Two Gyro Science Mode

The Hubble Space Telescope was originally designed to use three rate-sensing gyroscopes to provide fine pointing control of the observatory during science observations. In order to conserve the lifetime of the HST gyros, one of the functioning gyros was turned off on 28 August 2005 and a new attitude control system that functions with only two gyros was activated. In this mode, two gyros used in combination with the Fine Guidance Sensors provide fine-pointing information during science observations.

		Read These
		Two Gyro Summary (pdf): Read this to get a quick understanding (2 pages). Two Gyro Handbook: Read this before proposing (34 pages). Instrument Reports: Read these for results from the February 2005 on-orbit tests.

Scheduling Aids A Narrated Sky Availability Movie shows how sky availability is affected in Two Gyro Mode. A Scheduling Decision Tree can assist you in determining what you need to do to evaluate the schedulability of your proposed observations. Sample products describe the output from the Web Tools. The Available Science Time and Orientation Tool provides plots showing available orientations and observing times throughout the year for both two and three gyro operations. A Detailed Visibility Tool provides higher resolution plots showing available orientations and observing times in 11 day windows.

Two Gyro FAQs Coronagraphy Moving Targets Mosaics Snapshots Guide Star Availablilty Targets of Opportunity Time Series Observations

See the Site Change Log for a summary of the additions and changes to the information on this site.