4 October 1996 Hugh Hudson SXT CHIEF OBSERVER'S REPORT AND TABLE PLAN CHIEF OBSERVER'S REPORT for Week 40 30-Sep-96 to 7-Oct-96 SOLAR ACTIVITY Solar activity remained low, with GOES at the background level. SXT can see the fourth rotation of AR7981, still big but very faint. SXT INSTRUMENT STATUS Table transfer errors occurred on Pass #4 and Pass #5 on 30-Sep. The reason for the first error, a mismatch found both in the MS computer and also by SXTSPT, is not clear. On pass 5 the problem is understood (see Hara's report), and investigation is continuing. The result of the pass 5 error was that SXT was put in CTL MAN, not SXT HALT, and owing to the OP commands for terminators SXT started up again during the invisible orbits. There was no problem with the operation at pass 1 on the next day. In general the SXT HALT command should be used in situations like this in the future - this was our first real chance to use it. We have been experimenting at the end of this week with SXT tables not including the standard movie short exposures. This will increase the number of SFD's, presumably, since the cadence will be better. CO's should keep an eye on this; we will put the shorts back in over the weekend and assess things next week. (note: this experiment failed. Apparently the MK_SFD software needs to have a short exposure around even if it does not actually have to use it. We are working on this.) The terminator program for ordinary filters is complete, thanks to diligent scheduling by Jean-Pierre while he was CO. We are now working on ND schedules. CAMPAIGNS Special operations were conducted Oct. 2-4 in support of SOHO campaigns - CDS and Sumer observations coordinated by Andrzej Fludra and Louise Harra. SEMINARS There were no seminars this week, owing to the absence of most people for the Mizusawa meeting of the Astronomical Society of Japan. SXT TABLE PLAN FOR WEEK 41 (5-Oct-96 to 12-Oct-92) There appear to be no campaign activities this week, but last week's efforts were arranged on short notice. SXT in general wants to stay alert to SOHO planning and to respond if there is any merit to it. A partial eclipse will occur on 12-Oct (see SHOW_PIX for details), and next week JOP033 (jets) will start, organized by Lyndsay Fletcher on behalf of a group including Shibata and Hudson from Yohkoh. A dark calibration table will be loaded on Tuesday, and the weekly diffusers included as part of a standard table on Wednesday. Because there are no planned campaign activities, we are tentatively scheduling a two-day bakeout of the CCD Thursday and Friday. This normally is done with special operations on three contact passes, but no day this week has the full set of five so we will have to adjust the program. This will be discussed at the WOM meeting on Monday. For the warm-up (10-Oct) we have passes 1, 4, and 5, and for the cool-down (12-Oct) we have passes 1, 3, and 5 only. KSC Time (start) in JST Pass Table ID _____________(= UT + 9 hrs)______#_______________________________ Monday 7-OCT-96 17:37 4 961007 P4 ARS0 STD+LONG Tuesday 8-OCT-96 14:30 3 961008 P3 ARS0 DKCAL Wednesday 9-OCT-96 14:49 3 961009 P3 ARS0 STD+DIFF Thursday 10-OCT-96 10:00 1 961010 P1 ARS0 BAKE Saturday 12-OCT-96 12:20 3 961012 P3 ARS1 STD+LONG *** 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.