APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 9/13/10 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Mark Klaene, Ed Turner, Bill Ketzeback, Jon Holtzman, Remy Indebetouw, Scott Anderson, Russet McMillan Absent: Al Harper, John Bally, UVa ********************************** User feedback, comments from institutional representatives: Chicago (Al Harper) - no report/not present. New Mexico State (Jon Holtzman) - Jon plans to bring a class to APO for training in November. Washington (Scott Anderson) - Scott thanked the APO staff for helping with the UW class that visited APO during July for training. Colorado (John Bally) - no report/not present Princeton (Ed Turner for Michael Strauss) - Ed mentioned that there are a group of postdocs that are now using the 3.5m a lot and are also interested in instrumentation. Johns Hopkins - no report, Sean Moran just named as new users committee representative. Virginia (Remy Indebetouw) - Remy mentioned that a department meeting will be held soon and they will be discussing the future including the 3.5m. ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report - Klaene: Mark highlighted the recent shutdown activity including a repair to the tertiary mirror cell wall. Even with this we accomplished all the items on the shutdown task list and returned to science 2 days early. It also appears that we are slowly coming out of the monsoon weather pattern. ************************* 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 6/11/10 through 9/05/10 0) Overview The monsoons came a little early this year along with the passage nearby of 1 hurricane and 1 tropical storm remnant. This caused a lot of lost time at the end of June due to weather. The scheduled time in July prior to the start of the shutdown was moderately successful in observing around the monsoonal moisture. We hosted a UW student group and a Planetary Nebula working group here during July. The summer shutdown was completed a couple days ahead of time and some science programs were given unscheduled time. Weather in August continued to be inconsistent with clouds,rain and humidity causing moderate loss in time but many partial nights were observable. 1) Telescope No problems prior to the shutdown. Shutdown activities included M1 washing, M2 and M3 re-aluminizing, M2 and M3 actuator servicing, PMSS servo cleanup and tuning, modification to M3 clamp, and Altitude axis controller software update. There have been very few problems since the shutdown. The most noticeable is an over-current on the Agile rotator caused by umbilical snags. This problem has not been completely corrected yet. A minor TUI upgrade was also released. 2) Instruments DIS, TripleSpec, NIC-FPS, the Echelle, and Agile ran with no problems. SPICam is running about 20 deg warmer during the daytime and about 10 deg warmer than usual at night. Currently being investigated. NIC-FPS vacuum was serviced and had to include ION pump replacement. During this time the Leach controller was at CU to investigate the read noise issue and the spare controller abnormality. Upon return to the mountain, a couple of weeks of fine tuning was required to get the noise and gain values back in spec. TSpec vacuum was also serviced during this time with no other changes. Agile computer was upgraded. Echelle slitviewer computer was upgraded. Significant progress was made in completing the private network which enhances our computer security. 3) CIF projects We will start defining FY 2011 CIF projects in the coming month. The plan is to continue to set aside funds for instrument upgrades/replacement. 4) Nick Ule, an NMSU graduate student, is currently being trained as a new Observing Specialist. He will take the place of Jeff Coughlin, and will be working 1-2 nights/month. ********************************** Summer shutdown report and early return to science - Klaene, Hawley Suzanne conveyed her thanks to all those involved (especially Bill, Nick, Joe, Fritz, Ed, and Ben). ********************************** Echelle upgrade update - Holtzman After reviewing the white paper, Jon has focused on three areas: the detector, the optics coatings, and the grating. The most compelling case for a detector replacement will be if we can get one with high QE. There isn't a big improvement to be gained purely on the basis of improved read noise. He is making inquiries about improved QE detectors. There does not appear to be a significant gain from changing/adding optical coatings especially given the possible difficult alignment issues. He is also making inquiries about a replacement grating. Suzanne requested a short statement with cost estimates by the next meeting to be discussed by the Users Committee and presented at the ARC Board meeting in November. ********************************** Scheduling issues - Hawley, McMillan There are two issues that have come up recently. One is a large increase in the number of partial night programs, and the other, which is related, is the issue of morning calibrations. Users should be aware that when they are scheduled next to a partial night program, they are often getting additional time compared to what was forwarded by their institutional scheduler. Sometimes having time spread out over more half nights is beneficial -- we try to assess that from the proposals, but users should feel free to mention it in their proposals to help us with scheduling. As far as morning cals, the setup message has recently been updated to note that cals that run past 7:30am local (mountain) time must be requested and approved ahead of time. The Observing Specialists work very long nights during the winter months and staying past 7:30 is a significant burden. Also the day crew starts work in the dome at that time. An alternative may be to take cals during the afternoon before the observing. ********************************** Science highlights for annual report - Hawley Suzanne made the first call for science highlights for the annual report, which are due by Friday, October 15. Highlights should include text and an accompanying image. These will be presented in a powerpoint presentation so if they can be sent as a jpeg or powerpoint slide that reduces our editing. Highlights should be sent to the institutional users committee representative for review, and then forwarded to Suzanne and Mark. ********************************** NIC-FPS read noise - Hawley Suzanne mentioned that the current proposal to continue working on the NIC-FPS noise issue carries with it some risk and likely places the instrument off line for 2-3 months. Prior to the 16 chl readout upgrade, read noise was around 14 electrons with Fowler sampling (NFS) 1. Now, after the upgrade, the read noise is 72 electrons for NFS 1 and can be reduced to 21 electrons with NFS 8 which is the usual operating mode. We would like to hear from the users if the current detector performance is sufficient for their science prior to committing further resources and taking the instrument out of service for an extended period. See action item below. ********************************** TripleSpec acceptance - Hawley We plan to formerly accept TripleSpec at the November board meeting. The remaining items are minor (spares, temp sensor replacement and minor documentation issues) and will be addressed soon. The instrument itself has been working quite well and the documentation is quite good. There is a desire by some for software that would provide a 2D wavelength solution, however that is outside the scope of the instrument acceptance. Ed Turner stated he is in favor of accepting the instrument. ********************************** APO futures committee - Hawley A call for pre-proposals has recently been issued soliciting ideas for using the 2.5m and 3.5m telescopes after SDSS III is completed in mid-2014. The idea is to start an early discussion on the best way to utilize the 2.5m telescope while at the same time looking at improvements to the 3.5m. It is important to remember that the cost to operate the 3.5m is impacted by the 2.5m operations. ********************************** other business - group Suzanne stated that she was recently approached by Phil Muirhead (Cornell) as to whether or not we would be interested in an interferometer for TripleSpec. Phil has developed an interferometer for the Palomar TripleSpec instrument and we will be interested in seeing how it works there. ********************************** ACTION ITEMS: [open from previous meeting]: ===> ACTION: Users Committee members should poll their users to find out how important it is to their science programs to track targets within 5 degrees of zenith. +++> RESPONSE: General consensus was that users would like to go as high as possible, but that a limit of 85 deg was reasonable. Mark stated that 85 deg will be our target for future upgrades. Currently we start seeing moderate to severe effects at 82 deg. ---> DISPOSITION: Closed NEW ACTION ITEM ===> ACTION: Users Committee members to poll their users to see whether the current performance of NIC-FPS is adequate for their science. ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday, 11 October 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 1199 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