This message reports the current situation regarding the cracks in the APO 3.5m primary and its implications for resumption of science operations. See apo35-general #383 for a detailed summary of the situation one week ago. During the past week great progress has been made in determining the state of the mirror, characterizing the functioning of the (transverse) primary support system, devising an engineering response to the problem and beginning to execute it. Although the problem is certainly a significant one, the news is generally quite good relative to the range of possibilities being considered a week ago. The Users Committee, which had its first ever face-to-face meeting on 29 Sept. at APO, has been briefed extensively on the technical details of the situation. Please consult your institutional representative (or Don York, substituting for Lew Hobbs during that portion of the meeting, at UC) for more specific information. At this point it is clear that science operations will not be resumed before the night of 25 October (civil time = 26 October UT). During the coming week engineering work on the primary support system will continue and an additional outside expert (on fractures) will be consulted. I expect that we will be able to announce a more definite schedule for return to science operations by about 8 October. Ed Turner APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 384 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