Installation of the new Echelle spectrograph on the 3.5-meter is now in progress at APO. If things go according to plan, installation and first light will be accomplished by roughly the end of November and science commissioning and calibration will be completed by about the end of February. This would lead to general availability of the instrument beginning in 2Q1999. In addition, the Echelle instrument scientists, Doug Duncan and Don York, have indicated a willingness to consider "shared-risk" collaborative use of the instrument with interested members of the ARC user community in March 1999 (the end of 1Q1999). Such use of the instrument would be charged to the appropriate institutions according to their TAC allocations to the program (rather than to EN time). If you are interested in such use of the Echelle in March 1999, please contact Doug or Don directly to investigate the possibilities *before* submitting proposals to your TAC(s). Ed Turner APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 4 in the apo35-echelle archive. You can find APO the archive on http://www.astro.princeton.edu/APO/apo35-echelle/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-echelle@astro.princeton.edu APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO