New Sky Flats for HST's ACS/WFC

We have begun experiments to make new sky flat files for HST's ACS/WFC. Sky flats can be especially useful for deep imaging in such as programs as deep, extragalactic survey programs because they can help to better deal with noise at low levels. Although we also hope to make similar sky flats for some other popular filters including F606W and F814W, we are beginning this experiment with the F435W filter on the ACS/WFC since it is a popular filter in use in many deep extragalactic surveys, and since the bluer filters such as F435W generally have lower throughput and images in that filter are typically noisier than others at some longer mid-optical wavelengths. Initially, although sources will be masked in these images, etc. we are endeavoring to use just post-SM4 F435W images of duration equal to or greater than 800 seconds and which are free of bright stars in order to try and avoid scattered light and sky background color issues as much as possible, although the sky in different images taken at different times and in different directions will likely have some different background levels and color terms in any event. However, our hope is that the final sky flats will be of sufficient S/N to be good calibrators for deep survey programs.