During the last week the observing schedule was replanned to incorporate an observation of PKS1830-211, which was accepted as a Director's Discretionary Time Target of Opportunity on Apr 15. Loads for the replanned schedule were uplinked on Apr 17. Scheduled observations of ESO381-7 and IGRJ17040-4305 were impacted by the replan and will be rescheduled in a future week.

A real-time procedure was executed on Apr 12 to perform HRC End to End Ground System Verification from the Wayside Operations Control Center. Additional real-time procedures were executed on Apr 16 and Apr 18 to perform full-frame dark current readouts of the Aspect Camera Assembly CCD, and on Apr 18 to perform a diagnostic dump of the Control Processing Electronics (CPE).

Of note this week was the Chandra Quarterly Review conducted on Apr 17 at the Wayside Operations Control Center.

A Chandra press release was issued on Apr 16 describing observations of a bright X-ray burst lasting about seven hours and originating in a distant galaxy. This event likely signaled the merger of two neutron stars and provides a new way to detect such events in circumstances when no gravitational waves are detected and any jet resulting from the merger is not Earth-directed. The X-rays showed a characteristic signature that matched that predicted for a newly-formed magnetar — a neutron star spinning around hundreds of times per second and possessing a tremendously strong magnetic field. The magnetar is thought to have lost energy in the form of an X-ray-emitting wind, slowing down its rate of spin as the source faded. For details see: http://chandra.si.edu/press/19_releases/press_041619.html

The schedule of targets for the next week is shown below.