Friday 22 March 2013 9.00am EDT
During the last week the observing schedule was interrupted due to high radiation associated with solar activity. The loads were halted at 8:30am EDT on Mar 17 through a ground command to execute the SI Safing SCS 107. This ensured that the accumulated radiation dose for ACIS remained below the allowed threshold. All spacecraft actions were nominal. A real-time procedure was executed on Mar 17 to start a collection of ACIS CCD charge-transfer inefficiency data. A replanned schedule for resuming science observations was uplinked on Mar 18 with 104.4ks of science loss. Scheduled observations of BD+39 3226, NGC 5252, SDSS J1643+4414, and PSR J0633+1746 were impacted and will be rescheduled. Chandra passed through the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth eclipses of the season on Mar 16, 18, and 21 respectively, with nominal power and thermal performance. A real-time procedure was executed on Mar 22 to set the short eclipse flag to "true" in preparation for the final eclipse of the season. A Chandra image release was issued on Mar 15 describing observations of G306.3-0.9, a newly discovered supernova remnant in the Milky Way that is among the youngest known. Discovered by Swift, scientists used Chandra to follow up the initial discovery, learning more about the remnant's properties. For details see: http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2013/g306/ A Chandra press release was issued on Mar 18 describing results from an observation of Kepler's supernova remnant. A long Chandra observation gives clues about the origin of the Kepler supernova remnant. Evidence points to the doomed white dwarf pulling material from a red giant star, not merging with another white dwarf. For details see: http://chandra.si.edu/press/13_releases/press_031813.html The schedule of targets for the next week is shown below and includes an observation of SN2013ak, which was accepted as a Target of Opportunity on Mar 19, an observation of 2XMMI J184725.1-631724, which was accepted as a Director's Discretionary Time TOO on Mar 18, and observations of NGC 3783 coordinated with HST. |
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NGC3783 ACIS-S/HETG Mar 25 QJ0158-4325 ACIS-S Mar 26 Radiation Belts PSRJ0633+1746 ACIS-I Mar 27 SN2013ak ACIS-S NGC3783 ACIS-S/HETG TheMouse ACIS-I Mar 28 2XMMIJ184725.1-6317 ACIS-S Mar 29 Radiation Belts NGC7076 ACIS-S PSRJ0358+5413 ACIS-I Mar 30 COSMOSLegacy ACIS-I HE0435-1223 ACIS-S Mar 31 SDSSJ0844+1245 ACIS-S
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All spacecraft subsystems continued to support nominal operations.
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