02 Sep 1996
                                                              Serge Savy


                SXT CHIEF OBSERVER'S REPORT AND TABLE PLAN


SXT CHIEF OBSERVER'S REPORT for Week 35:   26-AUG-96 to 02-SEP-96


Never joke with mules or cooks as they have no sense of humor.

                                        - A Cowboy's Guide To Life

SOLAR ACTIVITY

AR7986 continued to be the focus of our attention. Although this active
region is quite large, and was the subject of a Bear Alert on Thursday, it
produced only one C-class flare (on 28 August), and several B-flares during
the week.

SXT INSTRUMENT STATUS

On 25 August (UT) another entrance filter failure occurred, resulting in an
increase of straylight illumination of approximately 40 percent. 
Correction for the new straylight pattern is working well so SXT
observations have not been affected, and the instrument continues to work
well. 

On 27 August Yohkoh was accidently offpointed 5 arcmins west overnight due
to a mistake by the tobans, following offpoint obervations by SXT for the
JOP044 campaign (see below). 

Otherwise normal operations, and no problems. 

CAMPAIGNS

We continued the campaign to observe the large scale structure of the
solar minimum corona with SoHO (JOP044).  This campaign is coordinated by
Sarah Gibson and Douglas Biesecker, and will last about one month, until
12-September.  

Details on SoHO JOP 44 can be found at

http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/campaigns/soho/JOP044-199608.txt
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/operations/JOPs/jop044.html


SEMINARS

No seminar last week. 



                       SXT TABLE PLAN FOR WEEK 36
                        (2-Sep-96 to 8-Sep-96)

The coronal structure campaign (JOP044 with SoHO) continues this week with
3 special observing periods according to the following prescription:

KSC visible orbits at S/C 5' W or E (nominal time frame UT 23:00 - 02:00). 
Long exposures (FFIs): Al.1 at 10 sec, AlMg at 30 sec

SSOC Tohbans: The SXT CO will schedule the off-points for this campaign.
The off-point plan for this week is:

Monday    2-SEP-96  :  S/C offpoint  WEST 5' for orbit between  P3-4

Wednesday 4-SEP-96  :   "            EAST 5' for orbits between P2-4

Friday    6-SEP-96  :   "            WEST 5' for orbits between P1-4

Saturday  7-SEP-96  :   "            EAST 5' for orbits between P2-4
       
A dark calibration table will be loaded on Monday, and the weekly
diffusers included as part of a standard table on Tuesday.


    KSC Time (start) in JST     Pass          Table ID
_____________(= UT + 9 hrs)______#_______________________________
Monday       2-SEP-96 08:00      3  W       960901 P3 ARS1 STD+LONG
             2-SEP-96 09:43      4          960902 P4 ARS1 DKCAL

Tuesday      3-SEP-96 04:53      2          960902 P2 ARS1 STD+DIFF

Wednesday    4-SEP-96 05:11      2  E       960903 P2 ARS1 STD+LONG
             4-SEP-96 08:38      4          960903 P4 ARS1 STD

Friday       6-SEP-96 02:24      1  W       960905 P1 ARS1 STD+LONG
             6-SEP-96 07:33      4          960905 P4 ARS1 STD

Saturday     7-SEP-96 04:25      2  E       960906 P2 ARS1 STD+LONG
             7-SEP-96 07:52      4          960906 P4 ARS1 STD

       *** Please note that this table plan may change ***

Continuing requests:

We request that KSC tohbans continue to dump a patrol image each time an
SXT table is loaded to facilitate the study of optimizing ARS parameters
for an awfully, awfully quiet period.

SSOC TOHBAN, please fax the preliminary OP list to D-tou when it contains
a terminator so that the Chief Observer can suggest which OG's to use.