APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 12/08/08 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Al Harper, Mark Klaene, Bill Ketzeback, Russet McMillan, Jon Fulbright, John Bally, Bruce Gillespie, and Michael Strauss Absent: Scott Anderson, Jon Holtzman, Remy Indebetouw Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie ********************************** User feedback, comments from institutional representatives: Princeton (Michael Strauss) - Michael said things are generally fine. Princeton TripleSpec users are getting good data while being somewhat impacted by some of the telescope problems and new instrument teething problems (e.g., rotator, TripleSpec instrument software, discussed elsewhere in these minutes). Some of the troubles with TripleSpec were not well backstopped with workarounds or recovery procedures. Suzanne said that the issues are currently being actively worked, and Mark pointed out that all users should be using the newest version of TUI when observing with TripleSpec (Version 1.5.1) because several fixes to the instrument-related software have been recently implemented. Colorado (John Bally) - John reported that the CU users are particularly fond of TripleSpec, and said that Mike Skrutskie (the TripleSpec instrument PI) will be holding a TripleSpec data-reduction seminar in Boulder. Johns Hopkins (Jon Fulbright) - Jon had nothing to report. Washington (Suzanne Hawley) - Suzanne noted that there have been recent problems with Agile involving instrument software and the imminent switchover to TUI control. She hopes that these issues will soon be resolved, noting that Agile is being requested quite a bit in the first quarter schedule. Chicago (Al Harper) - Al mentioned that the UC observers, of which there are several regulars, have no complaints. New Mexico State (Jon Holtzman) - no report Virginia (Remy Indebetouw) - no report ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report - Klaene: Mark summarized the report, given below, noting the recent spate of good weather we've enjoyed. Some progress has been made with the problems with the NA2 rotator, which seem to be largely related to electronic communications subtleties. There have also been a growing number of intermittent tertiary rotation failures that seem to be caused by a possibly damaged circuit board; we are looking at replacing the board, perhaps involving a redesign. ************************* 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 11/1/08 through 12/01/08 Mark Klaene 0) Overview Under mostly clear night skies, the telescope has been working well during the period. Issues with the NA2 axis controller, tertiary rotation, and TripleSpec caused some loss of observing time. There has been, and continues to be, an active campaign to confront and fix these problems--see below for details. This period also included a considerable effort in support of the annual Board of Governors meeting. 1) Telescope NA2 axis controller: Fritz located a number of problems that have been plaguing the NA2 rotator controller. These include some serial communication handshaking and some processing problems. Recent repairs seem to have been very successful. Tertiary rotation: Nick, with the help of others, found more intermittent wiring and also a bad solder joint on a circuit board. We are concerned that a major rebuild of the wiring and circuit boards for the tertiary rotation system will be necessary before these problems are eliminated; we are developing a long term plan for this. 2) Instruments The DIS-blue ion pump was replaced. DIS and SPIcam are both fully operational with no problems. DIS focus was checked and found to be very good. Echelle and NIC-FPS both continue to be operational with no problems. We are still waiting for UVa to design and build up a new NIC-FPS fan- out board that will hopefully address the residual readout noise. TripleSpec had two different problems during this period. The first had to do with exposure readouts that were all zeros. Power-cycling the array got the instrument working properly. An investigation is underway to determine the cause of these frequent data dropouts. The instrument mounting cart also continues to give us trouble. A lot of minor changes have been incorporated and new mounting "mushrooms" are also in work. We have also started discussions whether the cart needs a redesign. Formal acceptance of the instrument is on hold until these problems are fully understood. Agile is still available at NA2; it will be moved to the TR2 port once the new rotator is fully tested. A problem with the rotator motor amplifier has caused a delay of the installation, and the amplifier was sent back to the manufacturer. TUI integration for Agile continues. However, a couple software integration issues have developed and are being worked. A GFP run at the end of the November was completed, and the instrument is cold and available. APOLLO remains operational. The high-precision gravimeter is now slated for arrival later this month, and plans are in progress for its installation at the 3.5-m. 3) CIF projects Funding for next year's CIF projects has been approved by the ARC Board of Governors. The principal projects are direct drives for the azimuth and altitude axes, new axis controllers for az and alt, and calibration lamp upgrades. There may be some modest funds available to begin studies of new instrumentation and upgrades, depending on interest and availability of ARC scientists to lead the effort(s). ********************************** Board of Governors meeting - Hawley: Suzanne reported that the ARC Board of Governors approved the 2008 Annual Report and the budget request for 2009. The 2009 budget request is reduced relative to the 2008 budget (largely due to a new IDC agreement between ARC and NMSU), which enables the direct costs for telescope operations and the CIF to be maintained at 2008 levels. Suzanne also noted that after the direct-drive az and alt drives upgrades are completed, planned capital improvements to the telescope itself will be essentially complete. If the ARC partners can continue to support the CIF at current levels, we can begin to address the need for new and upgraded instruments, particularly (but not exclusively) SPIcam and the echelle spectrograph--we are looking for PIs who can propose for and lead new or upgraded instrumentation project(s). Additionally, active consideration is being given to adding new partners to the consortium, which has been a means in the past of acquiring new instruments for the telescope. ********************************** TripleSpec block scheduling - Hawley: This topic was basically a announcement that in light of recent teething problems with TripleSpec, we will be using a "partial" block scheduling paradigm for TripleSpec in the coming quarter. This will enable expert on-call support for the instrument during the schedule blocks. Users who observe with TripleSpec outside of the schedule blocks may have less support available. ********************************** NIC-FPS focus - Klaene It has previously been noted that the NIC-FPS filters, both broad- and narrow-band, are not parfocal. Test data were taken in the past month, and were sent to John Bally--John said he will take a look at these tests. Bill Ketzeback said that we need the offset corrections to be added to our user documentation, and possibly used by the software to make automatic corrections. Suzanne suggested that this be made an action item: ACTION: Focus offsets for the various NIC-FPS filter need to be determined, documented for the users, and automated corrections implemented in the operations software. ********************************** Communications while observing, redux - Klaene: Mark gave an update on progress on developing a VoIP audio communication capability between the users and the observatory. Based on recent tests, it appears that Skype may be workable, although more experience over extended periods is needed. Mark asked that we tell the users that Skype is now available. If users are interested, they should ask the Observing Specialists for connection details. ********************************** Opportunities for new & upgraded instruments - Hawley: As mentioned above, and last month, Suzanne reiterated that she wants to hear if there are people interested in leading new and/or upgraded instrument development projects. So far, Colorado and the University of Florida (through our SDSS-III connection) have expressed serious interest. Suzanne added that having new instruments at the 3.5-m telescope buys us leverage with other observatories, in the context of promoting time-sharing between different facilities. We hope to have CIF funds to partially support instrumentation work. ACTION: Anybody with an interest in leading and/or supporting new/ upgraded instruments for the telescope should make their intentions known to Suzanne Hawley by next month's Users Committee meeting. ********************************** Other business: Suzanne and Russet brought up the issue of target lists given in observing proposals, which are not actually used by us for scheduling programs on the telescope. Often these targets are proprietary, and users have asked us to edit the target lists out of the proposals before they are posted. Suzanne asked that users not put explicit target lists into the proposals; it is too time-consuming for us to edit individual proposals. Bill Ketzeback announced that new TUI catalog files have been added to the on-line documentation, and users are encouraged to make use of them. ********************************** ACTION ITEMS: [open from previous months]: ACTION: The Users Committee representatives are to ask their respective users for suggestions on improving the calibration lamp system on the telescope, e.g., flux, wavelength distribution, emission- line calibration, etc., and report at the next meeting. STATUS: Although more user input would be welcome, this action is closed. We will move forward on improving the blue calibration lamps (arcs and continuum) for DIS, beginning in January. [new actions this meeting]: ACTION: Focus offsets for the various NIC-FPS filter need to be determined, documented for the users, and automated corrections implemented in the operations software. ACTION: Anybody with an interest in leading and/or supporting new/ upgraded instruments for the telescope should make their intentions known to Suzanne Hawley by next month's Users Committee meeting. ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday, 12 January, at 8:30 AM Pacific Time. The 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 1121 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