The CXC has extensive on-line resources for Chandra proposers and a suite of software tools for common proposal-related tasks. All proposal-related material can be found at http://cxc.harvard.edu/proposer/.
The main reference document for Chandra operation and instrumentation is
the Chandra Proposers’ Observatory
Guide. The POG is available from the CXC website (http://cxc.harvard.edu/proposer/POG/).
Additional information can be found at the “Instruments and Calibration” (http://cxc.harvard.edu/cal/)
link on the CXC web page. A hardcopy version of the POG is available upon
request to the CXC HelpDesk (http://cxc.harvard.edu/helpdesk/).
The CXC uses commercial Helpdesk
software to track users’ requests and problems. Click on “Log
into the CXC HelpDesk”, and the HelpDesk login box will appear.
Enter a user name (we suggest first and middle initial followed by last name,
but any unique string will be okay) and password and press enter/return to log
in. Once you have logged in, you can send a query (or “ticket”) by clicking on
“Open a New Ticket”. New users will be asked to enter more information (this
only needs to be done once). HelpDesk also allows you to search previous
tickets that are not private. More detailed information is given on
the interface. Users can also email the CXC HelpDesk: cxchelp@head.cfa.harvard.edu.
In the last few days before and after the proposal deadline, we activate a dedicated email address for problems with proposal submission. This address should be used for proposal submission purposes only and is not active for most of the year. This dedicated email address helps the CDO to deal more efficiently with the very large volume of correspondence we receive around the proposal deadline. Dates for which the address is switched on will be posted on the proposer page at the CXC website. The proposal help email address is: prophelp@head.cfa.harvard.edu.
Proposal queries submitted to the HelpDesk will always be answered.
ChaSeR (Search and Retrieval from the Chandra Data Archive) allows a user to check what observations have been made, the status of the observations (observed, publicly released, etc.), and to select data products and retrieve them. ChaSer can be downloaded and installed on a user machine from http://cxc.harvard.edu/cda/chaser.html or can be easily accessed via a web version (WebChaSeR) at http://cda.harvard.edu/chaser/.
The Chandra Data Archive Footprint Service provides a visual web interface to all public Chandra observations as well as the observational data used for the Chandra Source Catalog. The instrumental sky coverage is superimposed on an image from the Digital Sky Survey. This tool also provides access to Chandra images and a seamless interface to WebChaSeR for downloading data. The CDA Footprint service is available from: http://cxc.harvard.edu/cda/ footprint/cdaview.html
The Bibliography web interface allows simultaneous searching of the archive and of the published papers related to Chandra observations. It is available from http://cxc.harvard.edu/cgi-gen/cda/bibliography. ChaSeR also provides links to related publications.
Detailed target lists by cycle and a complete list of approved Large and Very Large Projects can be found at http://cxc.harvard.edu/target_lists/index.html.
An additional tool of interest is the processing status tool, which provides comprehensive information about the processing of each observation. The processing status tool can be accessed via WebChaser, but it can also be accessed directly from http://cxc.harvard.edu/soft/op/ op_pst.html.
Instrument response functions (RMFs and ARFs) for simulating spectra within Sherpa and XSPEC can be found on the proposer page (http://cxc.harvard.edu/proposer/) and the Calibration Database (CALDB) page (http://cxc.harvard.edu/caldb/prop_plan/index.html). These responses should be used for proposal preparation only; they should NOT be used for data analysis because they are not accurate for the date of a specific observation.
The CXC provides several software tools to aid in proposal preparation. All these tools are available from the main CXC proposer page (http://cxc.harvard.edu/proposer/).
These tools perform the following functions:
All of these tools have web interfaces linked into the Proposer pages. Command-line (non-web) versions that have additional features are also available for several tools. For example, command line versions of Precess, Colden, Dates allow for a list of input parameters in a text file. The command-line versions of these tools are distributed with CIAO (see Section 6.2.4). Chandra users with CIAO installed can run these routines in the same way as all other CIAO tools (CLI tool names: prop_colden, prop_dates, prop_precess, and obsvis). Standard CIAO helpfiles are available.
Helpfiles for proposal-related software and proposal “Threads” are available from the CXC proposer site (http://cxc.harvard.edu/proposer/). Helpfiles are available on-line as HTML files, in PDF format, and as part of the CIAO “ahelp” system. Proposal Threads are modeled on CIAO threads and give step-by-step examples of how to perform feasibility calculations, fill in the RPS forms, and submit a proposal.
MARX is a suite of programs created by the MIT/CXC group and designed to enable the user to simulate the on-orbit performance of the Chandra X-ray Observatory. MARX provides a detailed ray-trace simulation of how Chandra responds to a variety of astrophysical sources and can generate standard FITS events files and images as output. It contains detailed models for the HRMA mirror system as well as the HETG and LETG gratings and all focal plane detectors. More detailed information, including the source code and documentation, is available from the MIT MARX Web Page (http://space.mit.edu/CXC/MARX/). MARX should be used to demonstrate the feasibility of challenging observations, for example resolving multiple or overlapping sources with unique spectra, HETG observations of extremely bright objects, or grating observations of extended sources.
The Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations (CIAO) package is an extensive suite of tools designed for Chandra data reduction. Although not designed specifically for proposal preparation, CIAO can be used to analyze simulated Chandra data (e.g. from MARX) and create simulated spectra. Full details can be found at http://cxc.harvard.edu/ciao/. Sherpa is the CIAO interactive spatial/spectral fitting package. It can also be used for simulations of Chandra spectra.
XSPEC is the spectral analysis portion of the Xanadu X-ray data analysis package, developed and maintained at NASA-GSFC. XSPEC can be obtained from: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xanadu/xspec/index.html.
The spectral simulation portion of XSPEC can also be run on-line. WEBSPEC can be accessed from: http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/webspec/webspec.html.
