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.

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
Current and previous AO related problems	AO8, AO9
Data related problems	Data
Data analysis and reduction software	SASv8.0, SASv8.0_Installation,  SASv9.0, SASv9.0_Installation,  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, Feedback	Misc, Suggestions, Feedback
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Out of date messages are kept off-line.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://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_news/news_list/index.php.