Discussing the bleeding edge of calibration of an instrument, although a necessarily messy proposition, is potentially useful in order to determine if the oddity in your data is an astrophysically interesting phenomenon or just an instrumental artifact. To this end, a diverse group of 85 participants spanning a wide range of representation both "inside" and "outside" of the Chandra project gathered last November in Cambridge to discuss the state of the art in the calibration of Chandra.
For two days, the audiences were regaled with detailed discussions about FEF's, QEU's and other esoterica related to all elements of the observatory. The emphasis was a frank discussion of not only what is known, but also what was still in need of attention. Those who attended seemed enthusiastically pleased with the event and what they learned from it. In order to preserve and propagate the information discussed at the workshop, the presentations, both oral and poster, can be found online at the workshop website: http://cxc.harvard.edu/ccw/proceedings/02_proc/index.html. These have been further augmented by including (much) of the question and answer period following each oral talk.
We are currently in the early planning stages for the next workshop, which will be held October 27 and 28 somewhere in the Cambridge/Boston area. Please keep your eye on our site: http://cxc.harvard.edu/ccw., as well as the International Meetings website: http://cadcwww.dao.nrc.ca/meetings/meetings.html for more updates. The meeting will again be open to the entire astronomical community and we are especially keen to have even more Chandra users in attendance. See you this fall!
Hank Donnelly