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Which filters are routinely monitored and/or best calibrated?

April 26, 2017best calibrated filters routinely

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Which filters are routinely monitored and/or best calibrated?

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All visible light filters have been calibrated and are relatively stable with time. The UV response varies with time due to the buildup of contamination (currently removed every 49 days). The core filter set for monitoring includes F160BW, F170W, F218W, F255W, F336W, F439W, F555W, and F814W. Both temporal and spatial performance is being tracked. When choosing a filter, the observer should consider the requirements of their scientific program, the transformability of the filters selected (see The Photometric Performance and Calibration of WFPC2, by Holtzman et. al.), the exposure time efficiency, and the integration of their observations into other HST observation datasets.