Notice: Due to the conversion of some ACS WFC or HRC observations into

WFPC2, or NICMOS observations after the loss of ACS CCD science

capability in January, there may be an occasional discrepancy between a

proposal's listed (and correct) instrument usage and the abstract that

follows it.

HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - Continuing to collect World Class Science

DAILY REPORT       # 4470

PERIOD COVERED: UT October 17, 2007 (DOY 290)

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 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 DARKs. 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.

NIC3 11082

NICMOS Imaging of GOODS: Probing the Evolution of the Earliest Massive

Galaxies, Galaxies Beyond Reionization, and the High Redshift Obscured

Universe

(uses ACS/SBC and WFPC2)

Deep near-infrared imaging provides the only avenue towards

understanding a host of astrophysical problems, including: finding

galaxies and AGN at z > 7, the evolution of the most massive galaxies,

the triggering of star formation in dusty galaxies, and revealing

properties of obscured AGN. As such, we propose to observe 60 selected

areas of the GOODS North and South fields with NICMOS Camera 3 in the

F160W band pointed at known massive M > 10^11 M_0 galaxies at z > 2

discovered through deep Spitzer imaging. The depth we will reach {26.5

AB at 5 sigma} in H_160 allows us to study the internal properties of

these galaxies, including their sizes and morphologies, and to

understand how scaling relations such as the Kormendy relationship

evolved. Although NIC3 is out of focus and undersampled, it is currently

our best opportunity to study these galaxies, while also sampling enough

area to perform a general NIR survey 1/3 the size of an ACS GOODS field.

These data will be a significant resource, invaluable for many other

science goals, including discovering high redshift galaxies at z > 7,

the evolution of galaxies onto the Hubble sequence, as well as examining

obscured AGN and dusty star formation at z > 1.5. The GOODS fields are

the natural location for HST to perform a deep NICMOS imaging program,

as extensive data from space and ground based observatories such as

Chandra, GALEX, Spitzer, NOAO, Keck, Subaru, VLT, JCMT, and the VLA are

currently available for these regions. Deep high-resolution

near-infrared observations are the one missing ingredient to this

survey, filling in an important gap to create the deepest, largest, and

most uniform data set for studying the faint and distant universe. The

importance of these images will increase with time as new facilities

come on line, most notably WFC3 and ALMA, and for the planning of future

JWST observations.

WFPC2 11141

White dwarfs in the open star cluster NGC 188

White dwarf cooling sequences represent the only ways in which we can

determine ages of Galactic components such as the disk and the halo, and

they are an independent check on main sequence ages of globular star

clusters. These age measurements rely heavily on theoretical cooling

models, many of which disagree by as much as a few gigayears for the

coolest white dwarfs. Further, observations of the white dwarf sequence

in the super metal- rich open cluster NGC 6791 have found a white dwarf

age several gigayears younger than the accepted cluster age determined

by main-sequence fitting. The white dwarf sequence of the

solar-metallicity, 7-Gyr old open cluster NGC 188 can provide some

much-needed insight into these uncertainties, but previous HST

observations were too shallow to detect the oldest, faintest white

dwarfs in the cluster. We propose deep imaging of two fields at the

center of the cluster with the following goals: {1} To detect the end of

the white dwarf cooling sequence, providing a much-needed empirical data

point for cool white dwarf evolutionary models, {2} to compare the white

dwarf luminosity function of NGC 188 with that of NGC 6791 to determine

if the odd white dwarf sequence in the latter cluster is due to the

cluster's high metallicity or due to a shortcoming in theoretical

models, and {3} to determine via photometry the masses of white dwarfs

formed by solar-mass stars, a quantity not yet empirically measured.

WFPC2 11296

HST Observations of Astrophysically Important Visual Binaries

This is a continuation of a project begun in Cycle 7 and continued up

through Cycle 14. The program consists of annual FGS or WFPC2

observations of three visual binary stars that will yield fundamental

astrophysical results, once their orbits and masses are determined. Our

targets are the following: {1} Procyon {P = 40.9 yr}, for which our

first WFPC2 images yielded an extremely accurate angular separation of

the bright F star and its much fainter white-dwarf companion. Combined

with ground-based astrometry of the bright star, our observation

significantly revised downward the derived masses, and brought Procyon A

into much better agreement with theoretical evolutionary masses for the

first time. With the continued monitoring proposed here, we will obtain

masses to an accuracy of better than 1%, providing a testbed for

theories of both Sun-like stars and white dwarfs. {2} G 107-70, a close

double white dwarf {P = 18.5 yr} that promises to add two accurate

masses to the tiny handful of white-dwarf masses that are directly known

from dynamical measurements. {3} Mu Cas {P = 20.8 yr}, a famous nearby

metal-deficient G dwarf for which accurate masses will lead to the

stars' helium contents, with cosmological implications. For all three

stars, we will also be setting increasingly stringent limits on the

presence of planetary- mass bodies in the systems.

FLIGHT OPERATIONS SUMMARY:

Significant Spacecraft Anomalies: (The following are preliminary reports

of potential non-nominal performance that will be investigated.)

HSTARS: (None)

COMPLETED OPS REQUEST: (None)

COMPLETED OPS NOTES: (None)

                       SCHEDULED      SUCCESSFUL 

FGS GSacq                04                 04                   

FGS REacq                09                 09                                

OBAD with Maneuver  26                 26         

SIGNIFICANT EVENTS: (None)