APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 1/11/10 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Mark Klaene, Bill Ketzeback, Russet McMillan, Al Harper, Bill Ketzeback, John Bally, Michael Strauss, Jon Holtzman, Scott Anderson Absent: Jon Fulbright, Remy Indebetouw ********************************** User feedback, comments from institutional representatives: Chicago (Al Harper) - nothing to report. New Mexico State (Jon Holtzman) - nothing to report. Washington (Scott Anderson) - thanks were offered to observers and staff for helping with recent rescheduling of programs to accomodate simultaneous Chandra observations. Colorado (John Bally) - there was a good Triplespec run for CU recently, otherwise nothing to report. Princeton - new postdoc Cullen Blake's recent trip to APO for training was very successful. Also grateful for some recent OPEN time assignments. Johns Hopkins - no report (Fulbright absent) Virginia - no report (Indebetouw absent) ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report - Klaene: Mark called attention to some of the failures and problems associated with the recent cold weather, including the DIS slitviewer shutter sticking (see report below). There was also discussion of on-chip guiding with Agile. Users committee members were encouraged to communicate with Agile users at their institutions, to let them know that on-chip guiding is being implemented soon in a "quick and dirty" way that will likely require some special use training. A more extensive rewrite of the 3.5m guiding software is planned during the next year that should make the Agile guiding more robust. Russet discussed the high altitude pointing and tracking issues. Users should be aware that there are some disadvantages to following objects through high altitude transits, including loss of tracking and poor guiding. In addition, it takes some time for the telescope tracking to recover from such a transit, which involves taking the telescope to low elevation for reset. The Observatory is still recommending against high altitude observing (above 85 degrees), and will only allow it in special circumstances. Russet talked about the new Triplespec instrument block. There is a great improvement to boresight guiding however field star guiding will be much less accurate the farther from the slit you observe. Users should talk to the Observing Specialist for advice if they want to do field star guiding. ************************* 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 12/4/09 through 1/3/10 Mark Klaene 0) Overview Weather, specifically snow, has been the main issue this period and we expect more in the coming months. Large snow falls have created a lot of staff access problems as well as power losses. During the first event we lost all site power for about 10 minutes as we scrambled to fix a generator problem. The good news is the generator is fixed and we now are carrying twice as much fuel on site. Loss time due to snow on the roof was minimal, however humidity did keep us closed on some occasions under clear skies. The holiday season came and went with many of the day staff on holiday leave but no major problems and only a couple minor issues during this time. 1) Telescope Behavior has been quite good and a recent pointing model has us back to below 5" RMS pointing. Tracking improvements are still being looked into especially at high altitude. Recent TSpec instrument block update has also improved TSpec bore-sight guiding and nodding. 2) Instruments DIS, Echelle, SPIcam, Agile and TripleSpec ran with no problems. DIS blue ION pump is running a little high. The DIS slitviewer camera shutter is having its usual cold weather problems. We are monitoring this for increasing frequency. The new NICFPS fanout board is progressing slowly with the board at CU for final assembly and testing. Installation could be late January or February. There was no progress on the NIC-FPS etalon at CU. 3) CIF projects The CIF projects for 2010 have been identified. Major initiatives include: calibration lamps (improved UV/blue flux intensity), high-altitude tracking, purchase and fabrication of direct-drive spares, and installation of a brake on the altitude axis. Some money has been set aside for instrument upgrades once a plan is in place for how to proceed. ********************************** o NICFPS fanout board, possible scheduling impact - Klaene John Bally had no update on the status of the fanout board testing at Colorado. In December, we were hopeful that we would get a fully populated and tested fanout board delivered to APO by the end of January, which would then be installed during a block of time when the instrument is not in use. It is not clear if we will be able to meet this schedule. Thermal cycling of the instrument, opening it up and installing the board will take around two weeks. Users should be aware that there may be some impact on science operations if there are problems during the installation process. If the fanout board replacement is unsuccessful on the mountain, the instrument may have to go back to Colorado for completion of work. o Triplespec scheduling in Q1 - Hawley Triplespec is a heavy, awkward instrument that is particularly difficult to mount and dismount in cold weather. Therefore, we are avoiding instrument changes that involve mounting or dismounting Triplespec at midnight during Q1. Users should keep this restriction in mind when requesting OPEN or DD time during Q1. We will reevaluate this operational restriction for Q2. o FIRST/echelle/imager updates - Hawley FIRST/IRET: There was a meeting with Jian Ge about the FIRST/IRET instrument in early December. We asked for a fixed optical design prior to PDR, which Ge has promised to provide. The project is on hold until the optical design is received. Echelle upgrade: We are presently searching for a PI for the echelle upgrade project, with the intention of proceeding with this project in the near future. There have been some concerns expressed about the echelle availability. With our current budget and schedule expectations, significant downtime is not likely for at least 18 months. Imager upgrade: This project is on hold for now, pending additional investigation into design options. ***************************** ACTION ITEMS: [open from previous months]: NONE [new actions from this meeting]: NONE ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday, 8 February, 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 1167 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