Space Telescope Science Institute  Chapter 1:  Introduction and General Considerations  1.2 Layout

1.1 Purpose


The NICMOS Instrument Handbook is the basic reference manual for the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer and describes the instrument's properties, performance, operations, and calibration. The Handbook is maintained by the NICMOS Instrument Group at STScI.

We designed the document to serve three purposes:

This Handbook is not meant to serve as a manual for the reduction and analysis of data taken with NICMOS. For this, please refer to the HST Data Handbook.

This edition of the handbook provides updates on the NICMOS performance based on re-calibration of NICMOS in its operation with the NCS. The NCS maintains NICMOS detector temperature at K. The operating temperature is higher than in Cycle 7, and affects the performance of the detectors the most. Other quantities such as astrometry and focus have also been updated.

1.1.1 Document Conventions

This document follows the usual STScI convention in which terms, words, and phrases which are to be entered by the user in a literal way on a proposal are shown in a typewriter font (e.g., SAMP-sEQ=step16, multiaccum). Names of software packages or commands (e.g., synphot) are given in bold type.

Wavelength units in this Handbook are in microns (µm) and fluxes are given in Janskys (Jy), unless otherwise noted.


Chapter 1:  Introduction and General Considerations  1.2 Layout
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