Friday 25 December 2015 9.00am EST
During the last week Chandra completed the observing schedule as planned. A flight software patch was uplinked on on Dec 23 which updates the safing action SCS-78 to include commands to power-on side-A of the valve-drive electronics after it has been powered-off. This patch ensures that Chandra will have the capability for unloading angular momentum follwing a safe-mode transition in which the redundant on-board computer fails to start-up nominally. Real-time procedures were executed on Dec 24 to dump OBC-A memory as a follow-up to the patch. The dump will be used to update the baseline memory image maintained on the ground An aspect camera dark current calibration was performed from the on-board loads on Dec 21. An assessment of the data indicates nominal aspect camera performance and that the number of CCD warm pixels is increasing at the expected rate. A Chandra press release was issued on Dec 21 describing observations of a gigantic tail of X-ray emission that has been found behind a galaxy plowing through the galaxy cluster Zwicky 8338. With a length of at least 250,000 light years, this is likely the largest such tail ever detected. Scientists used Chandra to discover the tail, study its properties and learn how this X-ray tail affects its cluster environment. For details see: http://chandra.si.edu/press/15_releases/press_122115.html The schedule of targets for the next two weeks is shown below and includes an observation of Cyg X-1, which was accepted as a Target of Opportunity on Dec 9 and is coordinated with NuSTAR, an observation of PSN J10520833+3256394, which was accepted as a Target of Opportunity on Dec 22, observations of SDSS J0859+0426, 2MASS J08055713+0417035, SDSS J1509+0304, SDSS J1019+2119, and SDSS J1104+4345 coordinated with ground-based observatories, and an observation of 2MASX J04595677+3502536 coordinated with NuSTAR. |
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Radiation Belts DEC 27 NGC7469 ACIS-S/HETG 2MASXJ04595677+3502 ACIS-S J0844 ACIS-S SDSSJ1509+0304 ACIS-S Dec 28 2MASSJ08055713+0417 ACIS-S NGC2617 ACIS-S/HETG SDSSJ1019+2119 ACIS-S NGC7469 ACIS-S/HETG Dec 29 Radiation Belts NGC7469 ACIS-S/HETG PSZ2G170.98+39.45 ACIS-I Dec 30 NGC2617 ACIS-S/HETG SMus ACIS-I Dec 31 NGC7469 ACIS-S/HETG Radiation Belts Jan 1 NGC7469 ACIS-S/HETG NGC2693 ACIS-S NGC2617 ACIS-S/HETG Jan 2 SDSSJ1104+4345 ACIS-S Jan 3 NGC7469 ACIS-S/HETG Radiation Belts Jan 4 Abell623 ACIS-S PSNJ10520833+325639 ACIS-S SDSSJ0859+0426 ACIS-S PSZ2G224.01-11.14 ACIS-I NGC7469 ACIS-S/HETG ZWCL1478 ACIS-I Jan 5 Zw121.071 ACIS-S HZ43 (2 obs) HRC-I/LETG CygX-1 ACIS-S/HETG Radiation Belts Jan 6 NGC7469 ACIS-S/HETG HD191612 ACIS-S/HETG Jan 7 CSWA30 ACIS-S Abell623 ACIS-S SDSSJ085953.33+1310 ACIS-S HZ43 HRC-S/LETG RMJ164325.4+132235. ACIS-I Jan 8 SDSSJ090547.34+3747 ACIS-S HD191612 ACIS-S/HETG Radiation Belts Jan 9 LMCX-2 ACIS-S/HETG 2MASXJ08384815+0407 ACIS-S SDSSJ084135.08+0101 ACIS-S Jan 10 LMCX-2 ACIS-S/HETG
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All spacecraft subsystems continued to support nominal operations.
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