ACS Anneal Dates

Anneal Dates

ACS Annealing

This page contains a listing of all past and future anneal dates for the ACS/WFC detector. As part of the CCD Hot Pixel Annealing calibration program, the WFC detector is periodically annealed to slow the growth of hot pixels that arise from radiation damage. For each anneal, the thermoelectric coolers are shut down and the heaters are powered on to warm the detector up to about 20ºC over the span of ~12 hours. Before and after each anneal, four 1040 second darks frames and 4 bias frames are taken for monitoring purposes to determine the efficiency of the annealing process as the detector continues to degrade from radiation damage. 

  • Upcoming Anneal Windows for Cycle 33

    Jun 1, 2026 - Jun 7, 2026
    Jun 29, 2026 - Jul 5, 2026
    Jul 27, 2026 - Aug 2, 2026
    Aug 24, 2026 - Aug 30, 2026
    Sep 21, 2026 - Sep 27, 2026
    Oct 19, 2026 - Oct 25, 2026

Completed Anneals

Completed Anneals 

Note, this list of completed anneals only contains anneals occurring after Servicing Mission 4 (SM4) which occurred in May of 2009.

Completed anneals by year

  • MJD Date and Time Month/Day Hot Pixel Annealing ID Daily Monitor ID
    61057.387 2026-01-17 09:17:33 Jan 17 17980 17977
    61085.461 2026-02-14 11:03:47 Feb 14 17980 17977
    61109.998 2026-03-10 23:57:38 Mar 10 17980 17977
    61137.493 2026-04-07 11:49:54 Apr 07 17980 17977
    61164.388 2026-05-04 09:18:34 May 04 17980 17978

*The anneal originally scheduled for June 23, 2021 was missed due to the HST safing on June 13, 2021.

**An artificial anneal boundary was created on March 28, 2025, after an HST safing that day caused the WFC detectors to warm, altering the dark current distribution pre- and post-safing. The original anneal period of March 11, 2025 was thus split into two segments: March 11, 2025 to March 28, 2025, and March 28, 2025 to April 07, 2025. 

Last Updated: 05/18/2026

HST Help Desk


Please contact the HST Help Desk with any questions.