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I. Heyer, J. Biretta, S. Baggett, S. Casertano, S. Gonzaga, A. Koekemoer, J. Mack, M. McMaster, A. Riess, A. Schultz, M. Wiggs (STScI)
We review the status of the Wide Field and Planetary Camera II (WFPC2) onboard the Hubble Space Telescope, as well as recent enhancements to calibration and user support. The instrument continues to perform well as it approaches 100,000 on-orbit images. Long-term issues with Charge Transfer Efficiency in the CCDs (see separate poster), and new anomalies in the shutter operation, are on-going concerns. But so far, these issues impact only a small number of science observations. The photometric, flat field, and PSF stability continue to be excellent. The Cycle 9 calibration program is now well underway. It closely follows calibrations from previous cycles, but also contains new calibrations of filter wavelength stability and red-leaks, as well as an absolute calibration of CTE losses. The "On the Fly Calibration" system has been highly successful, and continues to supply HST archive users with images using the most up-to-date calibrations; soon this system will be enhanced to include "on-the-fly" reprocessing. The WFPC2 Instrument Handbook has been completely revised for Cycle 10; new material includes updates to many of the instrument's basic calibrations, as well as the latest observation strategies. A new "Dither Handbook" discusses strategies for pointing dithers during observations, as well as data reduction using the "Drizzle" software. These and other recent enhancements will be discussed.