During the last week the observing schedule was replanned to incorporate observations of a new magnetar and of IGR J18245-2452, which were approved as a Target of Opportunity and as a Director's Discretionary Time TOO respectively on Apr 26. Planned observations of SDSS J1643+4414, Sh 2-27, and IRAS F16399-0937 were impacted and will be rescheduled in future weeks.

A real-time procedure was executed on May 1 to perform a routine self-check of the Electrical Interface Assembly (EIA) Sequencer.

A Chandra image release was issued on Apr 30 describing observations of an enormous cloud of hot gas is surrounding NGC 6240, two merging spiral galaxies. This gas reservoir contains the mass of 10 billion Suns, spans 300,000 light years, and radiates at more 7 million degrees. A burst of star formation that lasted for at least 200 million years may be responsible for this extra large cloud of hot gas. For details see: http://chandra.si.edu/photo/2013/ngc6240/

The schedule of targets for the next week is shown below