V2= 1 52, V3= 2 58, RSS= 4 99

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

                     SCHEDULED      SUCCESSFUL

FGS GSacq 11 10 FGS REacq 04 04 OBAD with Maneuver 30 30

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)

The following information is a reminder of your current mailing list subscription:

You are subscribed to the following list: [list_name]

using the following email: BULK_EMAIL

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/u/[list]/

If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that you have copied the entire address Some mail readers will wrap a long URL and thus break this automatic unsubscribe mechanism

You may also change your subscription by visiting this list's main screen:

http://www aus-city com/cgi-bin/dada/mail cgi/list/[list]

If you're still having trouble, please contact the list owner at: