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Operations CXO Status Report

Friday 17 August 2012 9.00am EDT

During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned.

Chandra passed through the third, fourth, and fifth eclipses of the season on Aug 11, 13, and 16 respectively, with nominal power and thermal performance. A real-time procedure was executed on Aug 14 to set the short eclipse flag to "false" in preparation for the medium-length eclipses expected for the next several weeks.

A real-time procedure was executed on Aug 16 to update the on-board ephemeris. A second real-time procedure was executed on Aug 16 to turn on the redundant fine-sun-sensor (FSS-B) and sensor-processing electronics. The FSS-B turn-on is in order to evaluate its health and long-term behavior given the performance changes observed in FSS-A that led to the May 28 safemode transition.

A Chandra press release was issued on Aug 15 as a NASA press release describing observations of the "Phoenix Cluster", known officially as SPT-CLJ2344-4243. Chandra, the South Pole Telescope, and 8 other telescopes combined to study Phoenix, which is the most powerful producer of X-rays of any known cluster, and among the most massive of clusters. Astronomers have dubbed it the "Phoenix Cluster" because of the constellation where it is found and because of its remarkable properties, which include the highest rate of star forming ever seen in the center of a galaxy cluster. For details see: http://chandra.si.edu/press/12_releases/press_081512.html

The schedule of targets for the next week is shown below and includes an observation of 1E 2259+586, which was accepted as a Director's Discretionary Time TOO on Jul 31, and observations of Mrk 231 coordinated with NuSTAR.



------------------------------------------
A2667                  ACIS-I       Aug 20
       SMCX-1                 ACIS-S/HETG
       SPT-CLJ0037-5047       ACIS-I
       1E2259+586             HRC-I        Aug 21
       Radiation Belts
       SMCX-1                 ACIS-S/HETG  Aug 22
       SPT-CLJ2258-4044       ACIS-I
       SMCX-1                 ACIS-S/HETG  Aug 23
       PuppisA-micro-Xf       ACIS-S
       Mrk231                 ACIS-S
       Radiation Belts                     Aug 24
       Mrk231                 ACIS-S
       J1623.6-0935           ACIS-I       Aug 26

------------------------------------------

All spacecraft subsystems continued to support nominal operations.

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