Deep Impact In-Flight Calibration Summary
(from the Calibration Paper, 06/27/2006)

Data Acquisition Date (2005) DOY(s) of downlink Activity Data types Target(s) Purpose Comments
HRIVIS MRIVIS IR ITS
1/12 Launch
1/14 15, 16 Quick instrument alignment and engineering checkout Stars, darks, STIMs Stars, darks, STIMs Darks Darks, STIMs NGC3532 Engineering validation of operability, alignment, psf All instruments operational with good relative alignment. Noted HRIVIS to be out of focus.
1/16 17, 18 Earth/Moon calibration Darks, Moon, Earth Darks, Moon, Earth Darks, Moon, Earth Earth, Moon Radiometry, focus Incorrect lunar exposures caused some saturation, most IR data saturated due to insufficient cooling of instrument bench, larger than expected pointing errors due to insufficient settling time allocation with the slow ADCS convergence algorithm employed for launch.
1/25 26, 27 MRI straylight and Moon radiometry calibration Darks, Moon Moon Radiometry, scattered light MRI turned off by onboard fault protection shortly after sequence initiation due to requested exposure time in excess of 5 minutes.
1/26 27, 28 Flyby autonav Moon test Moon Moon Moon Autonav test Clear filter only
1/28 29 MRI straylight and Moon radiometry calibration (re-run) Darks, Moon, Earth Darks, Moon, Earth Darks, Moon, Earth Earth, Moon Radiometry, focus Good data
1/29 30 IR radiometry and scattered light calibration and HRI focus test Moon, star Moon, star Moon Moon, iCar Radiometry, scattered light, focus IR scattered light test revealed error in data compression lookup tables (data degraded), IR bench still warmer than desired resulting in elevated background levels and noise, IR flat field only partially successful due to timing mismatch in the sequence, star imagery successful.
2/4 36 IR radiometry and scattered light calibration and HRI focus test (rerun) Moon, star Moon, star Moon Moon, iCar Radiometry, scattered light, focus Obtained good IR flats, IR compression LUTs still incorrect, Moon only 58° from the Sun resulted in heating of HRI telescope baffle and excess 5-mm signal
2/5 37 Flyby autonav Jupiter test Jupiter Jupiter Jupiter Autonav encounter test Clear filter only
2/15 46 HRIVIS focus diagnostics (aka "ghost test") Star Star Canopus Determine focal plane position Long exposures through all filters to bring up ghost image from reflection off filter surface, also "knife-edge" images with filter aperture partially obscuring image beam, HRI bakeout heaters on.
2/18 50 Impactor checkout Star Background stars at cruise attitude Test ITS image quality Good performance verified
2/21 52, 53 HRIVIS ghost test #2 Star Star Canopus Observe focus as a function of bakeout
2/22 55 ITS quick alignment check Stars NGC3532 Engineering validation of alignment and psf Successful

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Data Acquisition Date (2005) DOY(s) of downlink Activity Data types Target(s) Purpose Comments
HRIVIS MRIVIS IR ITS
3/2 62 MRI straylight and geometric calibration and precise alignment determination Stars NGC3114, various rich fields, encounter attitude star background Engineering validation of focal length, geometric distortion, psf, and alignment Successful, clear filter only
3/8 67 HRIVIS ghost test #3 Star Star Canopus Observe focus as a function of bakeout
3/11 70 HRIVIS ghost test #4 Star Star Canopus Observe focus as a function of bakeout
3/13 72 HRIVIS ghost test #5 Star Star Canopus Observe focus as a function of bakeout
3/15 74 HRIVIS ghost test #6 Star Star Canopus Observe focus as a function of bakeout
3/17 76 HRIVIS ghost test #7 Star Star Canopus Observe focus as a function of bakeout
3/17 76 HRIVIS ghost test #8 Star Star Canopus Observe focus as a function of bakeout
3/18 78 HRIVIS ghost test #9 Star Star Canopus Observe focus as a function of bakeout
3/21 81 HGA "jitter" test Star Pointed to RA 159.0658 DEC 58.2708 See effects of the HGA tracking the Earth during encounter attitude maneuver on image smear Smear observed was minimal
3/24 83 Encounter validation Darks Darks Darks None Validate downlink to be used on encounter day
3/31 91 MRI opnav photocal Darks, stars 21 standard stars Determine MRI response to stars of various types Clear filter only
4/5 -4/8 95 -99, 119, 123 April science calibration Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Stars, clusters, darks Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Achernar, iCar, 16CygA, Vega, Canopus, bet Hyi, HD60753, Sirius, NGC6543, M11, NGC3114, IC2391 Radiometry, focal length, geometric distortion, psf The clusters and planetary nebula were not detectable with the IR, the ITS images were mostly mispointed due to a sequencing error (got a few of M11 and some over-exposed Vega images useful for crosstalk characterization), good stellar radiometry data in all filters (except for ITS), good IR and VIS linearity data, good geometric data for HRIVIS and MRIVIS

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Data Acquisition Date (2005) DOY(s) of downlink Activity Data types Target(s) Purpose Comments
HRIVIS MRIVIS IR ITS
4/18 109 HRIVIS straylight, HRI/MRI alignment Darks, stars Stars NGC3114 and encounter attitude star background Engineering validation; ADCS attitude knowledge characterization Clear filter only; ADCS test failed due to setup errors
4/23 113, 114 HRIVIS straylight, HRI/MRI alignment (rerun) Darks, stars Stars NGC3114 and encounter attitude star background Engineering validation; ADCS attitude knowledge characterization Clear filter only
4/27 -4/28 118 HRIVIS/IR straylight Star, darks, STIMs Star, STIMs Star, darks Canopus Straylight calibration and ADC performance Successful
4/30 120,121 ITS autonav Saturn test Saturn Saturn Autonav ITS encounter test Successful
5/6 126,127 ITS straylight & alignment Stars Encounter attitude star backgrounds Navigation test Successful; no apparent straylight in ITS at encounter attitude
5/10 -5/13 130 -136 May science calibration Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Stars, clusters, darks Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Achernar, iCar, 16CygA, Vega, Canopus, bet Hyi, HD60753, Sirius, 47Tuc, NGC3114, NGC7027 Radiometry, focal length, geometric distortion, psf, VIS crosstalk, IR alignment Obtained first good ITS calibration, good crosstalk data, measured IR alignment, obtained IR geometric distortion data over half the slit with 47Tuc, missed IR coverage of NGC7027 and 16CygA due to pointing errors (did cover 16CygB), incomplete IR coverage of Sirius due to use of wrong scan rate, good radiometry and linearity data, good VIS geometric data.
5/21 -5/24 145 ITS/ADCS attitude estimation Stars NGC3114 Navigation test Successful
5/28 148 LUT checkouts Darks, STIMs Darks, STIMs Darks Darks, STIMs None Verify updated LUTs New IR LUTs were still incorrect; VIS LUTs good.
6/3 153 ITS/ADCS attitude estimation Stars NGC3114 Re-run of DOY 145 test to verify repeatability Successful
6/3 154 MRI/HRI engineering images Stars Stars Cruise attitude star background Autonav test to characterize cosmic rays and hot pixels No hot pixels found
6/7 -6/9 158 161, 163, 169 June science calibration Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Stars, clusters, darks Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Achernar, iCar, 16CygA, Vega, Canopus, bet Hyi, HD60753, 47Tuc, NGC3114, NGC7027 Radiometry, focal length, geometric distortion, psf, VIS crosstalk, IR alignment Good radiometry, geometry, linearity, crosstalk data, covered other half of IR slit with 47Tuc, lost MRI data of 47Tuc, Canopus, and Achernar plus most of betHyi and 2 dark frames when camera fault protection turned it off, missed IR unbinned scans of NGC7027 due to erroneous zero scan rate in sequence (got binned-mode scan).

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Data Acquisition Date (2005) DOY(s) of downlink Activity Data types Target(s) Purpose Comments
HRIVIS MRIVIS IR ITS
6/10 164 Autonav ITS engineering test Stars Cruise attitude star background Autonav test to characterize image quality, cosmic rays and hot pixels No hot pixels found, representative sample of cosmic rays
6/14 165 Minical Star, darks Stars Star, darks 16CygA, NGC7027 HRI psf, IR response at encounter temperature Good dithered HRI psf images, IR unbinned scan of NGC7027.
6/16 167 IR LUT update checkout Darks None Verify corrected IR compression LUTs Verified to be correct.
6/19 170 Autonav HRI/MRI engineering test Stars Stars Cruise attitude star background Autonav test of image quality and hot pixels No hot pixels found
6/25 178 Impactor checkout Stars Cruise attitude star background Engineering validation
6/27 -7/3 179 -183 ITS engineering checkout Stars Cruise attitude star background Navigation test of image quality and hot pixels No hot pixels found
7/2 183 Minical Star, darks Stars Star, darks 16CygA, NGC7027 HRI psf, IR response at encounter temperature Good dithered HRI psf images, IR unbinned scan of NGC7027.
7/3 184 Encounter dark frames Darks, STIMs Darks, STIMs Darks Darks None Final dark/STIM data before encounter Data acquired successfully
7/6 -7/8 188 -190 Post-encounter calibration Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Stars, clusters, darks, STIMs Stars, clusters, darks Achernar, iCar, 16CygA, Vega, Canopus, bet Hyi, 47Tuc, NGC3114, NGC7027 Radiometry, focal length, geometric distortion, psf, VIS crosstalk, IR alignment Good radiometry, geometry, linearity data, covered both halves of IR slit with 47Tuc.
7/9 190 Minical Star, darks Stars Star, darks 16CygA, NGC7027 HRI psf, IR response at encounter temperature Good dithered HRI psf images, IR scans.
7/13 -7/14 195 Additional HRIVIS STIMs STIMs, darks Improve HRIVIS flat field Successful

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