Subject: 3.5-m Users Committee minutes 9/18/06
From: Bruce Gillespie
Submitted: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 10:08:18 -0600
Message number: 989
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APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 9/18/06
Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Bruce Gillespie, Michael Strauss, Remy
Indebetouw, Scott Anderson, Jon Fulbright, Guy Stringfellow (for John
Bally)
Absent: Jon Holtzman, Rene Walterbos, John Bally, Don York, Al Harper
Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie
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User feedback, comments from institutional representatives:
None of the institutional representatives present had any user
comments or feedback to report. Suzanne mentioned that there seemed
to be an increase in the number of new users getting oriented at the
telescope. We need to make sure the new users get signed up for the
apo35general mailer so that they can keep up with news about the
telescope and instruments.
**********************************
Discussion of telescope/instruments report:
The only question about the report was from Guy Stringfellow, who
asked when TripleSpec is likely to be delivered to APO. Remy said
that the current estimate is 2nd quarter 2007.
The report is given below:
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3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights,
7/13/06 through 9/15/06
Bruce Gillespie
0) Overview
A near record-breaking amount of rain fell on APO and the surrounding
areas during the past two months, and little observing was possible.
Most of the engineering work at the site was focussed on preparations
for the receipt and installation of the new top end for the
telescope, which is nearing completion as of this writing.
1) Telescope
The telescope and ancillary systems were well-behaved in July and
August up through the beginning of the summer shutdown, which began
near the end of August and is scheduled for completion on 19
September. Aside from the new top-end receipt, assembly,
installation and commissioning (discussed below), shutdown highlights
included the washing of the primary mirror, realuminizing the 2ndary,
and various other annual maintenance tasks on the telescope and
instruments.
2) Instruments
DIS received its new red-high grating, and throughput tests of the
telescope + DIS showed that all three of the new gratings are giving
the expected increases in flux levels. The remaining DIS-upgrade
tasks are the replacement of the red chip (the new chip has finally
been received), replacing the blue prism (to recover UV response),
and replacing the red chip field flattener (to better match cutoff
wavelength). The schedule for these final upgrades is now set for
the week of 6 November.
CU engineers and staff removed the broken near-IR Fabry-Perot etalon
from NIC-FPS for further evaluation in Boulder and possible repair.
Various options for recovering the narrow bandpass imaging
capabilities for the instrument are under discussion.
The Agile (high-speed) camera has been ordered and we expect it to be
shipped to UW in the next month or so.
For TripleSpec (UVa NIR spectrograph), a purchase decision is
expected shortly on the Rockwell detector, the instrument's dewar has
been delievered, and a trade study is underway to determine how best
to improve the performance of the NA2 rotator to accommodate the
higher torque requirements of TripleSpec.
3) Engineering and CIF projects
We are nearing the culmination of the multi-year project to replace
the top end of the telescope with a new square frame, new vanes and
cage, and a new mounting and actuator system for the 2ndary mirror.
As a reminder, these improvements are intended to provide better
stiffness (anti-jitter), long-term stability (keeping collimation),
motion control (for better collimation and possibly autofocus), and
2ndary glass safety than the original system provided. The project
has been a joint effort between the engineering group at UWashington
and the engineering staff at APO. As of this writing, all components
have been delivered to APO, assembled, and installed on the
telescope. We are now at the point where in-dome collimation tests
are about to start, and we expect on-sky commissioning to commence by
this weekend, weather permitting.
4) Miscellaneous
One of the main operations computers, Tycho, is being retired and
replaced by a Mac Pro system. This will enable the user scratch disk
space to be partitioned into institutional allocations. It will also
give on-site observers the ability to capture and reduce their data
in real time, which is very difficult with the current system.
**********************************
Update on ACCORD System Workshop - Hawley:
NOAO and the private observatory directors (ACCORD) are organizinga
meeting Nov 16-17 in Scottsdale, Arizona with the title:
The Ground Based Optical/Infrared System
Third Community Workshop on the Ground-Based O/IR System: Building a
Strategic Plan for Instrumenting Large Telescopes
The announcement is on the NOAO website at: http://www.noao.edu/
system/system3.html
Suzanne is attending, and encourages other members of this committee
and indeed any interested ARC scientists to consider going also.
There are plans for a session involving the 4-meter class telescopes.
NSF officials may be in attendance to discuss the report of the
Senior Review committee and its impact on the US O/IR telescopes.
**********************************
Request for 2006 science highlights - Hawley:
It's time to gather science highlights from the past year (since last
October) for inclusion in the 3.5-m telescope annual report for the
ARC Board of Governors. These typically are displayed at the
beginning of the board meeting as a graphic plus a paragraph of
explanatory text. We hope to get one or two science highlights from
each institution, and want the Users Committee representatives from
each institution to collect these and send them to Bruce and
Suzanne. We are planning to send an announcement to apo35general to
this effect. We need these by mid-October.
ACTION: Users Committee representative to gather one or two science
highlights and send them to Bruce and Suzanne not later than mid-
October.
**********************************
ARC-related news (CfP, Futures) - Hawley:
Suzanne reported on the status and plans for the post-2008 proposals
review, which was sent to the community over the weekend by Ed Turner
and needn't be repeated here. She also said that the Futures
Committee report is nearly completed, and Bruce agreed to send the
most recent draft of the report to the committee members, after
getting Don York's consent.
**********************************
Previous Meetings Action Items report:
[open from previous months]:
ACTION: Bruce to discuss issues of computer and network security
with Fritz Stauffer. STATUS: Working group (site staff and users)
formed to frame requirements. Work will resume once the work on the
new top end is completed.
[new actions from last month]:
ACTION: Users Committee members should send Michael
(strauss@astro.princeton.edu) the names and e-mail addresses of 3.5-m
users who are not yet signed up for the apo35general mailer.
STAUS: Open. Michael will send the list of mailer recipients to the
committee members for review and editing.
**********************************
Next meeting:
The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Tuesday (note day
change), 17 October, at 8:30 AM Pacific Time. Agenda and other
materials will be sent to the committee members during the preceding
week.
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