APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 11/03/08 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Bruce Gillespie, Scott Anderson, Al Harper, Meredith Drosback (for Remy Indebetouw), Mark Klaene, Bill Ketzeback, John Bally, Rene Walterbos, and Michael Strauss Absent: Jon Holtzman, Jon Fulbright Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie ********************************** User feedback, comments from institutional representatives: Princeton (Michael Strauss) - Michael said that the PU users have been happy with their early experiences using TripleSpec. Colorado (John Bally) - John is presently at APO hosting a CU student field trip. Regarding NIC-FPS, he suggested that we should standardize the instrument's focus script by limiting Fowler sampling to 0 or 1 (to save time), and that bright stars should be used for focussing with a narrow-band filter (to minimize persistent image problems inherent to the detector). The persistent images, which appear as negative relative signal, take a long time and many flushes to remove them. Al Harper reported that he has recently looked at NIC- FPS images, and sees latent images as positive, too--he will send an example to John Bally. Suzanne asked Mark to discuss the suggestion of standardizing NIC-FPS focussing procedures with the Observing Specialists. Chicago (Al Harper) - Al had no further comments on user feedback. NMSU (Rene Walterbos) - Rene reported that the spectrograph focus of DIS is recently noticeably worse than it has been earlier in the year; this is particularly detrimental to radial velocity measurements. Several weeks ago, Russet McMillan and Jon Holtzman recently adjusted the DIS focus, as we routinely do seasonally. Mark said that Russet then rechecked the DIS focus yesterday, and found that it needed a significant readjustment that improved the resolution by a factor of ~2. This is surprising, and may be related to the recent spate of warm weather we have been having. Suzanne said that DIS spectrographic focus should be properly maintained for all users, not just for programs requiring the best resolution. She asked Mark to look into the feasibility of making a monthly check and adjustment of DIS spectrographic focus, rather than quarterly. Washington (Scott Anderson) - Scott mentioned that Agile users are reporting frequent network disconnections, which interrupts the data reads in high-speed observing scripts. During a disconnection, the software repeatedly tries to reconnect, which to the APO system looks like a hacking attack. The APO software then denies the requests from the remote user, which exacerbates the situation. As a temporary fix, Fritz Stauffer has adjusted the parameters for access denials, but a better solution will come when Agile is run under TUI; TUI will allow that data collection to continue during network disconnections. Virginia (Meredith Drosback) - nothing to report. Johns Hopkins (Jon Fulbright) - no report. ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report - Klaene: Mark summarized the report, noting the recent good weather and relatively trouble-free telescope and instrument performance. There have been minor bugs in the software controlling the NA2 instrument rotator, and some of the motion-control parameters for the tertiary mirror have been tweaked. The cranky DIS-blue ion pump is being watched, and we may choose to replace it during an upcoming spell of bad weather. The recent work and repairs to TripleSpec have been completed, and the Agile move to the TR2 port is underway, although we have had some problems with motor torque with the new image rotator. The APOLLO lunar-ranging program has been running well, and the plan for next year's CIF projects is being finalized. ************************* 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 10/2/08 through 10/28/08 Mark Klaene 0) Overview Under mostly clear night skies, the telescope has been working quite well during the period. Minor NA2 rotator problems have caused small losses in observing time. The new boiler for lower dorm is complete and the new site-wide fire alarm system is receiving its final adjustments. 1) Telescope New power supplies were installed to address the axial stepper motor noise and seemed to have helped, although occasional on-full-step- error's are still being seen. The instrument rotator for the TR2 port is being installed this week, and tuning will be done on its servo loop once it is installed. Axis controller software continues to be refined on the NA2 rotator axis. We saw our first freeze for this season, which caused a problem with the DIS slitviewer shutter. The system has since been winterized by installing insulation around the camera. This shutter has shown cold temperature problems in previous years and replacement units do not seem to help, while the installation of thermal insulation seemed to fix the problem last year. 2) Instruments The DIS-blue ion pump is occasionally running high and the dewar may need to be opened up in the future for servicing--spare ion pumps are now on site. DIS-red and SPIcam are fully operational with no problems. Echelle and NIC-FPS both continue to be operational with no problems. We are still waiting for UVa to design and build up a new NIC-FPS fan- out board that will hopefully address the residual readout noise. TripleSpec warmup, gauge replacement and ion pump installation are now complete. The instrument is cold and fully operational. Agile is still available at NA2; it will be moved to the TR2 port once the new rotator is fully tested. TUI integration for Agile continues. Agile spares procurement and documentation updates are also in progress. GFP is currently warm because it is not scheduled for observing until late November. APOLLO remains operational with more record-breaking amounts of lunar- return photons. A high-precision gravimeter (needed by APOLLO to determine the exact position of the telescope) is slated for arrival late in November, and plans are in progress to install it at the 3.5-m. 3) CIF projects Planning for next year's CIF projects is well underway. The principal projects are direct drives for Az and altitude axes, new axis controllers for az and alt, and cal lamp upgrades. ********************************** Calibration (Flat, Arc lamps) upgrades - group: Suzanne said that as part of the CIF plan for next year, we are considering various improvements to the on-telescope calibration lamps system. We would like to hear suggestions from the users. Rene asked if one upgrade would be to get an arc lamp with more lines in the blue. Suzanne said yes, and also for a flat-field source with more flux in the blue and ultraviolet. Scott said that he asked and got no replies from the UW users. In any case, Suzanne said that we will do something that improves the line density and flat-field flux in the blue, now that we have improved DIS sensitivity in that wavelength region. She asked if anyone knew if better calibration sources were needed for NIC-FPS. John Bally said that NIC-FPS users generally use OH emission in the night sky for calibration. In closing the topic, Suzanne asked that users give us their suggestions for improving the calibration lamps system; this opportunity will only stay open over the next few months. ********************************** Autofocus status - Klaene: Mark pointed out that autofocus has been a project worked on this past year. Using the NA2 guider to sense changes in focus, the system has been prototyped and works reasonably well, but work is still needed to characterize and improve it. Users can ask the Observing Specialists to turn the system on during their observing programs, and feedback is welcome. Suzanne added that the principal use of the autofocus system is to keep targets in focus during DIS observations--we will need to implement autofocus differently for TripleSpec and SPIcam. One consequence of the system is that it is OK to guide on field stars using autofocus. We will soon have user information on autofocus on our web pages. ********************************** Communication with users during observing - Hawley: Suzanne remarked that some users find the TUI message window inadequate for enabling easy communication with the Observing Specialists during remote observing runs. Over the years, several Observing Specialists have opposed the introduction of a live A/V link to the control room, but it seems reasonable to consider the use of live audio, such as iChat or Skype, to facilitate user-ObsSpec voice communication. Bill pointed out that the link might need to be muted most of the time, to avoid a dueling of the music played at the respective ends of the hookup. The message window does have the advantage of being logged, but it could still be used for purposes requiring an archive record, and for instances of cut-and-paste communications. Suzanne said that the site will look into implementing a trial version of live audio, probably Skype, between users and the 3.5-m's control room. ********************************** Future instrumentation (priorities for replacements, upgrades) - Hawley: Suzanne announced that we will have an opportunity beginning in 2010 to provide some financial support for the development of new and upgraded instrumentation for the 3.5-m telescope. When the 2009 CIF projects are completed, instrumentation and their upgrades will be the higher priority for CIF funds. Specifically, both the echelle and SPIcam are probably nearing the end of their useful lives in their current configuration, and both instruments have seen dwindling user demand in the past few years. In order to get the next-generation instruments on the telescope, we need both user involvement and leadership--if someone in the ARC user community wants to step forward and take on the PI role of defining and developing new instrumentation for the telescope, funding can be made available. Suzanne will take this proposal to the ARC Board of Governors in two weeks, and she would be interested in hearing any user feedback both before and after the Board meeting (slh at astro.washington.edu). ********************************** 3.5-m publications list update - Walterbos: Rene compiles the list of new publications and theses based on 3.5-m data annually for the ARC Board meeting. He asks that the Users Committee members remind their users to send him listings of all publication and theses from the period Oct. 07 through Oct. 08 (rwalterb@nmsu.edu ). ********************************** ACTION ITEMS: [open from previous months]: ACTION: Committee members should send one or two science highlights from the telescope users from their institutions to Suzanne (slh at astro.washington.edu) and Bruce (gillespi at apo.nmsu.edu) not later than 1 October for use in the Annual Report to the ARC Board of Governors meeting in November. STATUS: Completed. [new actions from last month]: ACTION: The Users Committee representatives are to ask their respective users for suggestions on improving the calibration lamp system on the telescope, e.g., flux, wavelength distribution, emission- line calibration, etc., and report at the next meeting. STATUS: Discussed with Users Committee 11/3. ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday, 8 December, at 8:30 AM Pacific Time. The agenda and other materials will be sent to the committee members during the preceding week. APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 1117 in the apo35-general archive. You can find APO the archive on http://www.astro.princeton.edu/APO/apo35-general/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-general@astro.princeton.edu APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO APO