Welcome to the XMM-Newton HelpDesk

 

Submitting a HelpDesk request

Before submitting a new request to the XMM-Newton HelpDesk users are strongly recommended to check if the information needed is already included in one of the answered requests.

Previous HelpDesk questions can be searched and new requests submitted via the:
 

HelpDesk web interface
 

We advise the user to make the (short) question the subject of the request. It is important to send a separate request for each question. The message will receive a unique ID, by which it can be identified in the database.

The questions, and later their answers, will be visible to the public. To avoid this, the requests have to be marked as PRIVATE.

The XMM-Newton HelpDesk is staffed Mon-Fri, 08:00-17:00 GMT, except on public holidays. Users should get a response within at most two working days.

Please note that your feedback is extremely useful for us to improve the service provided to the Scientific Community. We invite you to visit the following web address and send us your comments: https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/user-feedback/
 

The HelpDesk web interface

All messages sent to the HelpDesk and the relevant answers are kept stored in separate directories, according to their main topic. All messages or messages in individual directories can be searched for a "Regular expression" or by its message ID. The messages marked as PRIVATE will not appear here. The links in the Table below allow the direct access to the directories containing messages about:
 

Instrument performances and calibrations  EPIC-MOS, EPIC-pn, RGS, OM
Instrument sensitivity and background  Backgrounds
Multi-instrument calibration issues  Calibration
Documentation  Docs
Announcement of Opportunity (AO) related general questions AO15,  AO16,  AO17
Data related problems  Data
Data analysis and reduction software  SASv15.0, SASv15.0_Installation,
 SASv16.0, SASv16.0_Installation,
 SASv16.1, SASv16.1_Installation, esas,
 SciSim, Simulators_other (e.g.: PIMMS), etc.
Target visibility and observing efficiency  Visibility
XMM-Newton SOC organized Conferences and Workshops  Conference
XMM-Newton Image Gallery  Gallery
XMM-Newton Science Archive  XSA
ESAC SAS Workshops  SAS_WS
Publications, remarkable results for ESA news  Publications
Others, Suggestions  Misc, Suggestions
Questions not yet fully answered  Incoming, Pending
 

Most of the other directories are intended for the management of the XMM-Newton HelpDesk.
Out of date messages are kept off-line.

Help with SAS: If you encounter problems in analyzing XMM-Newton data with the SAS software please try to give as much information as needed to reproduce your problem, including the following details:

  • Output of the sasversion command,
  • Observation identifier,
  • Information about the CCF in use.

XMM-NEWS mailing list: Astronomers who wish to be kept up-to-date with the most important XMM-Newton related news can suscribe to the XMM-Newton Newsletter at http://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/xmm-newton/newsletter.