Contents:

1) FUSE Cycle 4 Call For Proposals Released
2) FUSE GI (Proposal Related) Web-site at new Home
3) FUSE Given High Rating in NASA'S 2002 Senior Review
4) Updated List of Calibration Targets
5) Observatory Program Target List Available On-Line
6) CalFUSE v2.2.0 Is Coming
7) New FUSE Data-Analysis Tool Available



1) FUSE Cycle 4 Call For Proposals Released

        The NASA Research Announcement for Cycle 4 of the FUSE Guest 
Investigator program (NRA-02-OSS-03) was released on 31 July 2002.  Proposals 
are due by 10 October 2002.  Potential proposers are asked to submit Notices of 
Intent by 30 August 2002.  Complete information about Cycle 4, including links 
to the NRA, observation planning tools, and a catalog of existing and pending 
observations, are available from the FUSE GI web site 
(http://fusegi.pha.jhu.edu).

        This is the first call for proposals for the FUSE extended mission (EM).
One of the new features of the EM is the introduction of a new proposal 
category.  As in Cycles 1-3 there are Standard proposals, but in Cycle 4 the 
category Survey and Supplementary Proposals has been added.  The new category 
permits a new type of observing program where a class of objects may be 
proposed without the requirement that any particular object be observed.  Full 
information is given in Appendix A of the NRA.

        As discussed in the previous FUSE Newsletter, target visibility has 
improved significantly in the last several months.  Whereas all FUSE 
observations early this year were restricted to |dec| > 40 deg, there is now 
good target visibility at RA= 00h +/- 3h at all declinations, and further 
improvements are expected as new software and procedures are implemented.  A 
new target visibility tool has been developed to help FUSE proposers see 
in detail when a target can be observed by FUSE and for how much time.  Please 
see the FUSE GI web site for full details.


2) FUSE GI (Proposal Related) Web-site at new Home

        The web site for the FUSE GI program has been moved from Goddard Space 
Flight Center to Johns Hopkins University.  The new URL is 
http://fusegi.pha.jhu.edu.  For the time being, the old web site will redirect
users to the new one, but we ask that you update your bookmark files at your
earliest convenience.


3) FUSE Given High Rating in NASA'S 2002 Senior Review

        The results of the 2002 Senior Science Review (SSR) have been released 
by NASA and the news for FUSE is good!  The extended mission phase was approved 
and funding was recommended to continue through FY2006 (the last two years of 
which will ultimately have to be reconfirmed by the next SSR in 2004).  The 
recommended funding levels will allow the FUSE Project to maintain the current 
capabilities and enable a vigorous Guest Investigator Program. The FUSE ranking 
in the SSR was high, and the review committee had much positive to say about 
the project, the good "science per dollar" value of the mission, and the rapid 
recovery from our recent attitude control problems. 


4) Updated List of Calibration Targets

        The FUSE calibration target list has been updated and extended.  The 
main update is the addition of the M105 program. This program provides an 
expanded pool of stars selected to enable us to perform checks of the 
stability of the flux sensitivity on time scale shorter (couple of weeks) than 
has been typically done with the earlier program. Most of these targets have 
been selected at high declinations in order to be easily observable by FUSE 
with comparable numbers in the northern and southern hemispheres. The majority 
of the new calibration targets have been observed by FUSE. Amongst the goals of 
the M105 is the monitoring of flux sensitivity before and after test 
observations close to the RAM direction.  The extended calibration target list 
will also provide a more complete baseline for monitoring FUSE sensitivity with 
time and ultimately improving FUSE flux calibration accuracy.

        The remainder of the calibration list has only been slightly modified. 
A few stars have been dropped from the previous list because they have proven 
to be difficult to observe with FUSE. Targets in other calibration programs 
will be observed as needed with special attention given to wavelength 
calibration.  The full list of FUSE calibration targets can be found on the 
http://fusegi.pha.jhu.edu site, under the Observation List heading. 
        

5) Observatory Program Target List Available On-Line

        The target lists for the ingested FUSE Observatory Programs have now 
been posted on the FUSE web site at:

http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/users/observe_prog_targets.html


6) CalFUSE v2.2.0 Is Coming

        We are happy to announce that the latest version of CalFUSE, dubbed
v2.2.0, is installed and running on the Hopkins computers that process data for 
MAST.  Once we are satisfied that all works as expected (probably early next 
week), we will flip the switch and begin processing incoming data with this 
version of the pipeline.  FUSE data processed with CalFUSE v2.2.0 should begin 
to appear in the MAST in mid August.  Reprocessing of the entire FUSE data set 
will begin in October and should be completed early next year.

        The new version of CalFUSE is similar to v2.1.6, released in June.  The 
principal changes are the adoption of a time-dependent set of flux-calibration 
files (http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/analysis/calfuse_wp0.html) and the addition of 
a jitter-correction module (http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/analysis/calfuse_wp8.html)
to counter the effects of spacecraft motion during an exposure.  We will make a 
number of incremental changes to both software and calibration files over the 
next few months, so expect the pipeline version number (v2.2.x) to creep up 
accordingly.  We will release a public version of CalFUSE v.2.2.x in early 
September.

        Users should see a dramatic improvement in the quality of calibrated 
FUSE data obtained from MAST once the new software is in place.  In addition to 
correcting for astigmatism, walk, and other effects, the new pipeline produces 
a set of quick-look spectra in GIF format for each observation.  MAST will make 
these images available for browsing in real time.  We believe that these images 
will be a valuable tool for the FUSE user community.


7) New FUSE Data-Analysis Tool Available

        In our continuing effort to make FUSE data more accessible to the 
community, we have written a number of IDL routines to read and display FUSE 
data. A recent addition to our toolbox is FUSE_REGISTER, which allows the user 
to shift, scale, and combine multiple calibrated FUSE spectra interactively.  
For more information or to download the software, see the FUSE IDL Tools 
Reference Page at http://fuse.pha.jhu.edu/analysis/fuse_idl_tools.html
        
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The Observer's Electronic Newsletter is published by the FUSE project and is 
aimed at the FUSE user community.

Editor: B-G Andersson, FUSE Guest Investigator Officer.

The FUSE Project is managed by Johns Hopkins University's Center for 
Astrophysical Sciences in Baltimore, MD, for NASA's Goddard Space Flight 
Center.  The FUSE Principal Investigator is Dr. Warren Moos, the FUSE Project 
Manager at JHU is Mr. J.B. Joyce, and the NASA Project Scientist for FUSE 
is Dr. George Sonneborn.

Further information about the FUSE Guest Investigator Program can  be
obtained from:  Dr. George Sonneborn; sonneborn@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov
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