APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 10/01/12 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Mark Klaene, Al Harper, Cynthia Froning (for John Bally), Scott Anderson, Remy Indebetouw, Jon Holtzman, Rene Walterbos, Michael Strauss, Sean Moran, Bill Ketzeback, and Bruce Gillespie. Absent: ********************************** User feedback and comments from institutional representatives: o Chicago (Al Harper) - Al had nothing new to report. o Washington (Scott Anderson) - Scott had nothing new to report. o New Mexico State (Jon Holtzman) - Jon had nothing new to report. o Princeton (Michael Strauss) - Michael had nothing new to report. o Colorado (Cynthia Froning) - Cynthia had nothing new to report. o Virginia (Remy Indebetouw) - Remy had nothing new to report. o Johns Hopkins (Sean Moran) - Sean had nothing new to report. ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report: Mark said that it has been relatively quiet since the last meeting, and the telescope has been running well. The recent problems with vacuum and cryo systems on DIS seem to be resolved, but we're keeping an eye on the DIS slit viewer because of one or more episodes where its focus seemed off. A recently installed ion pump for SPIcam failed, but we were able to get a new one quickly and the instrument is back up and running. We have been planning for an upgrade to the vacuum system for SPIcam for later, but we've started it early with a new vacuum pump. There seems to be some electrical pickup from the new pump, and more electrical isolation is going to be added. Mark Klaene's detailed report for the reporting period follows: ************************* 3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights 09/04/12 through 09/28/12 0) Overview Last week saw a large drop in our average dewpoint signaling an end to our monsoon season. However a number of small disturbances continued to bring some moisture into the area. 1) Telescope The telescope performance has been nominal this period. Seeing conditions did provide a couple of nights with 0.5" seeing at the echelle. 2) Instruments -- DIS has been operating nominally. Both red and blue cameras have been functioning normally with good vacuum and temperature. There was one instance of slit viewer image degradration. It is still under investigation however we are convinced the slit viewer focus vs science cameras offset is still correct. Agile had no issues this period. SPIcam's new ion pump failed causing the instrument to go offline for about 9 days. No scheduled observing was lost. A new ion pump system was purchased. This makes the ion pumps in DIS and SPIcam identical; we have plans to implement identical controllers next year. A new instrument cart was delivered for TripleSpec that improves mounting and appears to fix the issue of the instrument coming off the kinematic mounts. Final adjustments to the cart have been made and it is now in routine use. Echelle is operational. The old BL67 grating was measured by Newport Optical. Observers had reported variations in blue flats and a problem with the flip mirror motor driver was noticed. After a lot of reverse engineering, we are close to designing a system around the current motor controller to correct the problem. It is not yet confirmed this will fix the variations in the flats. Note that both red and blue filter flats are affected, although the high counts in the red make the variations less noticeable. NIC-FPS is operating in shared-risk observing mode due to occasional image corruption issues. ********************************** New echelle grating: Jon Holtzman reported that the new grating is not showing the expected improvement in throughput. The old grating was sent back to Newport for comparison testing against the efficiency measurements taken there more recently on the new grating. The old grating showed efficiencies somewhat better than its original specifications, but not as high as the Newport measurements for the new grating prior to its shipment to APO. Michael Strauss asked if the new grating is to be considered the new baseline setup, and Jon said yes, and this means that changes in calibrations will be required to use it properly. We would like to hear feedback on this new grating from echelle users while we're investigating the matter. ********************************** Possible new imager options: Suzanne, with help from Mark and Bill, described the status and plans for obtaining a new visible imager for the telescope. GRIZLI, a dichroic multi-band imager planned for development in collaboration with Harvard-Smithsonian CfA, has stalled out -- we are now looking at an alternative arrangement by working with Harvard alone, possibly employing LSST chips through an collaboration with Brookhaven National Lab. A preliminary optical design is being evaluated that yields a single 8- to 10-arcminute field of view, but there are issues involving pixel size (small) versus the complexity of using a focal reducer to properly sample the image. Suzanne said she would be interested in further ideas and suggestions from the user community. ********************************** Science input for BoG meeting: Suzanne noted that we have received scientific highlights for the ARC Board annual report from Chicago, Colorado, Virginia, and Princeton. We hope that those from JHU, NMSU, and Washington will be forthcoming quickly. Scott reported that UW slides will be sent today and Jon said the same for NMSU. ********************************** ATI proposal: Suzanne, Mark, and Jon remarked that no one responded to the action item from last month regarding looking for institutional participation in an NSF ATI proposal to build a multi-fiber interface between the APOGEE spectrograph and the 3.5-m telescope. A single fiber was recently run between the APOGEE instrument and the NMSU 1-m telescope, and it has seen first starlight. In essence, we would be able to feed the APOGEE spectrograph with roughly 200 fibers collected at the 3.5-m during dark time, either as IFUs or pluggable plates for individual target objects. Suzanne stressed that developing this capability would bear significantly on the future of the telescope and the ability to attract new consortium partners. An idea for the "broader impact" part of the proposal that could strengthen the chances of getting funding, is to offer a certain amount of observing time on the telescope as "open" to U.S. graduate students, especially in light of the recent recommendations of the NSF Portfolio Review regarding future community access to mid-sized telescopes, particularly for students. The ATI proposal is due at the end of this month, so Suzanne needs community and committee members' feedback immediately, especially on the science case for the fiber feed to the 3.5m. ********************************** Update on new partners: Suzanne and Rene have previously asked for suggestions on which institutions (and their contact persons) we should be approaching as potential new ARC partners. We have received only a small amount of feedback so far. Later this year, we will be placing a general announcement of opportunity through the AAS newsletter, assuming that no strong candidates are brought forward in the meantime. ********************************** ACTION ITEMS: [open from previous meeting]: ===> ACTION: Send new ARC partner suggestions to Suzanne and Rene (before next meeting). Status: Suzanne has received a small number of suggestions, and is still looking for more. Please send your suggestions of an institution and a contact person to her. Within two years Princeton will be leaving ARC, and Chicago will also be looking at parting ways. This leaves 1/3 of 3.5-m time available and unpaid for. Therefore, we need to seriously start soliciting new partners. A few feelers have produced some positive feedback. ===> ACTION: Science slides for BOG meeting should be sent to Suzanne ASAP. ===> ACTION: NOW!! Users committee members should discuss APOGEE fiber feed to 3.5m proposal with their users and forward feedback, and ideally name(s) of interested users who would be willing to participate in an ATI proposal to Suzanne, Mark and Fred Hearty (see email addresses on CC line of this message). ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday, 5 November at 8:30 AM Pacific Time. The agenda and other materials will be sent to the committee members during the preceding week. 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