As was done for all the HST instruments for past Cycles, we have established a set of core scientific capabilities of NICMOS which will be supported for Cycle 13 science. These capabilities cover an enormous range of science applications.
Supported capabilities include:
MULTIACCUM
and ACCUM
detector readout modes (see Chapter 8 for a discussion of the problems that can be faced when using ACCUM
mode).
MULTIACCUM
SAMP-SEQ
exposure time sequences,
ACCUM
exposure times as defined in Chapter 8 with NREAD=1 only.
One additional capability is "available", but not supported for Cycle 13. The use of this capability can be proposed upon consultation with a NICMOS Instrument Scientist, and is useful only for target acquisition of extremely bright sources for coronagraphic observations. The use of this capability requires approval from STScI and support for calibration is non-existent.
The unsupported ("available") capability is:
The use of this capability is strongly discouraged if the acquisition of a target for coronagraphic observations can be obtained with any of the supported capabilities. Cycle 13 proposals which include use of the unsupported NICMOS capability must include a justification of why the target acquisition cannot be done with a supported configuration, and must justify the added risk of using an unsupported mode in terms of the science payback.
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