Notifications
When an observation occurs on HST, operations staff check that the
observation executed correctly. They will notify the PI if there
was an obvious problem with the observation, such as a guide star
acquisition failure. When the data from the observation has
been stored in the archive and processed, the PI is notified that his
or her data are ready for retrieval from MAST.
Checking your data
It is the PI's responsibility to assess the scientific quality of
the data and to notify the Institute if there was a problem in the
quality of the data. Therefore as soon as possible after the data has
been archived, and certainly with a few weeks of the observation, the
PI or a designate should inspect the data to assure that that there
were no major anomalies in the data. For WFC3, if the PI
suspects a problem, the PI should call or email the contact scientist
for the program (or failing to reach the contact scientist send a
message to the help desk). The contact scientist will discuss the
problem with you and advise about your options. These options
include submitting an official Hubble
Observation
Problem Report (pronounced "hopper") which could result
in having the observation rescheduled if the problem is deemed to have
been one that should not reasonably have been anticipated. There
are time-deadlines for submitting a HOPR, which is one of the many
reasons it is advisable to inspect the data promptly.
Getting your data
MAST, the
Multimission Archive at Space Telescope is the archive where HST data
are stored and processed. MAST contains both the raw data and
calibrated data for all HST observations. Both raw and calibrated
data are in standard FITS formats that are described in the
WFC3 Data Handbook, which should be your starting point for
understanding the data from the archive. "Raw data" here means
"raw data" in the same sense that one obtains "raw data" from a
ground-based telescope, not a telemetry stream from the space
craft. "Calibrated data" is the data after processing with the
standard WFC3 calibration pipeline. Only the PI or designees of
the PI can retrieve the data from the archive within the proprietary
period (usually one-year) of the observation.
Analyzing your data
The WFC3
Data Handbook is the primary document describing how to work with
WFC3 data using tools, STSDAS,
Pyraf,
and
Multidrizzle
provided by STScI to re-reduce and to analyze HST data.
Publishing your data
Ultimately, you will publish the results in the scientific
literature. Publications involving HST data (whether for new
observations or for analysis of archived and now public data) should be
accompanied with proper acknowledgments to NASA and the Space Telescope
Science Institute as described in the Publication
Guidelines
for HST Results.
Spreading the word
Hubble Space Telescope is funded by the public and consequently it
is very important that newsworthy findings be reported in the public
media. The Office of Public Outreach at STScI has resources to
assist with the outreach efforts for HST, and coordinates its
activities with those of NASA. The types of public release, the
policies and procedures and the the procedures for public releases are
described here.
The
most recent public releases of HST data can be fond at the HST news center.