During the last 48 hours Chandra completed calibration observations of HZ-43 and the Coma cluster with HRC-S/LETG and HRC-I, and continued a GTO observation of the Hubble Deep Field with ACIS-I.
Real-time commanding was conducted overnight to perform a test with ACIS aimed at reducing the CTI degradation. The test was conducted with one chip and involved inserting pauses after each row is clocked to allow more time for trapped charge to be released. Ground testing has demonstrated improvement with this approach, and analysis will be performed on the on-orbit data to assess corresponding improvement with the flight instrument.
The team finalized preparations for the Leonid's meteor shower which is predicted to peak at 9.20pm EST 11/17. The spacecraft will be pointed directly at the anti-radiant with solar arrays clocked to minimize exposed surface area through the storm peak. In addition, a target within 4 degrees of the anti-radiant location will be observed on either side of the direct anti-radiant observation (total 21 hours). Additional DSN coverage has also been obtained and a full engineering team will be in place to monitor the real-time data overnight.
During the next 48 hours observations will be conducted of NGC 7293, the Leonid anti-radiant, MS 2137.3-2353 and PKS 2149-306.
The spacecraft subsystems continued to operate nominally.
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