NICMOS Instrument Handbook for Cycle 11

Purpose

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The NICMOS Instrument Handbook is the basic reference manual for the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer and describes the instrument's properties, expected performance, operations, and calibration. The Handbook is maintained by the NICMOS Instrument Group at STScI.

We designed the document to serve three purposes:

• To provide instrument-specific information for preparing Cycle 11 observing proposals with NICMOS.
• To provide instrument-specific information to support the design of Phase II programs for accepted NICMOS proposals (in conjunction with the Phase II Proposal Instructions).
• To provide technical information about the operation and performance of the instrument after the installation of the NCS, which can help in understanding problems and interpreting data acquired with NICMOS.

This Handbook is not meant to serve as a manual for the reduction and analysis of data taken with NICMOS. For this, please refer to the HST Data Handbook.

A significant change from the last version of the NICMOS Instrument Handbook is that the Cycle 11 NICMOS performance described here is that expected for operation with the NCS. The NCS is expected to cool NICMOS to about 75-86 K, with a best estimate of 78.5 K, a full 15-25 K higher than during Cycle 7 and Cycle 7N operations. The higher operating temperature affects the expected performance of the Instrument. Throughout this Handbook, the adopted temperature is 78 K, unless otherwise noted.

 

Document Conventions

This document follows the usual STScI convention in which terms, words, and phrases which are to be entered by the user in a literal way on a proposal are shown in a typewriter font (e.g., SAMP-sEQ=step16, multiaccum). Names of software packages or commands (e.g., synphot) are given in bold type.

Wavelength units in this Handbook are in microns (µm) and fluxes are given in Janskys (Jy), unless otherwise noted.