APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 10/11/10 ****** Please send science highlights to your users committee representative, and to Suzanne Hawley and Mark Klaene, by Friday October 15 for inclusion in the ARC 3.5m Annual Report We prefer a powerpoint slide including figure and text, but will accept a figure (jpeg) and text separately. ************** Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Mark Klaene, Michael Strauss, Bill Ketzeback, Russet McMillan, Remy Indebetouw, Scott Anderson, John Bally, Al Harper, Sean Moran, Bruce Gillespie Absent: Jon Holtzman ********************************** User feedback, comments from institutional representatives: Chicago (Al Harper) - Al had nothing new to report. New Mexico State (Jon Holtzman) - no report. Washington (Scott Anderson) - Scott mentioned that a UW user recently lost some observing time because of an inability to transfer observing data. This took about an hour to fix, and Scott wondered if others are experiencing the same issue. Russet said that there have been three recent cases, and that it is a new, evolving problem that the APO IT staff are aware of and are looking for a fix or workaround. Until recently, firewalls at user institutions assumed a single IP address for TUI and data downloads. Some firewalls are now expecting multiple IPs for an observing session, which seems to be causing the problem. Until this is addressed, users should try to keep taking data if possible during file transfer blockages, and/or download their data using FTP or other means. If a quick look at the blocked data is needed, the Observing Specialists can also help in real time. Colorado (John Bally) - John had nothing new to report. Princeton (Michael Strauss) - Michael had nothing new to report. Johns Hopkins (Sean Moran) - Sean had nothing new to report. Virginia (Remy Indebetouw) - Remy had nothing new to report. ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report - Klaene: Mark highlighted his written report, given below. It is now seasonably dry, and should hopefully stay like this for the next few weeks. The winter forecast is for drier than normal conditions, also. Coincident with tuning the primary mirror position servo, the optical alignment of the telescope got out of whack; Russet recollimated the telescope but the root cause is unknown at present. During a recent cloudy night, one of the UPS units on the telescope failed, which was fixed the next day with a workaround until we can install replacement parts. The instruments are generally in good shape, especially after replacing a failed ion pump controller on SPIcam. Late last week, TUI was upgraded to 1.8.3, which solved a compatibility problem with Macs using OS 10.4. Suzanne said that we don't have much of a feeling about how many users are still using this older operating system. Since the new TUI was upgraded to fix issues with Agile, users who don't use Agile can still use older versions of TUI. ===> ACTION: Users Committee members should poll their users to find out how many are using TUI with Mac OS 10.4 and report at the next Users Committee meeting. Concerning the engineering plans and CIF projects that are under consideration (see below), Mark noted that the realuminization of the primary mirror is slated for next July, and will result in a summer shutdown that lasts somewhat longer than in the last few years that haven't included a primary realuminizing. We also intend to begin the upgrades to the echelle, improve the DIS slit viewer, port the TCC software to a modern (i.e., not VMS) computer platform, improve dew point monitoring to both enable more observing close to closing conditions while avoiding fogging or frosting the optics, reliably enable telescope tracking up to 85 degrees altitude, complete the implementation of the top-end metrology (accelerometers and strain gauges), and ramp up research on telescope enclosure cooling and dome seeing. Upgrades to the calibration lamps are on hold, pending needed advances in lamp technology. ************************* 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 9/6/10 through 10/05/10 0) Overview A few days of clear and dry weather, but still more rain and clouds. Long term forecast is for a winter La Nina so probably a dryer than normal winter is coming. 1) Telescope During some PMSS investigation we discovered the telescope was out of collimation. A significant change to secondary translation corrected the collimation but we are still investigating what caused it. A failure in the main UPS unit that powers much of the telescope caused loss of power around 4:30 AM (during a cloudy night). The failure was traced to a shorted temperature sensor. A patch was implemented to get the unit back up quickly and new parts are on order. Minor TUI upgrades were also released. The problem with Mac OS X 10.4 has been fixed in the most recent version TUI 1.8.3. 2) Instruments DIS, TripleSpec, NIC-FPS, the Echelle, and Agile ran with no problems. SPIcam ION pump controller failed. Upon replacement and pump down, temperatures are now running normally. 3) Preliminary list of CIF projects for 2011: Re-aluminize 3.5m Telescope Control Computer (TCC) Replacement Echelle Upgrade DIS Slitviewer mounting improvement and possible replacement Improve accuracy in dew point metrology Pointing/Tracking improvements Top End Metrology Telescope/Enclosure cooling and dome seeing ********************************** Science highlights, references for annual report - Hawley: Suzanne said that she needs science highlights for the ARC 3.5m Annual Report (she's received nothing so far). They are due this Friday, Oct 15 and should be sent to the institutional users representative, Suzanne and Mark. Separately, please send references for publicshed or in press papers, theses, etc. to Suzanne, Mark and Rene Walterbos who has volunteered again to collate them (thanks Rene!). Note that we don't include abstracts and in-preparation papers in our publications list. Suzanne mentioned that we compare fairly well with similar compilations from other mid-sized telescopes. ********************************** Echelle upgrade - Hawley: Suzanne reported that Jon Holtzman is working on the recommendations for a new detector, grating, and optical coatings. A new proposal is to modify the instrument's front end to accommodate a fiber feed and multiple slits. After some discussion, it appears that recoating the optics may be infeasible and not worth the effort, especially since it would involve a difficult realignment of the instrument. The detector upgrade looks most promising and is presently being explored. Jon is writing a proposal for presentation at the November ARC Board meeting. ********************************** APO futures proposals - Hawley: Suzanne asked if people were working on pre-proposals, which are due 22 October. We need to be proactive now if there are major new initiatives to be considered, although most of the proposals received will likely be related to the 2.5-meter telescope. Suzanne discussed some of the ideas for the 3.5-meter telescope that she was aware of, and there may come a point where we will ask for expressions of interest for proposals for new instrumentation, particularly for those coming from non-ARC entities. ********************************** ACTION ITEMS: [open from previous meeting]: ===> ACTION: Users Committee members to poll their users to see whether the current performance of NIC-FPS is adequate for their science. STATUS: This action is CLOSED. JHU users were asked, but there was no response; Princeton users are aware of the limitations, and it impacts some science programs; because of the NIC-FPS noise limitations, some CU users are making use of NEWFIRM, especially for narrow-band observations; and nobody seems to be using NIC-FPS at UVa. Mark said that the plan to try to fix the excessive noise problem involves taking the instrument to Colorado, likely not until next summer, and to do the tests and repairs directly on the science, not the engineering, detector -- so there is some risk that is considered small but significant. With this said, it was decided to close the action item. [new actions from this meeting]: ===> ACTION: Users Committee members should poll their users to find out how many are using TUI with Mac OS 10.4 and report at the next Users Committee meeting. ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday 6 December (skipping November) 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 1206 in the apo35-general archive. 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