HST WFC3: Instrument Status and Advice for Proposers and Observers
Abstract
The Wide Field Camera 3 is UV, Visible and near Infrared Camera on boar of the Hubble Space Telescope, that provides astronomers with powerful imaging and slitless spectroscopic capabilities from the near-ultraviolet (200 nm) to the near-infrared (1700 nm). We summarize the basic characteristics and performances of WFC3, including our analysis of its stable and time variable calibrations, and summarize the calibration program for Cycle 25. Key recent improvements in our calibrations and instrument characterizations will be discussed including better models of persistence in the infrared detector, a new tool to derive focus-dependent libraries of Point Spread Function, and a refined Charge Transfer Efficiency characterization. Basic calibration improvements include an ongoing effort to include more filter elements with high precision astrometric calibration, a time dependent calibration of the UVIS photometric zero points, and an analysis of the photometric repeatability in both UVIS and IR channels.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #231
- Pub Date:
- January 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AAS...23135538S