*THE NEXT REPORT WILL BE PUBLISHED ON DECEMBER 26th 2006 *HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT        # 4265 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 21, 2006 (DOY 355) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10556 Neutral Gas at Redshift z=0.5 Damped Lyman-alpha systems {DLAs} are used to track the bulk of the neutral hydrogen gas in the Universe. Prior to HST UV spectroscopy, they could only be studied from the ground at redshifts z>1.65. However, HST ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4264 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 20, 2006 (DOY 3354) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10800 Kuiper Belt Binaries: Probes of Early Solar System Evolution Binaries in the Kuiper Belt are a scientific windfall: in them we have relatively fragile test particles which can be used as tracers of the early dynamical evolution of the outer Solar System. We propose to continue a Snapshot program using the ACS/HRC that has a demonstrated ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT        # 4263 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 19, 2006 (DOY 3353) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10800 Kuiper Belt Binaries: Probes of Early Solar System Evolution Binaries in the Kuiper Belt are a scientific windfall: in them we have relatively fragile test particles which can be used as tracers of the early dynamical evolution of the outer Solar System. We propose to continue a Snapshot program using the ACS ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4262 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 18, 2006 (DOY 352) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10800 Kuiper Belt Binaries: Probes of Early Solar System Evolution Binaries in the Kuiper Belt are a scientific windfall: in them we have relatively fragile test particles which can be used as tracers of the early dynamical evolution of the outer Solar System. We propose to continue a Snapshot program using the ACS/HRC that has a demonstrated d ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4261 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 15,16,17, 2006 (DOY 3349,350,351) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED 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 ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT        # 4260 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 14, 2006 (DOY 348) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC/WFPC2/NIC3 10842 A Cepheid Distance to the Coma Cluster We propose to use the Advanced Camera for Surveys to search for Cepheid variables in two spiral galaxies in the core of the Coma cluster. A direct application of the canonical primary distance indicator at 100 Mpc will measure the far-field Hubble constant free ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4259 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 13, 2006 (DOY 347) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10800 Kuiper Belt Binaries: Probes of Early Solar System Evolution Binaries in the Kuiper Belt are a scientific windfall: in them we have relatively fragile test particles which can be used as tracers of the early dynamical evolution of the outer Solar System. We propose to continue a Snapshot program using the ACS/HRC that has a demonstrated d ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4258 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 12, 2006 (DOY 346) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10877 A Snapshot Survey of the Sites of Recent, Nearby Supernovae During the past few years, robotic {or nearly robotic} searches for supernovae {SNe}, most notably our Lick Observatory Supernova Search {LOSS}, have found hundreds of SNe, many of them in quite nearby galaxies {cz 6 remains highly challenging due to their scarcity, intrinsically ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT    # 4257 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 11, 2006 (DOY 345) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10878 An ACS Prism Snapshot Survey for z~2 Lyman Limit Systems We propose to conduct a spectroscopic survey of Lyman limit absorbers at redshifts 1.7 < z < 2.2, using ACS/HRC and the PR200L prism. We have selected 100 quasars at 2.3 < z < 2.6 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Spectroscopic Quasar sample, for which no BAL signat ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4256 PERIOD COVERED: UT December 08,09,10, 2006 (DOY 342,343,344) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED 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 ...Continue Reading