Great progress has been achieved in the DIS detector upgrade project, and it now appears likely that the new detectors, dewars, electronics etc and key personnel will be at APO and ready to go within 10 to 12 days. If all goes as planned DIS will be taken out of service beginning the night of Feb 26 and ready for on-sky testing by the night of March 11. It would then be available on a "shared risk" basis for the scheduled DIS runs of March 12-14 or so. As mentioned in the preliminary 1Q2002 schedule and announced in apo35-general message #540, some scheduled DIS programs will not be executable due to the unavailability of the instrument during the upgrade. These include NM02, UW01, UW05 and UW09. Others (UW01, UW10, NM03 and NM04) scheduled immediately after the installation period might lose some of their scheduled time. PIs of affected programs should make appropriate preparations. Any changes from this plan will be announced as soon as they are known. The excellent news is that lab data on the new detectors indicate that a truly dramatic improvement in DIS performance can be expected. Ed Turner APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 549 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