SURELY guiding with the Agile images is `simply' a software issue ???? I do not believe one CAN do really precise photometry without guiding, at least on the 3.5 meter and probably any Nasmyth instrument. On another topic completely, do you know *why* the NSO housing is drying up? The place is preparing for shutting down, no???? thanks --jim On Fri, 11 Dec 2009, Michael Strauss wrote: > APO User's Meeting meeting, December 7, 2009 > > Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Mark Klaene, Jon Fulbright, John Bally, Al > Harper, Jon Holtzman, Michael Strauss, Scott Anderson; apologies if I > missed your name! > > There was no specific telescope feedback from any of the > institutions. > > The telescope report from Mark Klaene is included at the end of these > minutes. The big news is the heavy snow that hit the observatory last > week; just as the observatory has recovered from this, it was hit by a > wide-spread power outage that is now resolved. The snow outage reminds > us that we should have a procedure to contact observers (especially if > they are planning to travel to the telescope!) if the site is > closed/inaccessible due to extreme weather. > > Agile has no guider. Tracking tests show good performance now with > the new drive motors and axis controllers, approx. 3" drift in an hour > with no guiding. However some science applications require precision > photometry beyond the ability to flatfield, and hence want the object > to be stationary on the same pixel(s). The performance at NA2 > indicates that we are able to track within about one pixel for an hour > when guiding. We are looking into guiding off the science images > themselves on Agile. > > We then turned to a discussion of the potential new instruments: an > upgrade for the echelle, a replacement or refurbishing of SPICAM, and > a high-resolution near-IR spectrograph (FIRST) to be used for Doppler > planet searches around cool stars. We started with input from each > institution. > > Princeton (Strauss): A postdoc, Cullen Blake, is quite interested in > the echelle upgrade, and has already contacted Burgh with specific > questions about the detector. He has also contacted Jian Ge to get > more details about FIRST. > > JHU (Fulbright): There is enthusiasm about getting greater blue > response in the echelle, and less fringing in the red. There is some > concern about separation of the orders in the echelle. > Could FIRST be used to follow up interesting APOGEE targets? > > Colorado (Bally): Colorado folks are interested in using the upgraded > echelle for studies of OVV quasars. In the contact of FIRST, they are > building a laser-cooled calibration system with a frequency comb; they > are in contact with Ge. > > Chicago (Harper): Don York has a series of concerns about management > risks for the echelle (are all the individuals needed to carry out > this program lined up? Are those who built the instrument in the > first place properly in the loop?), as well as the amount of downtime > for the instrument. Al suggested a telecon between the individuals > most interested in this instrument, to talk about all aspects of it. > > NMSU (Holtzman): There is interest in the echelle and imager. > > Washington (Anderson): Low-level interest in all three instruments. > > Virginia wasn't represented at this meeting. > > Suzanne Hawley then led a broader discussion of the instruments, > from the point of view of the observatory. Of the three, the echelle > program is the most focussed and manageable. We're eager to move > forward. It may possibly be fundable fully from CIF funds. We need > to identify a PI. Given the timescales to put together a real > budget/plan/PDR, it is unlikely therefore that the work could happen > during the 2010 Summer shutdown, especially given that we don't have > all that much money available for this. > > For the imager, the scientific motivation for going from a 5' to 10' > field isn't very strong. What we need is a more reliable, > maintainable instrument than SPICAM, that allows us to continue using > our very good selection of filters. > People are definitely interested in the idea of getting > simultaneous multi-band imaging, using dichroics to image onto > multiple CCDs. But such an instrument would be more expensive than > CIF funds alone could cover. > > For the FIRST instrument, Jian Ge has a silicon immersion grating, > and a 2K Hawaii chip in hand. The design for the instrument is > still in the "qualitative" stage. Osterman and Bally of Colorado are > putting together a list of desiderata of what would be needed for > this instrument to go to PDR. > > One of the action items was to document triple-spec reductions for > measuring spatial information. Adam Ginsberg (Colorado) has written > some relevant scripts/code here; he and the UVa folks should talk to > each other. > > The next meeting of this group will be at 11:30 AM Eastern, Monday, > January 11. > > > **************************************************************************** > 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 11/4/09 > through 12/3/09 > > Mark Klaene > > 0) Overview > > We are making plans to install 5 more beds in the dormitories to > handle additional people sharing rooms as NSO/SP housing starts drying > up. On 11/30 we received the largest snowfall I have seen, with > accumulation around 24" of snow. Power was lost due to the weather and > 2 generator problems. We also lost the phone due to a control chassis > failure. Network was down for around 24 hours and we had 2 underground > water leaks develop. Needless to say it was a hectic week. > > > 1) Telescope > > Telescope has been running well. We are continuing to characterize and > adjust controller logic as time and weather permits. > > > 2) Instruments > > DIS, Echelle, SPIcam, Agile and TripleSpec ran with only occasional > minor problems. > > > 3) CIF projects > > With 2010 funding approved these projects will start going ahead in > January. > > 4) Personnel > > Nick MacDonald has moved to Seattle and will be working at the > UW splitting time between the 3.5m and SDSS-III on mechanical design > projects. Bill Ketzeback is now on full time day staff as the > 3.5m Telescope Engineer. > > > APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO > APO > APO This is message 1162 in the apo35-general archive. 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