Effective area calibration of the Reflection Grating Spectrometers of
  XMM-Newton. I. X-ray spectroscopy of the Crab nebula
  The Crab nebula and pulsar have been widely used as a calibration source for
X-ray instruments. The in-flight effective area calibration of the Reflection
Grating Spectrometers (RGS) of XMM-Newton depend upon the availability of
reliable calibration sources. We investigate how the absolute effective area
calibration of RGS can be obtained using Crab as a standard candle. We have
analysed RGS observations of the Crab using different instrument configurations
and spatial offsets, and made use of previous determinations of the continuum
spectrum of the nebula plus pulsar. Due to the high spectral resolution of the
RGS, we resolve the main absorption edges and detect the strong 1s-2p
absorption lines of neutral oxygen. We get an excellent fit to the Crab
spectrum using this fixed continuum and the absorption spectrum determined by
RGS. We get accurate column densities for the neutral atoms of H, N, O, Ne, Mg,
and Fe, as well as a clear detection of Fe II and firm upper limits for other
ions. Our data are in good agreement with earlier optical and UV spectroscopic
measurements of some of these ions. We find solar abundances for N and O, while
Ne is overabundant by a factor of 1.7 and Fe is underabundant by a factor of
0.8. We confirm that there is less dust in the line of sight compared to the
prediction based on the absorption column. Our spectra suggest a more prominent
role of ferric iron in the dust compared to ferrous iron. Our high-resolution
observations confirm that Crab can be used as an X-ray calibration source. RGS
spectra have determined the absorption spectrum towards Crab with unprecedented
detail.
