23 December 1996 M Weber, H Hudson SXT CHIEF OBSERVER'S REPORT AND TABLE PLAN CHIEF OBSERVER'S REPORT for Week 51 16-Dec-96 to 22-Dec-96 SOLAR ACTIVITY 'Twas the week before Christmas, and all through ISAS Not a tohban was stirring, for even a C-class. The tables were written, by the Observer with care, In the hopes for activity, especially a flare... The "active" side of the Sun passed across our field of view this week, showing several active regions-- both old and new. Nevertheless, soft X-ray emission remained low (around GOES B-level), and there were only two C-class events. In the SXT images, X-ray bright points are clearly evident at all latitudes because of the reduced background during this solar minimum. This also makes it easier to observe EFRs and the formation of active regions. SXT INSTRUMENT STATUS The optics were snuggled-- all tucked in their beds-- While solar images danced on the CCD head... The SXT instrument remains in fine working condition. CAMPAIGNS We were done looking at the north polar cap So this week we settled for a long winter's nap... There were no campaigns or coordinated observations in this reporting period. SEMINARS Over in A-toh, there wasn't any chatter-- So I sprang from my seat to see what was the matter!... There were no Yohkoh seminars in Week 51. FINALE And I heard Yohkoh cry, 'ere she passed LOS sight: "Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good S/C Night!" SXT TABLE PLAN FOR WEEK 52 (22-Dec-96 to 28-Dec-96) In Week 52, there are no formal campaigns. SOHO is however doing special operations with much better telemetry bandwidth for EIT and LASCO (see finger campaign@isass0) and we will try to follow along, hoping that the complex of activity around AR8004 (cf the Bearalert) will produce a huge CME for us to track with great precision. The table plan thus shows ARS2 on the W limb. We always want to be careful with the use of ARS2, though, and this may change. We also intend to request a S/C W offpoint to give the best possible coverage for this region, and accordingly terminator images will have to be put at the NEW NORMAL POINT location with real OG's. The dark-calibration table will be loaded on Tuesday, and diffuser frames will be inserted into the FFI Qt/H table on Thursday. All terminator opportunities are expected to be used. KSC Time (start) in JST Pass Table ID _____________(= UT + 9 hrs)______#_______________________________ Sunday 22-DEC-96 ----- No SXT Table load ----- Monday 23-DEC-96 ----- OPERATIONS HOLIDAY ---- Tuesday 24-DEC-96 02:59 3 961223 P3 ARS1 DARKCAL Tuesday 24-DEC-96 23:52 2 961224 P2 ARS2 STANDARD Thursday 26-DEC-96 01:54 3 961225 P3 ARS2 STD+DIFF Friday 27-DEC-96 00:29 3 961226 P3 ARS1 STANDARD Saturday 28-DEC-96 00:48 3 961227 P3 ARS1 STANDARD Saturday 28-DEC-96 23:24 3 961228 P3 HOLIDAY SPECIAL *** Please note that this table plan may change during the week. *** 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 during quiet times. SSOC TOHBAN, please e-mail any terminator schedule to the chief observer (sxt_co@isass0) so that he can decide about filters and offpoints.