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. |
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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
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All spacecraft subsystems continued to support nominal operations.
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