MPCRAW - Einstein MPC Raw Data

Overview

The Einstein Observatory (also known as HEAO-2 or HEAO-B) was operational from 1978 November 13 until 1981 April 25 when the Einstein attitude control system failed. The Monitor Proportional Counter (MPC) was a non-focal plane instrument that monitored the 1 to 20 keV X-ray flux of the source(s) being observed simultaneously by the operational focal plane instrument. The MPC was a collimated proportional counter filled with argon and carbon dioxide. It had a circular field of view, 1.5 degrees in diameter (FWHM), which was co-aligned with the telescope. A 1.5 mil Be window sealed the gas in the detector and shielded the detector from ultraviolet radiation. The active area of the MPC was 667 square cm. The MPC obtained useful data from 1978 November 19 until 1981 April 17, with the exception of a 3-month period from 1980 Aug 27 to 1980 Dec 08 when operation was intermittent, due to Einstein Observatory attitude control problems. The characteristics of the MPC have been described in detail by Gaillardetz et al.(1979) and by Grindlay et al. (1980).

References

   Gaillardetz, R., et al. 1979, IEEE Trans. Nucl. Sci., 25, 437.
   Grindlay, J. E., et al. 1980, Ap. J. (Letters), 240, L121.
   Halpern, J.P. 1982, Harvard University Ph.D.thesis.
   McIlwain, C.E. 1961 J.Geophys. Res. 66, 3681.

Provenance

One duplicate entry was removed from the HEASARC implementation of this catalog in June 2019.

Data Products

The MPC_RAW data files contain the Einstein Monitor Proportional Counter (MPC) data for the Einstein (aka HEAO-B or HEAO-2) mission at a time-resolution of 2.56 seconds in FITS format. The file-naming convention uses the start-time of the observation as its identifier, so that the file m800131_0710_p.cmb corresponds to an observation which started at 07:10UT on 1980 Jan 31 or 800131 in YYMMDD format. The MPC obtained useful data from 1978 November 19 until 1981 April 17, with the exception of a 3-month period from 1980 Aug 27 to 1980 Dec 08 when operation was intermittent, due to Einstein Observatory attitude control problems.

An MPC_RAW FITS file has no primary array, but does have 1 binary table extension that contains the MPC's 8-channel spectra and associated instrumental characteristics for every 2.56 seconds time interval in the selected observing segment.The latter corresponds typically to some fraction of the Einstein spacecraft orbit; thus, an Einstein observation of an individual source will typically have many MPC_RAW FITS files associated with it.

Parameters

Target
The target designation. This came from a cross-correlation of the Einstein Sequence Number with the EINLOG database table using the HEASARC's Legacy service.

Filename
The file name of the data product.

Sequence_Number
The sequence number of the observation.

Hut_Number
HUT Number: Major Frame # at File Start - 1

RA
The Right Ascension of the object.

Dec
The Declination of the object.

LII
The Galactic Longitude of the object.

BII
The Galactic Latitude of the object.

Start_Time
The start time of the observation.

Stop_Time
The stop time of the observation.

On_Time
The total time the source object was observed.

Source_Count
The average good counting rate, #/s. This is the is the average, background-subtracted count rate (in counts per second) for this observation, excluding data flagged as bad by BFLAG or QFLAG. Thus, if there are N records of good data, SRCCNT = [The Sum of (COUNTS-BACKV)]/(2.56*N).

Contact Person

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

Page Author: Browse Software Development Team
Last Modified: Monday, 16-Sep-2024 17:31:14 EDT