All: Suzanne asked me to send you the agenda, the call-in information, and various informational reports for the Monday 7/16 3.5-m Users Committee telecon, which are given below. Committee members, please be prepared to address the various agenda items from your users' and institution's perspectives. The call-in details are: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ number: 866-719-0837 passcode: 1187123 time & date: 8:30am PDT. Monday, 16 July 2007 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Agenda: o User feedback and comments - Committee members o Discussion of telescope/instruments report - Klaene o New SPIcam/TUI interface - Klaene o Other topics - all o Actions from earlier meetings - group Actions from earlier meetings - group [open from previous months]: none [new actions from last month]: ACTION: Jon Holtzman will investigate and report on the tip-tilt system at the TNG telescope on La Palma. ************************* 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 6/10/07 through 7/5/07 Mark Klaene 0) Overview Monsoonal weather started a little early this year with moderate rain and evening clouds limiting observations for much of the past 2 weeks. The June engineering time was clouded out; however, some in- dome testing of the SPIcam TUI interface and further training of Jim Davenport made the time useful. Bill Ketzeback has returned from his family medical leave. 1) Telescope No significant problems this period. Tracking tuning was not accomplished, but tracking has generally been acceptable, not requiring that we pre-empt observing. The summer shutdown is still on track for August 20 to September 16. The driver is the primary mirror re-aluminization. We have a limited number of days on the sky for recovery; hopefully the weather will cooperate and allow us to return to science on schedule. 2) Instruments Agile is preparing for more commissioning runs at the telescope this month. The fiber interface was working when it left Princeton Instruments. The focal reducer is planned to be completed and ready for commissioning during July. The replacement DIS Red high-resolution grating has been received at JHU for testing. Delivery to the observatory and installation in DIS is expected later this month. The Lakeshore temperature controller failed on both DIS cameras-- repair is in work. This leaves us with no DIS red heater and only the ion pump controllers as a way to gauge temp and vacuum. We replaced the ThAr lamp on the Echelle. Incorporation of SPIcam into TUI has been released to users. Some scripts are still under development. NA2 guider camera had an intermittent network connection failure develop. The cause was traced to a broken network cable. A more flexible cable has been installed. NIC-FPS is scheduled to be taken off line and sent to CU on the 26th of July. Work will include implementing 16-channel readout capability and F-P Etalon installation and testing. 3) Engineering and CIF projects 2007: Rotator upgrades: two machining work orders have been let and the PO for the motor and accessories has been signed. Expect delivery late August. Axis controllers: bench setup has been built and is undergoing testing of the new axis controllers. 2008: Tertiary mounting: discussions are ongoing as to the need for tip/ tilt to be incorporated. Input from the scientific community is required to determine if fast guiding at the tertiary is desired. If interested please let Larry Carey know (lcarey@astro.washington.edu) Direct drives: research into direct drives for the azimuth and altitude drives continues. 4) Miscellaneous Jim Davenport completed his training as a summer fill-in Observing Specialist. Jim will be soloing during the rest of July and August. APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 1041 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