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I. Heyer, J. Biretta, S. Baggett, S. Casertano, S. Gonzaga, A. Koekemoer, J. Mack, M. McMaster, A. Riess, A. Schultz (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 recently passed the 100,000 image mark and continues to perform well. Long-term issues with Charge Transfer Efficiency (CTE) in the CCDs (see separate poster) are an on-going concern, but impact only a minority of the current science observations. The photometric, flat field, and PSF stabilities continue to be excellent. The Cycle 9 calibration program is well underway and closely follows calibrations from previous cycles. Three new programs have been implemented as well: a red leak check, a verification of the wavelength stability of the narrowband and linear ramp filters, and an absolute calibration of CTE losses. New plans for Cycle 10 calibration are discussed. The ``On the Fly Calibration" system has been highly successful, and continues to supply HST archive users with images with the most up-to-date calibrations; we discuss the recent ``On The Fly Reprocessing" upgrade. The WFPC2 Instrument Handbook is being updated for Cycle 11; we expect only minor revisions which are summarized. The recent ``Dither Handbook" discusses strategies for pointing dithers during observations, and reduction of this data using the ``Drizzle" software. These and other recent works are discussed.
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