HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4189 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 30, 2006 (DOY 242) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10860 The largest Kuiper belt object The past year has seen an explosion in the discoveries of Pluto-sized objects in the Kuiper belt. With the discoveries of the methane-covered 2003 UB313 and 2005 FY9, the multiple satellite system of 2003 EL61, and the Pluto-Charon analog system of Orcus and its satellite, it is finally apparent that Pluto is n ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4188 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 29, 2006 (DOY 241) 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 has now permitted us to discover 41 DLAs at z If the above URL is inoperable, make sure that y ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4187 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 28, 2006 (DOY 240) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED 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 ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4186 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 25,26,27, 2006 (DOY 237,238,239) 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

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4185 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 24, 2006 (DOY 236) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10805 ACS Imaging of Uranus' Atmosphere Near Equinox Uranus' 97-degree spin axis inclination results in the largest fractional seasonal variation of solar insolation in the solar system. Uranus is now close to its 7 December 2007 equinox, and we can now see most of the northern hemisphere, which was in darkness when Voyager provided our first detaile ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT #4184 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 23, 2006 (DOY 235) 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 10805 ACS Imaging of Uranus' ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4183 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 22, 2006 (DOY 234) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC/WFC 10896 An Efficient ACS Coronagraphic Survey for Debris Disks around Nearby Stars We propose to finish our Cycle 11 optical survey for nearby debris disks using the ACS/HRC coronagraph. Out of 43 orbits originally proposed for the survey, 23 orbits were allocated, leading to a survey of 22 stars, from which two new debris disks were imaged for ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4182 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 21, 2006 (DOY 233) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC/WFC 10575 Lyman alpha morphology of local starburst galaxies Our pilot imaging study of 6 local galaxies using ACS/SBC in the cosmologically important Lyman- alpha line has begun to reveal intriguing results. Here we propse ACS/HRC imaging of this sample, the approval of the which will allow for a significant increase in the impact of the origina ...Continue Reading

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4181 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 18,19,20, 2006 (DOY 230,231,232) 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

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science DAILY REPORT # 4180 PERIOD COVERED: UT August 17, 2006 (DOY 229) OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED ACS/HRC 10860 The largest Kuiper belt object The past year has seen an explosion in the discoveries of Pluto-sized objects in the Kuiper belt. With the discoveries of the methane-covered 2003 UB313 and 2005 FY9, the multiple satellite system of 2003 EL61, and the Pluto-Charon analog system of Orcus and its satellite, it is finally apparent that Pluto is not ...Continue Reading