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Tools and Status

ACS_Logo_Jeletic_600dpi.pngThe Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) is a third-generation instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope and has two operational channels: the Wide Field Channel (WFC), which provides high-throughput, wide-field optical and near-infrared imaging, and the Solar Blind Channel (SBC), which delivers high-resolution, far-ultraviolet imaging. The High Resolution Channel (HRC), which provided high-resolution optical imaging, is no longer operational.

ACS's primary purpose at the time of installation aboard Hubble was to greatly increase imaging discovery efficiency with a combination of detector area and quantum efficiency that surpassed previous instruments and a broad assortment of filters designed to address a large range of scientific goals. ACS offers the largest field-of-view and highest throughput available on Hubble in both optical and far-ultraviolet wavelengths.

In addition to its primary capabilities listed above, ACS also currently offers:

  • Optical grism spectroscopy with WFC
  • FUV prism spectroscopy with SBC
  • Imaging polarimetry with WFC
  • Imaging spectropolarimetry with WFC

ACS Images

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Abell 370

Galaxy Cluster Abell 370

Rich galaxy cluster Abell 370 from the Hubble Frontier Fields project (ACS/WFC and WFC3/IR). Credit to NASA, ESA, and J. Lotz and the HFF Team (STScI).

Andromeda Galaxy (M31)

Andromeda galaxy (M31) from PHAT

Andromeda galaxy (M31) from the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury program (ACS/WFC). Credit to NASA, ESA, J. Dalcanton, B.F. Williams, and L.C. Johnson (University of Washington), the PHAT team, and R. Gendler.

Orion Nebula (M43)

Orion Nebular (M43)

Orion Nebula (M43) from the HST Orion Treasury Project (ACS/WFC). Credit to NASA, ESA, Hubble Space Telescope Orion Treasury Project Team, Massimo Robberto (STScI, ESA).

Egg Nebula

Egg Nebula

Egg Nebula in polarized light (ACS/WFC). Credit to NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), W. Sparks (STScI) and R. Sahai (JPL).

Current Status

WFC is operating nominally

SBC is operating nominally

HRC is not operational

News

ACS STAN March 2026

Imaging Spectropolarimetry—A New Observing Mode on ACS

Helpful Links

ACS Instrument Handbook

ACS Data Handbook

Advice for Planning ACS Observations

ACS Zeropoint Calculator

ACS ePSF Webtool

ACS Photometric CTE Calculator (Currently under maintenance. Please use the acsphotcte module within acstools)

HST Exposure Time Calculator

ACSTOOLS

ACS Jupyter Notebooks

DrizzlePac

Slitlessutils

Program Information

ACS Instrument Resources

  • Instrument Design

    ACS Detectors, Characterization, Documentation, and System Throughputs

    Instrument Design

  • Proposing

    Phase I and II Resources, Exposure Time Calculator, and ACS Dither Patterns

    Proposing

  • Calibration

    Calibrating ACS Data, Cycle Calibration Plans, and ACS/WFC Annealing

    Calibration

  • Performance

    Anomalies and Artifacts, CTE Information, and Photometric and Pixel-Based CTE Corrections

  • Data Analysis

    Aperture Corrections, Distortion, DQ Flag Definitions, DrizzlePac, Pixel Area Maps, Prism/Grism, Slitlessutils, and Zeropoints

    Data Analysis

  • Software Tools

    CALACS Tools, ACSTOOLS, and ACS Jupyter Notebooks

    Software Tools

  • Documentation

    ACS Instrument and Data Handbooks, ISRs, STANs, and Conference Posters

    Documentation

Recent News

Recently Published ISRs

View all ISRs

Most Recent ISRs

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Recently Published STANs

View all STANs

Filter ACS STANs

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ACS Software Updates

ACSTOOLS

v3.7.2
  • Released September 11, 2024
  • Updated index.rst
  • Added ADS link to CITATION.md
  • Replace interp2d in utils_findsat_mrt
v3.7.1
  • Released May 15, 2024
  • Fixed satdet.detsat for scipy.stats.mode
  • Improvement of update_dq  in findsat_mrt
  • Miscellaneous maintenance

HSTCAL v3.1.0

  • Released on December 13, 2024

  • CALACS updated to Version 10.4.0

    • Implementation of the "Parallel and Serial CTE correction" for ACS WFC data

Last Updated: 04/16/2026

HST Help Desk


Please contact the HST Help Desk with any questions.