From ssm@latte.msfc.nasa.gov Thu Mar 20 17:52:58 1997 Received: from space.mit.edu by wiwaxia AA01247; Thu, 20 Mar 97 17:52:57 EST Received: from head-cfa (head-cfa.harvard.edu) by space.mit.edu AA24903; Thu, 20 Mar 97 17:52:50 EST Received: from latte.msfc.nasa.gov by head-cfa (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id RAA27437; Thu, 20 Mar 1997 17:42:41 -0500 Received: from latte.msfc.nasa.gov (ssm@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by latte.msfc.nasa.gov (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id RAA14241 for ; Thu, 20 Mar 1997 17:44:59 -0500 Message-Id: <199703202244.RAA14241@latte.msfc.nasa.gov> To: head@head-cfa.harvard.edu Subject: First Flight, First Light Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 17:44:59 -0500 From: "Stephen S. Murray" Status: R HRC UPDATE #1 HRC-I was turned on at about 6pm (3/19/97 CST) and the High Voltage slowly raised to the operating point over two hours. The MCP background rate is remarkably low - 2.6 cts/sec over then entire image! This is almost twice as low as we saw in Cambridge and we think it is due to the excellent vacuum at XRCF and the large distance of the HRC from any naturally occurring radiation. We are extremely happy with this performance. There are no hot spots or warm spots in a 3600 second backround test, another encouraging result. At about midnight CST the HRC saw first light from the HRMA! The image was a 25 mm out of focus run with one quadrant shutter closed on shells 3 and 4 (different quadrants). This was a low flux run lasing 500 seconds. The quick look (undegapped0 image is being placed in pool space as soon as we can set up to make the transfer! From this image we were able to immediately determine that the HRC is in front of the focus by 25-27mm (better values will come later), and that we understand the sense of the facility coordinate system relative to the HRC. We all breathed a sigh of relief and after a very brief celebration got down to the real work of HRC calibration. Since turn on, the HRC has been operating very well. We have completed about 60 test in the first 24 hours of shift operation, mainly effective area tests at energies above 2.5 keV. We have exercised the HRC shutters (knife edges) and are currently determining the precise focus location of the HRC-I. We have about one more day of HRC-I operation before we make our first grating observations with HETG.METG. We will then switch over to HRC-S. Again there will be a three or four hour time period to turn on for the first time and gather background data followed by the higher energy effective area tests. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the effort! Steve Dr. Stephen S. Murray - Sr. Astrophysicist Associate Director - High Energy Astrophysics Division _______________________________________*_______________________________________ Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory__| phone: (617) 495-7205 High Energy Astrophysics Division __| fax: (617) 495-7356 60 Garden Street, MS-2 __| email: ssm@head-cfa.harvard.edu Cambridge, MA 02138 __| http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~ssm/HomePage.html ___________________________|___________________________________________________ From ssm@latte.msfc.nasa.gov Thu Mar 20 18:02:55 1997 Received: from space.mit.edu by wiwaxia AA01254; Thu, 20 Mar 97 18:02:54 EST Received: from head-cfa (head-cfa.harvard.edu) by space.mit.edu AA25139; Thu, 20 Mar 97 18:02:53 EST Received: from latte.msfc.nasa.gov by head-cfa (SMI-8.6/SMI-SVR4) id RAA27861; Thu, 20 Mar 1997 17:53:33 -0500 Received: from latte.msfc.nasa.gov (ssm@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by latte.msfc.nasa.gov (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id RAA14432 for ; Thu, 20 Mar 1997 17:55:51 -0500 Message-Id: <199703202255.RAA14432@latte.msfc.nasa.gov> To: head@head-cfa.harvard.edu Subject: HRC First Light Image Date: Thu, 20 Mar 1997 17:55:51 -0500 From: "Stephen S. Murray" Status: R A GIF version of the first light image is available in /pool14/ssm. It is for your viewing pleasure, but please do not redistribute this image nor try to do any quantitative analysis. The HRC Team would like to have first crack at doing more than collecting the photons, I am sure you all appreciate and understand this request. Thanks, Steve Dr. Stephen S. Murray - Sr. Astrophysicist Associate Director - High Energy Astrophysics Division _______________________________________*_______________________________________ Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory__| phone: (617) 495-7205 High Energy Astrophysics Division __| fax: (617) 495-7356 60 Garden Street, MS-2 __| email: ssm@head-cfa.harvard.edu Cambridge, MA 02138 __| http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~ssm/HomePage.html ___________________________|___________________________________________________