Subject: APO 3.5m users committee minutes from Sept 2013 meeting
From: Suzanne Hawley
Submitted: Thu, 17 Oct 2013 23:30:38 -0700 (PDT)
Message number: 1319
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APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 9/09/13
Attending: Suzanne Hawley (and for Scott Anderson), Rene Walterbos (for
Jon Holtzman), Mark Klaene, John Bally, Al Harper, Mary Beth Kaiser, Jenny
Greene (for Michael Strauss), Remy Indebetouw, Bill Ketzeback, Russet
McMillan, Joe Huehnerhoff, and Bruce Gillespie.
Absent: none
**********************************
User feedback and comments from institutional representatives:
o Washington (Suzanne Hawley) - Suzanne had nothing new to report.
o Chicago (Al Harper) - Al had nothing new to report.
o New Mexico State (Rene Walterbos) - Rene had nothing new to report.
o Princeton (Jenny Greene) - Jenny reported that when using Triplespec
guide stars are lost in ABBA sequences when moving back to A. Mark said
that he will investigate this.
o Colorado (John Bally) - John had nothing new to report.
o Virginia (Remy Indebetouw) - Remy said that the UVa users are OK with
the proposed reductions in observing time in 2014 vis a vis the new
potential partners.
o Johns Hopkins (Mary Beth Kaiser) - Mary Beth had nothing new to report.
**********************************
Discussion of telescope/instruments report:
Mark reported that since coming out of the summer shutdown, everything is
working quite well. Some considerable work was done on improving the
pointing model, and the monsoon weather is starting to ease off. The
remounting of the field corrector lens in DIS seems to have fixed the
excess dark current seen on the red side. It was decided to not keep
Agile in the ever-ready state in order to help extend its lifetime --
users should comment if there are objections. SPIcam is exhibiting some
new oddities in that there are non-normal ramps and bias being seen --
users need to check their recent and upcoming SPIcam data and report any
unusual data patterns. The quartz lamp for the echelle was replaced, but
the low signal counts were not improved.
Mark Klaene's detailed report for the reporting period follows:
*************************
3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights
8/8/13 through 9/4/13
0) Overview
We returned to full night science on schedule on August 9th. A couple of
partial nights were provided for science during the last scheduled nights
of the shutdown. Since shutdown things have gone very well.
Summer monsoons are still sticking around but starting to wane. Rainfall
for the year is now at 11 inches still 4" shy of what is needed to
officially release us from the drought designation.
1) Telescope
Telescope has been working very well since shutdown. Improvements are
being made to the pointing models and controller software. Current
residuals are now around 4". We recorded one night of 0.48" seeing with
the Echelle.
2) Instruments
With the fix reported last month DIS red dark current remains low. A
minor light leak was located and repaired.
Agile is operational, however at the request of the PI (Anjum Mukadam),
the observatory policy is now to keep the instrument powered off when not
scheduled. The instrument will be powered on and checked out 1 to 2 days
before scheduled observing. Observers who think this will adversely
impact their ability to use Agile should let us know.
TripleSpec had no problems this period and was not serviced during the
shutdown.
SPIcam is seeing short duration fluctuations in apparent dark current.
This is happening infrequently but no explanation currently exists as to
the cause. It is being investigated.
Echelle is operational. A report of low counts in the quartz cals could
be related to the long-occurring issue of filter wheel alignment, however
this could not be confirmed. The bulb was also changed but made little
improvement. Investigation continues.
NIC-FPS is operating in shared-risk observing mode due to occasional image
corruption issue. NFS less than 9 is operational.
**********************************
Update on new partners:
Suzanne said that there are 10 MOUs in play for new partner agreements,
including six for a Northeastern Astronomy Participation Group (NAPG). Of
the 10, 4 are signed and the other 6 are in final discussion. The
allocation shortfall in 2014 due to Princeton leaving ARC will be covered
with these new partners. Princeton has agreed to spread its remaining
observing nights through Q4 2014, and Chicago likely into 2015; the
near-term scheduling of the telescope should be solved.
**********************************
Science slides needed for ARC Board meeting by 7 October:
As is our annual practice, Suzanne and Mark need science slides for the
annual report to the ARC Board of Governors. Instead of the usual 3 or 4
slides, we want only 1 or 2 slides in Powerpoint from each institution
that highlights 3.5-meter science from the past year. The due date is 7
October.
**********************************
Quarter 4 telescope schedule:
Suzanne said that the draft observing schedule for quarter 4 is ready, and
will be issued with the allocation for one of the proposed new partners
held in reserve as 10 half nights of DD time. There are also several
classes and on-site training runs for new users in the Q4 schedule, which
should be out soon.
**********************************
DIS slitviewer:
Mark reminded us that the existing DIS slitviewer is late-90s technology
that is currently unsupported by the vendor. It also has a restricted
field-of-view. Earlier, we looked into an upgrade to a newer camera and
better optics, but we are now planning to just replace the camera while
improving the optics in the future. Bill said that we are close to
choosing a new camera (from Apogee) that is similar to the echelle
slitviewer camera.
**********************************
Update on APO imager:
Mark reported on the in-house effort to replace SPIcam. Joe said that the
analyses and design are going well. Bill said that we are planning for a
preliminary design review at the end of October -- if any users are
interested in participating in the review of the new camera design, please
contact Mark, Bill, or Joe. We want to make sure to send the documentation
on the camera to the new partners.
**********************************
Update on ARCSAT:
Suzanne pointed out that most of the new potential partners are interested
in ARCSAT as a resource for their undergraduate programs. We started an
upgrade project with ARCSAT last year by adding wide-field and
fast-readout cameras to the telescope. We need to construct a GUI to make
the system more user-friendly and attractive. Joe is in charge of the
ARCSAT upgrades. He mentioned that DFM has upgraded its control software,
which will work with an off-the-shelf user interface. Our longer-term
plan is to design an in-house TUI-like control system. We are also
designing upgrades for the dome to make it safer for remote operations,
but the intent is not to make the telescope robotic since the main driver
for the upgrades is student training. Suzanne said that we plan to
release the telescope for shared-risk observing in January to existing and
new ARC partners. If all goes well, we will start charging $500/week for
ARCSAT observing time in Q2 2014. Suzanne is the ARCSAT Director, Bill is
in charge of its overall engineering, and Joe is leading the upgrade
project.
**********************************
ACTION ITEMS:
[open from previous meeting]:
===> ACTION: Send new partner suggestions to Suzanne, Rene and Bruce.
Status: Closed for now, but new suggestions are still welcome.
===> ACTION: Find users to assist with instrument documentation.
Status: Closed. Michael Strauss has sent comments. Mary Beth
has comments and will forward them.
===> ACTION: Explore new instruments discussion with users.
Status: Closed for now, likely reopen discussion next year.
[new from this meeting]:
===> ACTION: By 7 October, each institution to send 1 or 2 powerpoint
slides to Suzanne and Mark highlighting 3.5-m science from the past year.
**********************************
Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday 21
October 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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