APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 8/25/14 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Mark Klaene, Remy Indebetouw, Scott Anderson, Rachel Kuzio de Naray, Bill Ketzeback, Mary Beth Kaiser, Rene Walterbos, Jon Holtzman, Michael Strauss, Joanne Hughes Clark, John Wisniewski, Jeff Bary, Russet McMillan, and Bruce Gillespie ********************************** User feedback and comments from institutional representatives: o Washington - Scott had nothing new to report. o Virginia - Remy had nothing new to report. o Georgia State - Rachel Kuzio de Naray asked if we have any tools for remote observers to see the daytime sky around APO. Mark and Bruce had some ideas and will forward information to Rachel. o Princeton - Michael Strauss said he has sent the final quarterly Princeton scheduling request to Suzanne; a bittersweet announcement. o NMSU - Jon Holtzman had nothing new to report. o Seattle - Joanne had nothing new to report. o Oklahoma - John had nothing new to report. o NAPG - Jeff had nothing new to report. ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report: Mark highlighted elements of his report; see below. In addition, he mentioned that the new TCC software has been running successfully for the past couple of weeks. There is also a contamination issue with the echelle detector, which is being slowly warmed to see if the contamination will sublimate and migrate somewhere else. Users should be aware of this issue, which may have some noticeable effects on the data; check with Bill Ketzeback or Russet McMillan if you have questions. ************************* 3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights 06/18/14 through 08/15/14 0) Overview The site had the planned power outage for the automatic transfer switch replacement. While it went longer than expected we were available for observing that night. Some systems were maintained on loaner generators. Monsoon rains came on schedule and we have gotten good rainfall so far for the season. Current predictions call for a wet winter. 1) Telescope Prior to and in between the planned summer shutdowns the telescope behaved nicely. The first shutdown was completed on schedule with all tasks except M2 re-aluminizing completed. This was put off for a year due to mirror-handling cart parts being delayed. As of this writing the second shutdown for the new TCC is progressing well despite poor weather and limited on sky time. 2) Instruments DIS has been operating normally and saw vacuum servicing during the first shutdown including cleaning field corrector and new Ion pumps. Agile is operational with no problems. Guiding with the new TCC is still in work. TripleSpec had no operational problems this period and also saw vacuum servicing. SPIcam was operational during this period with no issues. Echelle has been operational and was vacuum serviced during the second shutdown including new Ion pump. NIC-FPS continues to operate in shared-risk observing mode due to occasional image corruption issue, NFS less than 9 is operational. Vacuum serviced including new ion pump. GIFS is operational. The short LN2 hold time designed in by GFSC continues to be a problem and so the instrument is currently kept warm until needed. 3) ARCTIC The instrument development is proceeding on schedule. A go-ahead was given on the optics and dewar design. The optics are on order. The machining for the dewar is complete. The detector is ready for thinning and mounting and AR coating. We are waiting on the vendor to give us final coating specifications so a decision can be made on actual coating selection. ********************************** Summer shutdowns recap - Ketzeback: Bill described the two recent shutdowns. The first shutdown was heavy on instrument maintenance, plus the recoating of the tertiary mirror in the telescope. The secondary mirror, whose coating continues to be in good condition, will be recoated next year. For the instruments, the DIS cameras, NIC-FPS, TripleSpec, and the echelle tank were all serviced. GIFS continues to be kept warm until scheduled for on-sky use. During the second shutdown, the TCC upgrade and migration to a new platform was the main task, which went well. Mark added that all the uninterruptible power supplies were serviced (e.g., new batteries, etc.). He noted that we do not have enough people, time, and vacuum-pumping equipment to service all of our instruments during the summer shutdowns, especially if the work coincides with SDSS engineering. This issue will need further discussion. ********************************** Visiting instruments - Hawley, Ketzeback: Suzanne mentioned that a group from the Nanjing Institute of Astronomical Optics and Technology (NIAOT) has a new leasing arrangement with the ARC 3.5m, and is planning a visiting-instrument run at APO this winter. They have a near-IR AO imager, and they are connected with astronomers at NMSU and CSUN. Additionally, Chris Stubbs is talking about possibly bringing a "lucky imager" to APO sometime in the next several months. If anyone is interested in learning more about either of these visiting instruments, contact Suzanne or Bill. ********************************** ARCSAT plans for Q4 - Hawley, Ketzeback: Suzanne announced that we've elected to continue scheduling ARCSAT through quarter 4 as shared-risk, and at no cost to users. There will be a call for proposals for the October through December observing period issued in a couple of weeks. Suzanne added that we may limit the time allocations to 1 week per group due to the expected demand. We will also continue to schedule ARCSAT in 1-week blocks to minimize filter and camera changes. Suzanne suggested that experienced ARCSAT users at different institutions are free to talk to each other and informally swap observing time within their weeks of block scheduling. ********************************** Adler observing to start in Q4 - Hawley, McMillan: Suzanne said that Mark Hammergren's Adler/NASA program starts in quarter 4. Adler is leasing 100 half nights per year for the next two years (with a possible 3-year extension), which is roughly equal to the UChicago share of the telescope. The program will follow up and track NEOs. A lot of the observing will be done in the midnight changeover time, similar to the APOLLO observing program, and meaning that normal half nights will be shortened by about an hour. Programs that are signficantly impacted by the Adler observing (ie sharing more than once or twice) will receive compensation as much as possible within the Q4 schedule. ********************************** WIYN observing in 2015 - Hawley: For the WIYN 2015A semester, Suzanne said we are accepting informal proposals for ARC observers to use WIYN, with the time being taken out of the ARC 3.5-m allocation in any of the next three quarters: Q4, Q1, and Q2. Joanne said that she has learned that the pODI camera will be removed from WIYN in November, to be upgraded and returned possibly in late spring. Joanne will advise us when more information is known. ********************************** Institutional passwords - Klaene: Mark noted that there is a need to tighten password security on the newton and ARCSAT computers, and reminded users that they should first go to their schedulers and/or Users Committee representatives for the passwords, and ask the APO site staff as a last resort. Jon Holtzman suggested that the passwords be changed more infrequently; quarterly seems a bit excessive. ********************************** 35-general email list - Ketzeback, Hawley: Suzanne said that the apo35-general mailer will be migrated from Princeton to APO soon, probably sometime in September. Michael Strauss said that all the mailer history can also be migrated. Suzanne noted that both JHU and UW have an internal exploder for the apo35-general mailings, and other institutions could also choose to adopt this approach. Some paring of old email addresses to remove people no longer associated with ARC institutions will be done during the migration. ********************************** New teleconference system - Klaene, Hawley: Mark and Suzanne mentioned that ARC is moving to a new teleconferencing system based on Adobe Connect. SDSS has already made this switch. We are waiting for some bugs to be worked out before we adopt the new system, but in any case it will be the only option by January, 2015. ********************************** Miscellaneous: Suzanne said that we will need science highlights, 1-2 viewgraphs in powerpoint format from each institution, to present at the ARC Board meeting in November. The call for these science highlights will go out in September with a due date in October. ********************************** ACTION ITEMS: [open from previous meeting]: none [new from this meeting]: none ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday 29 September. 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 1339 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