APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 5/07/12 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Mark Klaene, Scott Anderson, Bill Ketzeback, Sean Moran, Jon Holtzman, John Bally, Ed Turner (for Michael Strauss), and Bruce Gillespie Absent: Remy Indebetouw, Al Harper ********************************** User feedback and comments from institutional representatives: o Chicago (Al Harper) - No report. o Washington (Scott Anderson) - Scott had nothing to report. o New Mexico State (Jon Holtzman) - Jon had nothing to report. o Princeton (Ed Turner) - Ed had nothing to report. o Colorado (John Bally) - John had nothing to report. o Virginia (Remy Indebetouw) - No report. o Johns Hopkins (Sean Moran) - Sean had nothing to report. ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report: Mark announced that we are again experiencing high fire-danger conditions at APO, and the annual Miller moth invasion has begun and appears to be heralding a "bad" moth year. The telescope has been trouble-free. On instruments, the DIS blue camera developed scattered light problems. We will perform a major service on DIS this summer, and have pumped on the dewar in the meantime, resulting in some improvement. We fixed a cable-snagging problem with Agile. SPIcam's vacuum problem got recently worse, so it was opened for major service and will be returned to operations by the end of May. The masks for TripleSpec were repaired, but this needs finishing work in TUI. The new grating will get installed in the echelle during the summer shutdown. We are working to insure that there are baseline throughput data for comparison with the new grating? The situation with NIC-FPS was discussed below as a separate topic. Mark Klaene's detailed report for the reporting period follows: ************************* 3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights 04/05/12 through 05/02/12 0) Overview Telescope continued to run well, and the overall good weather continued. The fire danger finally hit "High" however the overall mood in the heavy forested regions is that the risk of a large forest fire is still small. The miller moth season does appear to be forming. Large infestations of moths often cause telescope drive slippage and increased spotting on optics. 1) Telescope The telescope has been operational with no issues of note. 2) Instruments DIS Blue continues to suffer from vacuum problems including some increased scattered light resulting from contamination. We are working on the vacuum and the blue side of DIS is out of service this week while we pump on it. Significant dewar work is planned for the summer and we are focusing on keeping it operational until then. Agile had an issue with the rotator. The problem was traced to a combination of rotation angle and altitude that caused the umbilical to hang up. Problem was corrected the next day. SPIcam vacuum continued to worsen and the instrument was taken off line at the completion of scheduled observing at the end of April. Vacuum and coldhead work has progressed smoothly. The coldhead has been replaced, o-rings have been serviced, several vacuum connections have been eliminated, a new vacuum gauge installed and a loose nylon screw removed from inside the dewar. We have started looking at the shutter and found substantial wear on the shutter blade caused by interference with the housing. Additionally the motor-gearbox assembly was leaking oil. After the shutter and final vacuum pump down is completed, the cryotiger compressor will be serviced and the instrument reassembled. We plan to have the instrument operational in time for scheduled observing to resume at the end of May. TSpec maskfile has been remade and tested at various binning factors. Data are being analyzed. Echelle is operational. Plan is for installation of the new grating during summer shutdown. The new ecam has been running much smoother. NIC-FPS has been operating in shared-risk observing status. The image corruption issues are still present on occasion but have not been reported to be affecting science observations. We have received a proposal from UVa to address NICFPS issues. There is a separate agenda/action item to discuss this proposal. ********************************** UVa NIC-FPS proposal, NIC-FPS action item: Suzanne said that the Users Committee members had an action item to ask their users about the impact of taking NIC-FPS out of service for six months so that it can be repaired at UVa. All five of the committee members present said that they asked, and heard back that there would be no significant impact. Scott added that there was concern about potential risks to the instrument. The instrument team at UVa (Mike Skrutskie, John Wilson, Fred Hearty, Matt Nelson) submitted a proposal to repair the electronic problem(s) with NIC-FPS, and assess what it would take to upgrade the camera to a 2048x2048 detector and get the NIR etalon to work. Their rough cost estimate for this work is $100k. Given that NIC-FPS is currently usable, the committee felt that it would be of marginal value to users to make these repairs and/or upgrades. Suzanne said that she would contact UChicago users directly, and that any other users who have opinions on this matter should contact her directly. This closes the pending actions item. ********************************** Dewpoint sensors: Bill reminded us that a new dewpoint sensor was purchased and installed over a year ago. It generally works more accurately than the old dewpoint sensor we've used for many years, but requires a workaround for a built-in calibration feature that occurs during the night. We are working with the manufacturer, and are also planning to buy a second sensor for use inside the enclosure. If all goes as hoped, the new sensors should enable us to relax the dewpoint closure limit somewhat, which could allow us a few more nights on the sky per year. ********************************** Summer shutdown timing and work: Mark reported that the shutdown will run from 23 July to August 9, with the plan being to be back on the sky the night of 10 August, weather permitting. The primary mirror will be washed, and M2 and M3 will be realuminized. The rest of the shutdown will involve work on the instruments, including DIS, echelle, axis controllers, cryotiger maintenance, etc. ********************************** ARCSAT upgrade: Suzanne announced that Dmitry Bizyaev received a grant to buy a new camera for ARCSAT which is presently being installed. The UW high-speed camera (Flarecam) is also being used at the telescope. The plan is that these two cameras will be generally available for use on ARCST within the next few months. We are working on a control system for remote operations of the telescope, but at present it is not robust enough for general use. When it is ready, we hope that ARCSAT will be an attractive facility for present, and possibly new, ARC partners. The funding plan and proposal process for ARCSAT time remains to be developed once it is operational. Suzanne is interested in hearing from the ARC user community about their interest in using ARCSAT. ********************************** Advertising for new ARC (APO 3.5m) partners: Suzanne reminded the committee that a couple of institutions are looking to sell their ARC shares. It is also the case that other mid-sized telescopes are looking for new partners, so we need to be acting expeditiously. There is an ARC Partners Committee that has been working on a strategy to search for new ARC partners. A URL has been set up at APO that contains information on the 3.5-m telescope, its instrumentation, and scientific highlights. We are sending letters to select institutions, offering an invitation to discuss possible relationships with ARC for access to the 3.5-m telescope, either as full ARC partners, on a leasing basis, or as part of an SDSS-like Participation Group. Bruce will forward the URL to the Users Committee members. If anyone knows of an institution/contact that should be approached, please notify Suzanne, Rene Walterbos, and Bruce. ********************************** ACTION ITEMS: [open from previous meeting]: ===> ACTION: Users committee members to discuss implications of taking NICFPS out of service for six months. In particular, are users happy with the current state, is it worth trying to fix? Status: Closed ===> ACTION: Send new partner suggestions to Suzanne, Rene and Bruce. Status: Open [new actions from this meeting]: none ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday 4 June 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 1273 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