HERSCHLLOG - Herschel Space Observatory Log of Observations

Overview

The Herschel Space Observatory (Herschel) is an ESA (European Space Agency) project with instruments funded by ESA member states. It was operated from May 2009 till April 2013, offering unprecedented observational capabilities in the far-infrared and sub-millimeter spectral range (55-671 microns [um]). Herschel carried a 3.5m diameter passively cooled Cassegrain telescope, which was the largest of its kind and utilizes a novel silicon carbide technology. The science payload comprised three instruments: two direct detection cameras/medium resolution spectrometers, the Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer (PACS) and the Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE), and a very high-resolution heterodyne spectrometer, the Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared or HIFI, whose focal plane units were housed inside a superfluid helium cryostat.

PACS comprised two mutually exclusive sub-instruments: a bolometric camera designed to perform photometry in three spectral bands (70, 100 and 160 um) and an integral field unit grating spectrometer operating over the spectral range from 57 to 210 um with a spectral resolution ranging from 1000 to 5000.

SPIRE comprised a three-band photometer, operating in spectral bands centered on 250, 350 and 500 um, and an imaging Fourier-Transform Spectrometer (FTS), which provided low resolution spectra over the 195-670 um band. Both instruments used germanium bolometers operating at 0.3 K and coupled to the telescope with hexagonally conical feedhorns. The photometer and the spectrometer were not designed to operate simultaneously.

HIFI was designed to obtain spectra with very high resolution (up to 10⁷) in the far-infrared and sub-millimeter wavelengths not directly observable by ground-based telescopes. The HIFI instrument was an heterodyne receiver which provided spectroscopy in the continuous frequency range 480-1250 GHz (240-625 microns) and in the frequency range 1410-1910 GHz (157-213 microns).

Herschel had two Announcement of Opportunities (AOs) for Open Time (OT) observations. The first in-flight AO for Open Time (OT1) was opened on 20 May 2010, with a deadline of 22 July 2010. For OT1, 241 observing programs were accepted and the total allocated observing time amounts to 6576.9 hours. The second in-flight AO for Open Time (OT2) was opened on 9 June 2011, with a deadline of 15 September 2011. There were parallel AOs for Guaranteed Time observations, GT1 and GT2, with separate deadlines.

The Announcement of Opportunity (AO) for Herschel Key Programs (KP) was issued on 1 February 2007, with separate deadlines for guaranteed time (GT) and open time (OT) proposals. The whole Key Program AO process has now been completed, and by coincidence there were exactly the same number of KP GT and OT programs, in both cases 21 programs were awarded observing time. Taken together, these 42 observing programs contained 11,650 astronomical observation requests or AORs (AORs are the primary units of Herschel observing time and are effectively the Herschel 'observation units'). The total allocated observing time for these programs was 11,257.7 hours, corresponding to approximately 57% of the nominally available Herschel routine mission science time.

Herschel successfully made over 37,000 scientific observations before its helium cryogen was exhausted.

The HSA is available at the Herschel Science Centre at http://herschel.esac.esa.int/Science_Archive.shtml, the Herschel help desk is at http://herschel.esac.esa.int/esupport/, the Herschel User Provided Data Products are available at http://herschel.esac.esa.int/UserProvidedDataProducts.shtml, the Herschel Postcard Server is at http://archives.esac.esa.int/hsa/aio/doc/postcardGallery.html, and the Herschel Observation Log is athttp://herschel.esac.esa.int/logrepgen/observationlist.do

Catalog Bibcode

2013yCat.6139....0H

References

Herschel Observation Log.
     Herschel Science Centre
    <Herschel Science Centre (2013)>
    =2013yCat.6139....0H

Herschel Space Observatory. An ESA facility for far-infrared and submillimetre
astronomy.
    Pilbratt G. L., Riedinger J. R., Passvogel T., Crone G., Doyle D.,
    Gageur U., Heras A. M., Jewell C., Metcalfe L., Ott S., Schmidt M.
    <Astron. Astrophys. 518, L1 (2010)>
    =2010A&A...518L...1P        (SIMBAD/NED BibCode)

Provenance

This table was created by the HEASARC in October 2013 based on CDS Catalog VI/139 file herschel.dat.

Parameters

Herschel_Opday
The Herschel Operational Day (OD) on which the observation started. It appears that the zero point of the OD scale is the launch date of 2009 May 14: thus, the first observations was carried out on 2009 September 11 corresponding to OD = 120, and the last observation on 2013 April 29 or OD = 1446, the day that the He coolant ran out.

Name
The target designation for the Herschel observation as given by the observer.

RA
The Right Ascension of the target of the Herschel pointing in the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 equatorial coordinates to a precision of 0.001 seconds of time in the original table, although in most cases the final digit in the latter was zero. Objects within the solar system have been assigned null RA and Declination values.

Dec
The Declination of the target of the Herschel pointing in the selected equinox. This was given in J2000.0 equatorial coordinates to a precision of 0.01 arcseconds in the original table, although in most cases the final digit in the latter was zero. Objects within the solar system have been assigned null RA and Declination values.

LII
The Galactic Longitude of the target of the Herschel pointing.

BII
The Galactic Latitude of the target of the Herschel pointing.

Proposal_ID
The unique identification of the proposal under whose aegis the target was observed. This is used within the Herschel data analysis system. It is a string of the form 'ProgramType_FirstInitialLastNameXX_number', e.g., 'OT2_dardila_2', 'AOTVAL_cwilso01_2', etc. Note that the last name of the proposer is often truncated. The possible program types are:

   AOTVAL - AOT validation
   DDT    _ Directors' Discretionary Time
   GT1    - Guaranteed Time AO-1
   GT2    - Guaranteed Time AO-2
   KPGT   - Key Program Guaranteed Time
   KPOT   - Key Program Open Time
   OBS    - Filler program
   OT1    - Open Time AO-1
   OT2    - Open Time AO-2
   SDP    - Science Demonstration Phase
   TOO    - Target of Opportunity

AOT
The Herschel Astronomical Observing Template (AOT). An AOT contains all the instrument parameters that completely specify the observation. For every Herschel instrument, several AOTs are available. The available Herschel AOTs were as follows:

  HIFI = Heterodyne Instrument for the Far Infrared
  (http://herschel.esac.esa.int/Docs/HIFI/html/hifi_om.html):

  HifiPoint          - Single Point ("HPoint")
  HifiMapping        - Mapping ("HMap")
  HifiFS             - Spectral Scan ("HScan")

  PACS = Photodetector Array Camera & Spectrometer
  (http://herschel.esac.esa.int/Docs/PACS/html/pacs_om.html):

  PacsPhoto          - Photometer ("PPhoto")
  PacsLineSpec       - Line Spectroscopy ("PSpecL")
  PacsRangeSpec      - Range Spectroscopy ("PSpecR")

  SPIRE = Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver
  (http://herschel.esac.esa.int/Docs/PMODE/html/parallel_om.html):

  SpirePhoto         - Photometer ("SPhoto")
  SpireSpectrometer  - Spectrometer ("SSpec")

  SPIRE/PACS AOTs:

  SpirePacsParallel  - SPIRE PACS Parallel Mode ("SPParallel")

Duration
The total duration of the Herschel observation, in seconds.

Time
The start time of the Herschel observation, in UTC.

ObsID
The unique 10-digit identification number of the observation as used within the Herschel data analysis system.

Obs_Name
The Herschel observation designation as given by the observer

Contact Person

Questions regarding the HERSCHLLOG database table can be addressed to the HEASARC Help Desk.

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Monday, 16-Sep-2024 17:28:40 EDT