APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 5/19/14 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Mark Klaene, Rachel Kuzio de Naray, Bill Ketzeback, Bruce Gillespie, Rene Walterbos, Russet McMillan, John Bally, David Bowen (for Michael Strauss), John Wisniewski, Joanne Hughes Clark, Al Harper ********************************** User feedback and comments from institutional representatives: o Oklahoma - John Wisniewski said that a recent student trip went well. o Colorado - John Bally had nothing new to report. o Georgia State - Rachel Kuzio de Naray said that the GSU attendees very much enjoyed the 20-yr anniversary celebration. o Princeton - David Bowen said Princeton is happy. o Seattle Univ. - Joanne Hughes Clark reported that her recent time trade with WIYN went well; she used the pODI and felt that is was only a bit more complicated to use than SPIcam. Her next run at WIYN will be remote. o Chicago - Al Harper had nothing new to report. He enjoyed the trip to APO and the 20th anniversary celebration. o NMSU - Rene Walterbos had nothing new to report. o Washington - Suzanne Hawley noted that there is a monitoring program using evening twilight for several weeks this quarter, and one user has expressed concern about obtaining their calibration data. The schedule was written to minimize the effect on other users as much as possible, but we are interested in hearing suggestions from users about additional ways to mitigate. ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report: Mark highlighted the recent 20-year anniversary event held at APO, which was well-attended and enjoyed by all. Also, the installation and troubleshooting of the new drive amplifiers was a major activity, and should fix long-standing problems we have had over the years with operation at the higher ambient air temperatures in May and June. The rest of his comments were from statements contained in the written report, which follows: ************************* 3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights 04/10/14 through 05/15/14 0) Overview Generally another productive period with variable cloudiness, little precipitation and with typical spring wind and dust events. Current forest fire danger is now "Very High". We completed the 30/20 year ARC/3.5m anniversary events on site with approximately 80 in attendance. There was a 100-acre forest fire 3 miles west of the observatory in April. While it was a bit disconcerting, the observatory was not threatened and observations continued with minor interruptions. 1) Telescope Telescope has been working well except for pointing issues. These issues came about during the altitude amplifier upgrade work. Some observations, especially with Echelle were affected a lot, but most were able to be salvaged with only small amounts of time lost. It took a couple attempts over several days and nights at fixes and pointing corrections to isolate and correct the problem. While we expected some issues with the amplifier swap the problem we saw was not expected and still somewhat unexplained. Note that the new amplifiers should avoid lost time seen in past years due to overheating in late May and June when ambient temperatures are high. The new TCC development is also progressing nicely with continued testing on the telescope. 2) Instruments DIS has been operating normally. Agile is operational with no problems. TripleSpec had no operational problems this period. SPIcam variable dark current was addressed this period. The Gamma Vacuum ion pump and controller continues to show current spikes about once per day however baffling was installed to eliminate the associated ion glow from reaching the detector. This fix appears to have been successful based on tests to date. We are continuing to monitor this for a while longer. Echelle has been operational. We had one ion-pump high-current step that lasted about 12 hours. It was determined that it was caused by a whisker on the pump and once that was cleared the current level dropped back to normal range. No effect was seen on the detector. NIC-FPS continues to operate in shared-risk observing mode due to occasional image corruption issue. NFS less than 9 is operational. GIFS is operational. The small LN2 hold time designed in by GFSC continues to be a problem. The TUI interface is ready and undergoing final user testing and documentation upgrades for the upcoming training run. 3) ARCTIC The instrument development is proceeding on schedule. The CCD has been ordered. Final testing of the prototype shutter is ongoing. One of the 2 cylinders failed at a high stress concentration point and design changes have occurred. The optics for the final f/8 design has been reviewed and approved by the group. Once the final report is published and reviewed a go-ahead is expected. 4) Summer shutdown There will be 2 shutdowns scheduled this summer. The first is from July 7th to July 24th for M2 and M3 mirror re-coating, mechanical maintenance, electronic system upgrades and the majority of instrument servicing. A second shutdown will be from August 8th to August 17th for the new TCC upgrade. ********************************** o GIFS training run - Ketzeback: Bill said that the hands-on GIFS training will be held May 27-28. This is the only training session that is planned for the instrument, and there followed an extended discussion on the topic of long-term user access to the instrument. Anyone who missed this training opportunity and wants to use GIFS should contact Carol Grady. ********************************** o ARCSAT update - Hawley, Ketzeback: Bill said that ARCSAT is now in shared-risk use mode and fully scheduled through September. Both survey-cam and flare-cam are being used. We have been learning the quirks and features of the new telescope control software, and appreciate the feedback from the users. Suzanne added that we've just purchased a Johnson-Cousins filter set for ARCSAT. Bill has taken over the main engineering responsibilities for ARCSAT while Joe Huehnerhoff is now focussing on ARCTIC. Those interested in using ARCTIC in the fall should familiarize themselves with the documentation under the ARCSAT link on the APO homepage. ********************************** WIYN trades update - Hawley: Suzanne said that there will be two ARC programs scheduled on WIYN during their 2014B semester, and two programs from WIYN PIs will be scheduled on the 3.5m. We are also considering talking with other telescopes for possible reciprocal use arrangements. ********************************** o 20th anniversary recap - Klaene, Hawley, Walterbos Rene said the celebration went very well, and the logistics all worked smoothly.He gave special thanks to Gretchen Van Doren for all her hard work, and to the APO staff for their many contributions to the successful event. The weather also cooperated as the evening star party allowed the visitors a great view of the sy through the 3.5m eyepiece. It was very rewarding to see many old friends return to the site, and to hear about the early days of the telescope design and construction, as well as numerous science presentations. Good discussions were also held with potential new ARC partners who were present. Bruce mentioned that the historical talks underscored the need to capture the history of the telescope before it becomes lost. ********************************** ACTION ITEMS: [open from previous meeting]: none [new from this meeting]: none ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday 23 June at 8:30 AM Pacific Time. The agenda and other materials will be sent to the committee members during the preceding week. Note that we will then skip July as is our custom during summer shutdown. The following meeting will be held on Monday 18 August. APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 1332 in the apo35-general archive. 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