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The Space Telescope - European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF) is an institution which provides a number of support and service functions primarily for European observers of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). It was established in 1984 by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and is located at the ESO headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany.
The ST-ECF provides detailed technical information about the HST and its science instruments, supports European astronomers who are preparing HST observing proposals and coordinates the development of computer software tuned to the specific data analysis needs of HST users. In all these duties the ST-ECF staff maintain close contacts with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, which is charged with the scientific operation of the HST observatory.
The ST-ECF is headed by Robert (Bob) Fosbury. Deputy is Jeremy Walsh.
User Support
Founded before the era of the internet and widely available computer resources the ST-ECF was founded with user support for European astronomers as the main goal. When internet connections across the atlantic and powerful computers became the mainstay, the focus of the organization shifted towards data product and dedicated instrument science support.
Instrument Science
The ST-ECF is actively engaged in software development in many areas related to HST data calibration, analysis and visualisation for especially the Hubble instruments Faint Object Spectrograph, STIS, and Advanced Camera for Surveys. For example:
- aXe - Slitless Spectroscopy Extraction software
- SLIM: A Slitless Spectroscopy Simulator for ACS
- Faint Object Spectrograph Post Operational Archives calibration pipeline (included in STSDAS, done by the Instrument Physical Modeling Group)
- The STIS Spectrograph calibration enhancement project (done by the Instrument Physical Modeling Group)
- NICMOSlook and Calnic C
- Lucy-Hook coaddition method
Science Archive
Together with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) the ST-ECF operates and maintains the ESO/ST-ECF Science Archive Facility from where all the scientific data collected by the Hubble Space Telescope can be accessed by the public . In collaboration with the HST archives at the STScI and the CADC data products and access methods are continuously improved to assure the best possible science data for astronomers around the world. Currently this includes work on the Virtual Observatory, On-The-Fly Calibration, and B Associations. Earlier work pioneered projects like Astrovirtel and Astrophysical Virtual Observatory.
Public Outreach and education
One of the groups at the ST-ECF is the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre (HEIC). HEIC is a science communication office, established in 1999. Its work centres on the production of news and photo releases that highlight interesting Hubble science results and images. All publicised material can be found on spacetelescope.org. The group is home to the FITS Liberator project and the "Hubble - 15 Years of Discovery" project that also led to the book Hubble - 15 Years of Discovery.
External links
"Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility"