APO 3.5m User's Committee Phone Conference June 16, 2003 Attending: Ed Turner, Alan Uomoto, Bruce Balick, Bruce Gillespie, Rene Walterbos, Mike Shull, Al Harper, Michael Strauss, Russet McMillan Absent: Chris Stubbs, Jon Morse, Jon Holtzman, Don York Agenda: -review/discussion of BoG strategic planning meeting of 6/10 -Telescope-User Interface implementation plans -Observer-Observing specialist interactions -Status of NIC-FPS -3.5m 10th dedication anniversary *********The Board of Governor's meeting on June 10: Ed Turner summarized the major points of this meeting: -All institutions expressed some level of satisfaction of 3.5m, and that it was meeting their goals, both inresearch and training of students. -JHU was the exception; they felt they have too small a slice of time to be maximally scientifically productive. -No institutions indicated a desire to decrease their share of telescope time. -Colorado expressed interest in increasing their share. -There was no enthusiasm for bringing in new partners. -Shall we move forward to becoming a specialized niche telescope? This was something people were *not* enthusiastic about; we need this telescope as a general-purpose facility. There was some interest in a hybrid mode, in which we spend some fraction of our time with a specialized instrument or science project, but until there is a specific proposal for this niche instrument or project, it is unclear how to proceed. -A futures committee is planned, with one person from each institution, which will look at the future of ARC (not just the 3.5m), on timescales starting in 3-5 years. Integrated operations of the 2.5m and 3.5m? Other telescopes on the site? -There was strong endorsement and demand for infrared spectroscopic capabilities; people are enthusiastic about the planned JHU/Chicago instrument. The project is waiting on a proposal to the NSF; if that falls through, we'll need another way forward. -The management has started a planning exercise of how to keep the 3.5m operable if the 2.5m were to close (given the many shared resources of the two facilities). -Operational funding for the telescope: might the institutions supply a larger capital improvements budget? This was not ruled out... All institutions were satisfied with the current budget; they didn't see significant cost-savings options. At the meeting, Ed Kibblewhite exhorted us about the importance of adaptive optics for modern observatories; if we don't have an effort there, he fears we will fall behind the curve. His argument was mostly focussed on near-infrared spectrographs. Especially at high resolution, the larger the spectrograph slit, the larger the optics of the spectrograph need to be, becoming prohibitively expensive at a resolution of 20,000. And of course, the larger the slit, the more background light is let in. We clearly need to understand this better; Al Harper will ask Ed if he can recommend some reading material about all of this, or join us in a future meeting to discuss this matter. ***********Implementation plans for the Telescope-User Interface The Telescope-User Interface (TUI, or "Too-ee") is the Python-based replacement for REMARK being developed by Russ Owen and Craig Loomis. It currently can operate the telescope; instrument control is still under development. Folks at UW and NMSU have used it, as have the folks on the mountain. Russet McMillan reported that it has a very nice control interface for the telescope, and is no more difficult to use, and is more powerful, than REMARK. It will include the guider (although it is not clear whether this means that remote observers will be able to watch or control the guider). There is a hope that TUI will be available to observers by this Fall, so now is the time to start thinking about the transition from REMARK to TUI. Each site will need to get Python up and running, of course (free for Linux users). It was suggested that the observing specialists travel out to each of the member institutions to give tutorials for its use. We should have at least a few months of overlap, during which both REMARK and TUI are available; this would be important as the bugs are shaken out of TUI. **************Observer-Observing Specialist interactions There have been a few occasions lately when the observing specialists have been subject to the grumpiness and impoliteness of some of the observers. As always, make sure to treat the observing specialists with the respect and civility due all your scientific colleagues. **********Status of NIC-FPS Jon Morse, who is the PI of the NIC-FPS instrument, is moving to ASU as a tenured associate professor; we'll miss him from ARC! He will definitely continue to be involved in NIC-FPS. But Jim Green (PI on HST-COS) will take over the PI position for NIC-FPS. Mike Shull reported briefly on the schedule for the instrument (see also last month's minutes): The optics arrived damaged. They will be sent back to the vendor in the next week or so. The engineering-grade chip should arrive in a week or so. The science-grade chip should arrive by late July/early August. The instrument is planned to deliver to ARC in August 2004, with commissioning taking place in Fall 2004. ********3.5m 10th dedication anniversary The tenth anniversary of the dedication of the telescope will be May 2004. It has been suggested that we have a community-wide science meeting to celebrate. Last month's minutes are approved. Next meeting, August 4, 11:30 AM Eastern time. APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 679 in the apo35-general archive. 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