HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE DAILY REPORT # 3126 PERIOD COVERED: 0000Z (UTC) 05/28/02 - 0000Z (UTC) 05/29/02 OBSERVATIONS SCHEDULED AND ACCOMPLISHED: NICMOS 8790 NICMOS Post-SAA calibration - CR Persistence Part 1. A new procedure proposed to alleviate the CR-persistence problem of NICMOS. Dark frames will be obtained immediately upon exiting the SAA contour 23, and every time a NICMOS exposure is scheduled within 50 minutes of coming out of the SAA. The darks will be obtained in parallel in all three NICMOS Cameras. The POST-SAA darks will be non-standard reference files available to users with a USEAFTER date/time mark. STIS/CCD 8902 Dark Monitor-Part 2. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to monitor the darks. STIS/CCD 8904 Bias Monitor-Part 2. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to monitor the bias in the 1x1, 1x2, 2x1, and 2x2 bin settings at gain=1, and 1x1 at gain = 4 in order to build up high-S/N superbiases and track the evolution of hot columns. WFPC2 8938 WFPC2 CYCLE 9 SUPPLEMENTAL DARKS pt3/3. characterizing the evolution of hot pixels. WF/PC-2 8941 Cycle 10 UV Earthflats. improve the quality of pipeline flat fields for the WFPC2 UV filter set. ACS/WFC/HRC 8947 Weekly Test. The Advanced Camera for Surveys (WFC and HRC) was used to perform basic tests to monitor, the read noise, the development of hot pixels and test for any source of noise in ACS CCD detectors. This program will be executed at least once a day for the entire lifetime of ACS. FGS/1 9034 The Masses and Luminosities of Population II Stars. Fine Guidance Sensor 11R was used to observe the mass-luminosity relation {MLR} of Population II stars of which very little is currently known. With the advent of the Hipparcos Catalogue, improved distances to many spectroscopic binaries known to be Pop II systems are now available. After surveying the literature and making reasonable estimates of the secondary masses, we find 13 systems whose minimum separation should be larger than the resolution limit of FGS #1. WF/PC-2 9043 Cepheid Distances to Early-type Galaxies. The WF/PC-2 was used to continue observations in the HST Key Project on the Extragalactic Distance Scale and the HST project on the "Calibration of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae'' that have greatly improved our knowledge of the Hubble Constant by providing a solid zero point for the Tully- Fisher {TF} relation and Type Ia Supernovae {SNIa}. However, severe inconsistencies remain for distance estimators to early-type galaxies such as surface brightness fluctuations {SBF}, the planetary nebula luminosity function {PNLF}, the fundamental plane {FP}, and the globular cluster luminosity function {GCLF}. As a result, the distance to the Virgo cluster core remains uncertain by as much as 20 determination is directly affected by a lingering 0.1 mag {5 uncertainty in the photometric calibration of the WFPC2. Resolving these issues is essential not only to firm up the extragalactic distance scale, but also to understand the mass and velocity structure of the local universe. SBF in particular is emerging as the method of choice for mapping local velocity fields to 10, 000 kms because it offers an order of magnitude less Malmquist bias than TF, and SNIa are too rare to study large scale flows effectively. This project will tighten the photometric calibration of the WFPC2, and provide a solid Cepheid calibration for SBF and PNLF. STIS/CCD/MA1 9051 Identifying Damped Lyman-alpha Galaxies at z~1. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD and MA1) was used to look for damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems that contain the bulk of the neutral gas in the Universe in the redshift range z = 0.5 - 5, yet the nature of the galaxies responsible for the absorption is not well understood. Only recently have observers found more than a handful of damped absorbers at redshifts z < 1.5. Using the FIRST Bright Quasar Survey {FBQS}, with over a 1000 quasars, the proposers have undertaken a survey to build a complete picture of he nature of the galaxies responsible for damped Lyman-alpha absorption systems at z~1 and to double the sample size at this redshift. STIS/CCD 9066 Closing in on the Hydrogen Reionization Edge of the Universe. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used in parallel constrain the Hydrogen reionization edge in emission that marks the transition from a neutral to a fully ionized IGM at a predicted redshifts. ACS/WFC/HRC 9075 Cosmological Parameters from Type Ia Supernovae at High Redshift. The Advanced Camera for Surveys (WFC and HRC) was used to obtain a Hubble diagram of Type Ia supernovae {SNe Ia} that will be of long lasting value as a record of the expansion history of the universe. STIS/MA1/MA2 9151 UV Snapshot Observation of Nearby Star Forming Galaxies. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (MA1 and MA2) was used to obtain FUV and NUV images of nearby emission- line galaxies with existing star-formation rate {SFR} measurements from their HAlpha flux. Recently, the use of the UV flux as a measure of SFR has gained much popularity for estimating SFRs at different cosmic epochs. However, the SFR estimated from UV flux could be greatly biased due to dust extinction. The KPNO International Spectroscopic Survey {KISS} provides a large sample of nearby HAlpha-selected starforming galaxies for which rich optical spectra are available for measuring metallicity and dust extinction through line ratios. By observing a subset of nearby emission-line galaxies in the KISS sample with the STIS FUV and NUV MAMA, a direct comparison between UV and Halpha SFR estimates will be possible. This will allow us to understand the effect of dust extinction on UV flux for star- forming galaxies over a wide range of HAlpha luminosity, metallicity absolute magnitude, and B-V color . A rough dust extinction curve will be constructed for such objects, making it possible to test plausible dust extinction curves used in previous SFR studies of the distant universe. Also, high-resolution UV images will allow us to search for plausible local counterparts to high redshift galaxies whose rest-frame UV morphology is available from existing optical HST data. NICMOS 9269 NICMOS Parallel Thermal Background NICMOS Camera 3 pure parallel exposures in the F222M filter will be obtained for the entire duration of SMOV to establish the stability of the HST+NCS+Instrument thermal emission. STIS/CCD 9317 Pure Parallel Imaging Program: Cycle 10. The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (CCD) was used to perform the default archival pure parallel program for STIS during cycle 10. WF/PC-2 9318 POMS Test Proposal: WFII Parallel Archive Proposal Continuation. The WF/PC-2 was used to perform the generic target version of the WFPC2 Archival Pure Parallel program. The program was used to take parallel images of random areas of the sky, following the recommendations of the Parallels Working Group. WF/PC-2 9319 POMS Test Proposal: WFII Backup Parallel Archive Proposal II. The WF/PC-2 was used to execute a POMS test proposal, designed to simulate future scientific plans. HST 9382 A Large Targeted Survey for z < 1.6 Damped Lyman Alpha Lines in SDSS QSO MgII-FeII Systems. We have searched the first public release of SDSS QSO spectra for low-z {z<1.65} metal absorption lines and found over 200 large rest equivalent width MgII-FeII systems. Previously, we empirically showed that such systems are good tracers of large neutral gas columns, with ~50% being classical damped Lyman alpha {DLA} systems {N_HI>=2*10^20 cm^-2}. Here we propose to follow up a well-defined subset of 79 of them to search for DLAs with 0.47