right Rights are legal, social, or ethical principles of freedom or entitlement; that is, rights are the fundamental normative rules about what is allowed of people or owed to people according to some legal system, social convention, or ethical ...

The Space Telescope – European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF) was an institution which provided a number of support and service functions primarily for European observers of the NASA/ESA

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...

(HST). It was established in 1984 by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and was located at the ESO headquarters in

Garching bei München Garching bei München (''Garching near Munich'') or Garching is a town in Bavaria, Germany, near Munich. It is the home of several research institutes and university departments on its campus. It became a city on 14 September 1990. Location The ...

, Germany. The ST-ECF ceased operations on 31 December 2010.http://www.stecf.org The ST-ECF provided detailed technical information about the HST and its science instruments, supported European astronomers who were preparing HST observing proposals and coordinated the development of computer software tuned to the specific data analysis needs of HST users. In all these duties the ST-ECF staff maintained close contacts with the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

, which is charged with the scientific operation of the HST observatory. The ST-ECF was last headed by Robert (Bob) Fosbury. Deputy was 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 was actively engaged in software development in many areas related to HST data calibration, analysis and visualisation for especially the Hubble instruments

Faint Object Spectrograph The Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) was a spectrograph installed on the Hubble Space Telescope. It was replaced by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph in 1997, and is now on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. FO ...

, STIS, and

Advanced Camera for Surveys The Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) is a third-generation axial instrument aboard the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The initial design and scientific capabilities of ACS were defined by a team based at Johns Hopkins University. ACS was assembl ...

. For example: *

aXe An axe ( sometimes ax in American English; see spelling differences) is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has ma ...

– Slitless Spectroscopy Extraction software *

SLIM Slim or SLIM may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Slim Goodbody, a fictional character who teaches about anatomy * Slim, one of the alien antagonists of the 1988 film '' Killer Klowns from Outer Space'' * Slim, the Pixl fro ...

: A Slitless Spectroscopy Simulator for ACS *

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 operated and maintained the ESO/ST-ECF Science Archive Facility from where all the scientific data collected by the

could be accessed by the public. In collaboration with the HST archives at the

STScI The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) is the science operations center for the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), science operations and mission operations center for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), and science operations center for the ...

and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC) data products and access methods were continuously improved to assure the best possible science data for astronomers around the world. This includes work on the Virtual Observatory, On-The-Fly Calibration, and B Associations. Earlier work pioneered projects like Astrovirtel and Astrophysical Virtual Observatory. After the closure of ST-ECF the European HST Archive were moved to ESA's

European Space Astronomy Centre The European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) near Madrid in Spain is the ESA's centre for space science (astronomy, solar system exploration and fundamental physics). It hosts the science operation centres for all ESA astronomy and planetary miss ...

in Spain, where most of ESA's Space Science Archives are located and operated from.

Public outreach and education

One of the groups at the ST-ECF was the Hubble European Space Agency Information Centre (HEIC), which, since 1999, has been the leading Hubble outreach activities group in Europe (headed by the science communication specialist Lars Lindberg Christensen and graphic designer Martin Kornmesser). HEIC's mission statement is to fulfill the Hubble Space Telescope outreach and education tasks for the European Space Agency. HEIC became a very distinguished communication office of experts using the newest software and techniques. After the closure of ST-ECF the Outreach component continued on an ESO contract for ESA, as part of ESO's Education and Public Outreach department. The ESA/Hubble office has produced large amounts of astronomical material – press releases, images, brochures, web pages, books etc. – suitable both for educational purposes and wider public consumption. HEIC provided a well-assorted archive that is publicly available on its web page. The work is centred on the production of news and photo releases that highlight interesting Hubble science results and images. These are often European in origin, and so not only increase the awareness of European Space Agency’s Hubble share (15%), but the contribution of European scientists to the observatory. Furthermore the group produces video releases, innovative educational material, CD-ROMs, brochures, posters, as well as DVDs and museum information kiosks, and much more. All publicised material can be found o
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.

References

External links

STECF website

ESO/ST-ECF Science Archive

ST-ECF's Public Outreach and education
{{Authority control Hubble Space Telescope European Space Agency European Southern Observatory