Subject: 3.5-m Users Committee minutes 12/10/07
From: Bruce Gillespie
Submitted: Wed, 9 Jan 2008 10:05:44 -0700
Message number: 1080
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APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 12/10/07
Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Bruce Gillespie, Scott Anderson, Ed Turner
(for Michael Strauss), Remy Indebetouw, John Bally, Al Harper, Jon
Holtzman, Russet McMillan
Absent: Jon Fulbright, Mark Klaene, Michael Strauss
Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie
**********************************
User feedback, comments from institutional representatives:
Princeton (Turner) - Ed said that he didn't have any user feedback to
report.
UVa (Indebetouw) - Remy said the Virginia users are happy with their
recent observing runs.
UW (Anderson) - Scott had nothing new to report from the user side.
CU (Bally) - John had no new user feedback to report.
JHU (Fulbright) - No report.
NMSU (Holtzman) - Jon had no user feedback about recent observing.
UChicago (Harper) - Al reported that Chicago users had recently had
good observing runs.
**********************************
Discussion of telescope/instruments report - Gillespie:
The report is given below. Bruce walked through the highlights, to
which there was no substantive discussion:
*************************
3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 11/15/07
through 12/05/07
Mark Klaene & Bruce Gillespie
0) Overview
Sporadic winter weather has finally started to move in, mostly in the
form of occasional rain, near-freezing temperatures, and wind.
Observing-time losses due to weather increased slightly over the
previous month, but overall the skies have been generally usable for
observing. The site is preparing for the holiday break when much of
the day staff will be on leave or standby status. SDSS-III
construction continued at a reasonable pace without interference to
nighttime observing.
1) Telescope
We are optimistic that recent problems with tertiary rotation may have
finally been solved. After extensive diagnostic effort, it was
discovered that a scale bit in the tertiary rotation controller was
not being correctly reset by an electrical jumper. Since this problem
was found and corrected, there has been no further misbehavior of the
tertiary rotation system.
2) Instruments
DIS, SPIcam, and the echelle have all operated smoothly throughout the
period, with no reported problems. The DIS spare Cryotiger compressor
will be repaired and returned to the site by mid-January. The
performance of the NIC-FPS ion pump has returned to nominal levels
during the past month; the ion pump is being monitored with no near-
term action currently planned. Also for NIC-FPS, CU scientists
suspect they may know the cause of the increased detector noise that
manifested since the upgrade to 16-channel read capability, and are
fabricating a new fan-out board that would be installed next summer.
NIC-FPS etalon testing continues towards reaching the requisite plate
parallelism. The new focal reducer for Agile has been AR-coated and
reinstalled in the instrument. Agile characterization tests were
weathered out and a retry is planned for the next available
opportunity. The visiting instruments (CorMASS, GFP, and APOLLO) are
all operational.
3) CIF projects
The designs for Agile field rotation and its move to TR2 port are
nearly complete. ALso, good progress was made on the new axis
controller for the instrument rotation axis--the system is currently
undergoing operational testing at night.
**********************************
NIC-FPS status - Bally:
John talked about the problems with the NIC-FPS etalon, namely
difficulties in obtaining plate parallelism. Corey Wood will be
coming to APO to test the etalon with an artificial star. One
possible cause of the problems may be related to the length of cable
runs to the instrument. Also, a new, better shielded, fan-out board
for the detector is being fabricated and will be installed the next
time the instrument dewar is opened, with the hope of reducing read
noise. The coronagraphic mode is now working, and uses new masks.
There is a general problem with residual images when bright objects
are observed; the residual images take ~hours to clear from the
detector. It may be advisable for programs that have bright target
objects to take these observations at the end of the night, although
this would add a burdensome constraint to telescope scheduling. Al
Harper suggested that experiments could be undertaken to mitigate the
residual image problem, and that other groups that are using the
Rockwell RG series detectors (e.g., the JWST group at GSFC) may have
already found workarounds. John also said that a new "random" dither
pattern (+/- 4 or 5 arcseconds) is highly recommended. It is unclear
if this is currently supported within TUI.
ACTION: User Committee members should find out if their NIC-FPS users
are having problems with residual images caused by bright targets.
**********************************
Time trades with WIYN - Hawley:
Suzanne reminded us that she has been working with George Jacoby to
arrange for time-swapping between WIYN and our 3.5-meter telescope.
WIYN may have its One-Degree Imager (ODI) coming on line in the next
year or two which would be a unique capability that we don't offer.
The WIYN users appear to be most interested in using DIS. Anyone
interested in access to WIYN should get in touch with Suzanne. The
time trades would begin in about six to eight months.
**********************************
User documentation - Hawley/Holtzman:
Jon said that he is still taking user feedback on the new
instrumentation web pages. The link to the new pages will be the
default in the next month or so; the old pages will be archived and
their links kept.
**********************************
Miscellaneous:
Ed Turner thanked the users who provided input to him regarding the
reappointment of Suzanne as Director of the 3.5-m telescope. The ARC
Board of Governors was pleased that Suzanne accepted the reappointment
offer.
Suzanne mentioned that an NMSU grad student has begun Observing
Specialist training. The idea is that this person would be available
for emergency fill-in situations on short notice.
**********************************
[open from previous months]:
ACTION: Committee members to look at the new user webpages, and
report back to Jon Holtzman and Gabrelle Saurage suggestions for
content and organization.
STATUS: Open, Jon and Gabrelle waiting for more feedback.
ACTION: John Bally will write a section with figures on Fowler
sampling for inclusion in the NIC-FPS user documentation.
STATUS: Open.
[new actions from this month]:
ACTION: User Committee members should find out if their NIC-FPS users
are having problems with residual images caused by bright targets.
**********************************
Next meeting:
The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday, 14 January, at
8:30 AM Pacific Time. The agenda and other materials will be sent to
the committee members during the preceding week.
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