Minutes, APO User's Committee meeting, 02/26/07 Attending: John Bally, Jon Fulbright, Jon Holtzman, Suzanne Hawley, Michael Strauss, Remy Indebetouw, Mark Klaene, Scott Anderson Absent: Al Harper, Bruce Gillespie, Russet McMillan Minutes were taken by Michael Strauss and editted by Suzanne Hawley, since Bruce Gillespie was out of town. Thanks Michael! *******We started with representatives from each institution giving feedback on their observing experiences over the last month: Princeton: Things are fine JHU: Things are fine Colorado: We're gearing up for the Pluto occultation observations coming up. NMSU: There was some concern about the very long time it took recently to change the wavelength setting on DIS, possibly due to confusion because of an unfamiliar arc lamp? Usually the wavelength setting need not be done to high accuracy, so perhaps just moving without checking could be an option in this situation. It would be good to do some tests to determine the accuracy of the moves so users could evaluate if not checking after the move in special situations would be acceptable. ** ACTION: Mark Klaene will look into this situation and report back. Virginia: No news (completely weathered out this quarter!) UW: There were previous problems whereby ftp timed out early; this has been fixed by setting the timeout period to an hour, thanks to Fritz for dealing with this. New business: ******* Suzanne asked whether it would be desireable to get SPICAM working under TUI. Doing so would take a few weeks of somebody's time. The concensus was that it would be a good thing to do, especially for new users (so they don't have to learn multiple interfaces). However, SPICAM has a nice scripting language, and it wasn't clear whether TUI's scripting was as flexible (for example, it isn't clear if TUI's scripting allows do loops or the ability to include if statements). Suzanne will follow up with Russell Owen about TUI scripting. Users are encouraged to provide feedback to their users reps about integrating Spicam into TUI. -------------- Mark Klaene discussed the telescope/instrument report (which was written by Bruce Gillespie). A few notes from the meeting are added. ***********0) Overview This has been a relatively routine operational month at the site, with the exception of an unusual amount of snowfall. The total snowfall for January recorded at Sunspot was the largest amount in 15 years (35 inches), and the snow has continued falling into February. As is typical for this region, the storms have come in waves, wiping out observing for days at a time, followed by days of clear weather and decent observing conditions. The site staff continue to give herculean effort to keep the site grounds, roads, and roof of the 3.5- m enclosure free of snow. Otherwise, there have been fixable problems with DIS and SPIcam, and a Colorado staff member gave NIC- FPS an electronic tune-up. Despite the cold weather, there have been very few cold-weather related problems at the mountain. ************1) Telescope Other than routine maintenance and repairs, not much happened with the telescope during the period, and it performed very well. There was some testing done related to CIF projects (see below), and a new version of TUI continued to be site-tested prior to release to the users. *************2) Instruments DIS: We experienced trouble with the red-side cryotiger, which was replaced. There still seems to be intermittent trouble with the red- side cooling system--a clogged cold head is suspected, which will be serviced at the next opportunity. A plan for dealing with the false signal caused by the red chip heater has been formulated but not yet implemented. The problems with the slitviewer shutter have not been seen this month, after the original shutter was replaced. However, a new shutter with additional cold weather features has been ordered, and should be even more robust. Suzanne reported that tests of the new red chip confirm that the fringing is much improved. She will make these available to Jon Holtzman for incorporation into the new DIS documentation. SPIcam: The ion pump was recently replaced, and also its controller. NIC-FPS: Stephane Beland (Colorado) made an on-site visit to work on various instrument electronic issues. He was able to improve the false-signal gradient at the bottom of the chip, and determined a method to substantially reduce the read noise. We need to make sure that people are aware of these changes; John Bally will send out a memo to apo35-general with the details. The buffered mode of reading reduces the readnoise from 40 e- to 30 e-. The gain has also changed, and Jon Holtzman will conduct some tests to quantify the new gain. John Bally is now the project scientist for NIC-FPS, taking over from Jim Green, who has his hands full with COS. John is planning a visit to the site in a few weeks (as part of the Pluto occultation campaign) where among other things he plans to implement a fast postage stamp reading mode, to allow very fast readout for fast variability observations. John also needs to test the etalon piezos to confirm that they can operate at cryogenic temperatures. If this works well, the etalon can simply be installed this upcoming summer; if not, there is a second option of the etalon being installed in the dewar but at less than cryogenic temperature via thermal isolation and a cold strap. 3) Engineering and CIF projects The NA2 rotator upgrade project is proceeding, with a design review planned at APO in early April. The UVa team building TripleSpec will be at the site also; delivery, integration, software and commissioning issues will be discussed. Triplespec will is currently planned to arrive at mountain in September, and may be available for shared-risk observing in the fourth quarter of this year. Nick McDonald made measurements of the repeatability of the tertiary mirror rotation as part of the design studies for upgrading the tertiary mounting system. He also has started assembling the rebuilt "old" telescope drive boxes that are intended as hot-swappable spares for the telescope. The project to improve the calibration lamps on the telescope is moving along. Several new test lamps have been ordered, and tests of a new flat-field white paint for the mirror covers yielded promising results. 4) Miscellaneous The anemometer at the top of the meteorological tower ceased to function, and the present weather conditions are not conducive to making repairs at this time--a broken fiber cable is suspected. Since wind is key weather factor for observing (or not observing), we are making do with hand-held anemometers while waiting for a new anemometer to be delivered and installed in a more convenient location as a permanent backup. As of this writing, nearly all the parts for the backup anemometer have been received, and its installation will be accomplished shortly. ************* AGILE update: Anjum Mukadam has a commissioning run in a few weeks, if all goes well with the final instrument checkout at UW. ************** User documentation Jon Holtzman has been working on this with Gabrelle Saurage. The new DIS user's guide is now on the web; people have found it useful. Jon and Gabrelle are nearing a completed draft on NIC-FPS which will be vetted by John Bally and then made available. The plan is to do the Echelle next as SPICAM has adequate documentation until it is integrated into TUI. Jon is eager for feedback from the user community about this new documentation. The website also needs some general cleaning up, to get rid of older, obsolete documents. ****************Summer shutdown plans Mark Klaene gave a summary of the current plans for the summer shutdown: The plan is to recoat the primary at KPNO (the facility at Starfire has some concerns about availability of environmental permits). We've asked for time in August if possible. The entire shutdown will take roughly 3 weeks, the timing of which will depend on the availability of the KPNO facility. While the primary is out, we'll service the optical support structure (under the mirror). Other plans include: -Repaint the mirror covers. There is a new flat-field paint which should improve throughput in u by a factor of 2, but it is not very durable, so we are still investigating options. -Recoat the tertiary. -Install the NA2 rotator upgrade (with TripleSpec in mind; it will require a larger torque load than the rotator can currently handle). We're also planning a 2-3 day shutdowns in May and June, to do two things: -Install new drive boxes -Carry out some work on the secondary actuators. --------- The next users committee meeting will be held Monday, March 19 at 8:30 AM Pacific time. APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 1015 in the apo35-general archive. 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