APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 6/20/05 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Michael Strauss, Al Harper, Karl Glazebrook, Bruce Gillespie, Fred Hearty, John Bally, Rene Walterbos Absent: Russet McMillan, Jon Holtzman, Don York Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie ********************************** User feedback, comments from Institutional representatives: Colorado (John Bally, Fred Hearty)--John and Fred had no recent feedback from CU users to share (but Fred has been working with several NIC-FPS users from other ARC institutions lately). John said that the proposed CU focal reducer for SPIcam has been on the back burner, but will be revived this summer. The current plan is to build the system with optics behind the focal plane, and an optical design is being worked. Also a medium-resolution NIR spectrograph add-on to NIC-FPS is in the concept phase. The integral-field spectrograph, proposed last year, is on hold because of the probable difficulties in finding funding. Fred reported that NIC-FPS will be warmed up and returned to Boulder for repair work starting on 14 July, and return to APO around 20 August to be ready for its engineering time on 27-28 August. The work planned for it includes fixing the filter wheels, the vacuum-hold time, detector vignetting, and noise problems. There is also the hope to add a low-res grism (salvaged from GRIMII) to the instrument. Princeton (Michael Strauss)--Michael had nothing much to report from the users, other than to say that he is very happy so far with the NIC-FPS data he has seen. Johns Hopkins (Karl Glazebrook)--Karl mentioned that there was a recent network blip experienced by a JHU remote observer, who didn't know how to make a long-distance call to APO to work the problem. That has been fixed procedurally at JHU. BruceG mentioned that this loosely points to a problem at APO, in that we do not currently know who all the institutional systems administrators are. We need to be in contact soon with these people to provide tools and instructions for the upcoming release and installation of TUI 1.0. ACTION: All committee members should identify who their local systems administrator (i.e. the person who would be in charge of installing TUI and providing information on it to users) is so we can contact them. Please send the name and contact information to Bruce Gillespie (gillespi at apo.nmsu.edu). Suzanne asked if the GRB program which used JHU time to payback an alert recently had caused any problems and Karl said no. NMSU (Walterbos)--Rene reported that Nancy Chanover had a very successful first run of the NMSU Acousto-optical Imaging Camera (NAIC) for narrow-band IR planetary imaging. He also said that Nicole Vogt used and liked the improved user information on the APO web pages. In addition, he said that a grad student, Pey-Lian Lim, wants to know if there is tutorial for using the echelle with TUI. There is user information about TUI in general, but if an instrument- specific tutorial is needed, it might be possible that Pey-Lian could help write it, since she is a frequent echelle user. BruceG will talk to Jon Holtzman (Pey-Lian's advisor) about this. Suzanne asked if NAIC will satisfy Nancy's needs for planetary observations, in lieu of certain special filters that were not possible to fit into NIC-FPS. Fred said he thought that some of the filters and short- exposure modes in NIC-FPS do fit the bill for planetary work, but he agreed to talk to Nancy to be sure. UWashington (Balick, Hawley)--BruceB reported that the department recently held an open meeting about APO, and no major users concerns were raised. There seems to be a good level of contentment and satisfaction with the observatory, but not enough time was available in the meeting for extensive questions from users; another meeting is planned. UChicago (Harper)--Al said that he had heard no recent comments from UChicago users, other than general discussion among the GRB folk about the alert program, data reductions, etc. BruceG and Fred will talk to Al this Wednesday about the salvage plans for GRIMII, particularly on how, where, and when to remove its grism so that it can be used in NIC-FPS. Suzanne mentioned that the GRB program seems to be running very well at the observatory level, with all pre-empted observers so far having been paid back with usable observing time. Earlier in the quarter, there was an alert about every two weeks, but the pace has slackened recently. She also mentioned that the payback observing periods that are built into the schedule are dispensed optimally from the science perspective, not by institutional priority or sequence. Over time, this should result in the best science from the paybacks, and any institutional inequities should balance out. Also, the special schedule protection block in the proposal forms has been used judiciously, so far. We will be evaluating the overall GRB program at the end of the quarter. ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report: Suzanne said that two highlights for the month were the continuation of unusually good seeing, and the implementation of the new echelle ICC. BruceB asked about the possibility of using the old top end for mid-IR work (3 to 10 microns) as was originally envisaged for the site. Al Harper said that he had no immediate interest in this (but "never say never"), because most of the capability for mid-IR is handled by the bigger telescopes at higher and drier locations. BruceB suggested APO still could find a niche in mid-IR monitoring programs, and Al said maybe. BruceB reminded us that APO was originally touted as a good mid-IR site in winter. Suzanne said this was a good topic for discussion by the Futures Committee, and BruceG mentioned that APO could be a good place for testing new mid- IR instruments prior to going to more remote locations. Al said he'd think about it. [Below is the monthly telescope/instrument attachment submitted to the committee prior to the meeting]: 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 5/18 through 6/16/05 Bruce Gillespie 0) Overview The telescope and instruments continued to give generally good performance during the period, with some lengthy periods of good observing weather and excellent seeing. A handful of telescope and instrument problems were encountered and addressed, with little, if any, lost observing time. One GRB alert was observed, and pay-back observing time to all previous GRB pre-empts was accomplished. A new visiting instrument run was successfully supported. 1) Telescope o cleaned drive surfaces, and made minor repairs; o enclosure drive/servo problems (reported last month) did not recur; o some minor anomalies in NA2 guider performance addressed; o tested enclosure shutter emergency closure procedures; 2) Instruments o echelle controller upgrades implemented and tested--ready for user test drive o NIC-FPS degassed, ion gauge failure fixed; o NMSU Acousto-optic Imaging Camera (NAIC) visiting instrument used successfully on sky by Nancy Chanover and colleagues; o DIS upgrade study underway (JHU & Jon Holtzman), possible replacement red chip studied. 3) Engineering and CIF projects o New top-end: Detailed design and fabrication cont'd, and tests of scattered light using new vane design done on telescope; o TUI: Ready for release of version 1.0 shortly; o On-sky engineering tests: new TUI guide s/w, fastcam data taken, pointing model, checked instrument blocks and pointing model; o New drive boxes: Being made ready for installation during upcoming shutdowns. ********************************** Q3 schedule comments, rescheduled shutdown: Suzanne reported that the Q3 schedule is now out. It was somewhat delayed because the July shutdown needed to be shifted to a week later at the last minute to accommodate a people-resource issue between SDSS and KPNO for realuminizing the 2.5-m primary mirror. We shifted our shutdown so that people critical to both our shutdown and the 2.5-m aluminizing were not double-booked. Shifting our shutdown required some compromises but in the end was not a major problem, other than the extra work it took to adjust the schedule. ********************************** CIF projects status: Suzanne said that the new top-end project, which is the big CIF effort this year, is moving along fairly well. We will decide by 1 August if the new top end will be ready for installation during October bright time. Also, Jon Holtzman and JHU are working up a plan for various DIS upgrades, which may include improved UV response, new gratings, and moving the dichroic split. Other DIS upgrades we are considering are buying a new red chip to address the fringing problems with the current chip, and fixing the red noise problem. BruceG mentioned that the new telescope drive boxes are nearly finished and are scheduled for installation during the summer shutdowns. Also, TUI 1.0 will be released shortly, and users should become facile with it quickly because Remark will be retired sometime over the coming months. ********************************** APOLLO update: BruceG mentioned that the APOLLO lunar laser ranging experiment is moving from construction to commissioning phase beginning next month. In-the-enclosure and aircraft/satellite safety issues are being addressed, and first tests of the system are planned for July and August. Once fully operational, the program will operationally resemble Ed Turner's lens monitoring program; two or three half-hour lunar ranging runs per week, typically near twilight or at the middle of night shift change. ********************************** CorMASS update: BruceG reported that CorMASS is in transit back to APO from Chile. We plan to have this low-res NIR spectrograph available for ARC users during Q4 this year. CorMASS may stay at APO into 2006. More information will be available for prospective 3.5-m telescope users over the summer. ********************************** Next phonecon will be on Monday, 19 Sept., at 8:30 AM Pacific Daylight Time. Agenda and other materials will be sent to the Users Committee members during the preceding week. Telescope/Instrument monthly reports will be sent to members in July and August. Users topics will also be discussed in person at the upcoming Seattle meeting of the Futures Committee (August 14-15, 2005). 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