APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 5/14/07 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Bruce Gillespie, Mark Klaene, Remy Indebetouw, Russet McMillan, Michael Strauss, Jon Holtzman, John Bally Absent: Scott Anderson, Jon Fulbright, Al Harper Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie ********************************** User feedback, comments from institutional representatives: Princeton (Strauss) - Michael said everything is going fine with the PU users. JHU (Fulbright) - no report. Chicago (Harper) - no report. Washington (Suzanne) - Suzanne reported that a run with Agile is about to be underway, which will take photometric data jointly with other observatories. NMSU (Holtzman) - Jon had nothing to report. Virginia (Indebetouw) - nothing to report, except that UVa users have been getting data recently in spite of the weather. Colorado (Bally) - John mentioned that John Stock has been getting data, and that he (Bally) is collaborating on a GFP run that is currently underway. ********************************** Upcoming NIC-FPS availability, plans - Bally: John reported that the plan is to take NIC-FPS to Boulder on 24 July to effect some upgrades and modifications. This will have impact to Q3 scheduling of the instrument on the telescope, because the instrument will not return to APO until September, nominally. Schedulers have been already been told this, and users should also note this when making their Q3 requests. Work planned includes modifying the detectors (both science and engineering) for 16-channel readouts. In parallel, the NIR Fabry- Perot will be tested and commissioned in the lab. The set point for the operational temperature of the etalon is an open question, and if modifications are necessary to operate it at a warmer temperature are required, the return schedule to APO may be at some risk. ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report - Klaene: The report is given below; Mark walked through the highlights, and there was little discussion: ************************* 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 4/14/07 through 5/10/07 Mark Klaene 0) Overview Spring weather continues to be intermixed with mild winter storms. Recent telescope closures have been primarily due to heavy cloud cover and precipitation, atypical for this time of year. Fire danger is unlikely to reach extreme levels this spring, and restrictions and forest closures are not likely as we continue with moderate rain and high humidity along with cooler temperatures. Fir trees near the observatory are being attacked by defoliator insects. We are working with the USFS on determining the effects and possible actions if these bugs reach the observatory grounds. 1) Telescope No significant problems this period. Subtle az and altitude tracking variations are being monitored; they are so far having little to no effect on operations. 2) Instruments o Agile is preparing for its second run. The "actual" (i.e., not the substitute) Agile camera is back after repair and ready for the run. Minor mounting and handling improvements have been made. The fiber-optic interface is still not working and will require further bench testing back at UW. The focal reducer is not yet available. o APOLLO interlock problems have been corrected. o The modified grating holder for the DIS gratings was tested and found to be less repeatable than desired. A modification is now in work. o The spare Leach controller for NIC-FPS and TripleSpec has been ordered. Planning to remove NIC-FPS from mid-July through mid-Sept for upgrades is being finalized. o DIS red camera had computer interface card failure in its ICC. A spare was on hand and the card was replaced. No sky time was lost. This is a commercial card and will be repaired for future use as a spare. o Assimilation of SPIcam into TUI is planned to start in mid-May. The issue of SPIcam TUI scripts was resolved by having Bill Ketzeback talk to Russell Owen. When SPIcam TUI interface will be ready for user testing is TBD. 3) Engineering and CIF projects o The motor and interface electronics for the NA2 rotator upgrade are being purchased. A preliminary motor mount design is in review. o Most of the parts are on hand for phase one of the upgrades to the axis controllers. Much of the software is completed and running in a simulation mode. Plan is to integrate the software with the NA2 rotator this summer, and pending successful operation, begin integration with the drive axes in late summer/fall, with the project completed by the end of the year. 4) Miscellaneous o Truss lamp replacement project is still in the research phase. o Work on TripleSpec purge air and heat exhaust is complete until instrument arrival. o New GPS clocks are on site and running, final certification testing is in work. o Summer shutdown still planned for Aug 20-Sept 16. ********************************** Other misc. topics - Group: o Suzanne reiterated that the SPIcam/TUI upgrade is starting this week. and the SPIcam TUI interface will likely be ready for user testing in the next few weeks. SPIcam users with time in June should be prepared to use the new TUI interface, and to provide feedback on its operation. o Russet said that she was able to get some drop-in engineering observing tests recently, and she got some FastCam baseline data that can be compared to similar observations that will be taken after the drive boxes are swapped out with spares at the end of the month. Also, the az and rotator drives have been over-currenting recently; Mark thinks this is currently a "feature" of the system related to slow tracking speeds at certain pointing angles, and will need to wait until July for serious attention unless the problem gets worse in the meantime. o Suzanne reported that there is a newly formed NSF "small" telescope committee (i.e., less than 6.5-meters aperture) that is looking at science and coordination issues related to the use and refurbishment of these telescopes. This group is responding to the Senior Review recommendation for providing more access to the community to small and mid-sized telescopes. They are meeting several times this year, and will be soliciting community input. This could ultimately lead to an NSF program similar to the TSIP program, but for the smaller telescopes. There is no immediate effect for us but Suzanne feels that it could be a source of future resources for our telescope if our budget becomes tight. She is on the committee as a liaison to ACCORD (the AURA large telescope directors committee) and will distribute information about providing input when it becomes available. o Suzanne reminded us of our student training policy. Students are required to be accompanied at the site by their advisors for the three day training and orientation visit; see http://www.apo.nmsu.edu/ 35m_operations/35m_manual/General_Information/Training.html. She will consider exceptions to this rule on a case-by-case basis, with compelling reasons. We may also consider revising this policy when and if it makes sense to do so. ********************************** Actions from earlier meetings - group [open from previous months]: none [new actions from last month]: ACTION: Suzanne will follow up with Russell Owen about TUI scripting. Users are encouraged to provide feedback to their users reps about integrating Spicam into TUI. STATUS: Russell is willing to include some modest number of useful TUI scripts when SPIcam is implemented into TUI. No feedback has been received, so we plan to close this action item. DISCUSSION: Jon Holtzman will contact Russell to discuss the details of TUI scripts for SPIcam. UPDATE: Action item reopened (was closed last month). Not sure this has been adequately communicated to the users; see item in telescope/ instrument reports above. Jon Holtzman agreed at the telecon to talk to Bill Ketzeback and Russell Owen about this. This action is now re- closed. ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday, 11 June, at 8:30 AM Pacific Time. Agenda and other materials will be sent to the committee members during the preceding week. APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 1028 in the apo35-general archive. You can find APO the archive on http://www.astro.princeton.edu/APO/apo35-general/INDEX.html APO To join/leave the list, send mail to apo35-request@astro.princeton.edu APO To post a message, mail it to apo35-general@astro.princeton.edu APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO