Subject: APO 3.5m users committee minutes Sept 2014
From: Suzanne Hawley
Submitted: Fri, 10 Oct 2014 20:46:14 -0700 (PDT)
Message number: 1344
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PLEASE READ: science slides are needed for 3.5m report at ARC Board
meeting. Send powerpoint slides to your users committee representative
before October 15.
New ARCSAT schedule (Oct 20-Feb 8) is now published on the APO website.
**************************
APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 9/29/14
Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Mark Klaene, Scott Anderson, Rachel Kuzio de
Naray, Mary Beth Kaiser, Rene Walterbos, Jon Holtzman, Michael Strauss,
Joanne Hughes Clark, John Stocke, Russet McMillan
**********************************
User feedback and comments from institutional representatives:
The only feedback was from Mary Beth Kaiser who mentioned that some JHU
users had trouble installing TUI on linux machines. Jon Holtzman said
some minor issues were common with linux installs often related to
accessing python. Mary Beth was encouraged to contact Russell Owen if
there are specific questions to address, and to provide feedback regarding
the online linux installation directions so they can be updated as needed.
**********************************
Discussion of telescope/instruments report:
Mark presented the telescope and instruments report (below) and mentioned
the weather as being particularly bad this month. The monsoon season has
continued through September with remnants of several hurricanes bringing a
large amount of rain to the area. There was a question about the ARCTIC
schedule. We are planning for commissioning during summer 2015 and
possible first shared-risk observations in fall 2015, but will provide
updates on the schedule as the time gets closer.
*************************
3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights
08/16/14 through 09/24/14
0) Overview
Clouds and rain have been the primary issues for much of this period.
Tropical moisture continues to flow into the region.
Gretchen Van Doren who has been with APO for 24 years is retiring at the
end of the year. A search for a replacement is in progress however finding
someone to fill her shoes will likely be impossible.
1) Telescope
The new TCC is working well and aside from 1 item that needs to be tested
on sky this project has been completed and will be transitioned to
maintenance mode.
2) Instruments
DIS has been operating normally, but may have some contamination on red
side.
Agile is operational with no problems. Guiding with new TCC now working.
TripleSpec had no operational problems this period
SPICam was operational during this period with no issues
Echelle inter-order light increased significantly 24 hours after being
cooled down in August, likely due to condensation/contamination on the
chip. Attempts to use the chip heater while keeping the instrument cold
proved ineffective in improving this. The camera was warmed and held above
ambient for several days then re-cooled. This improved the inter-order
light to levels as good or better than pre-shutdown. Condensation was
observed on ECAM and purge air was routed in to eliminate this.
NIC-FPS continues to operate in shared-risk observing mode due to
occasional image corruption issue. NFS less than 9 is operational.
GIFS is operational. The GSFC folks will be onsite this week to work on
the instrument.
3) ARCTIC
The instrument development is proceeding on schedule. The CCD has been
completed and final vendor testing is underway. The dewar assembly and
initial vacuum testing are complete. The PO is being issued to Bob Leach
(ARC Inc) for electronics integration, which should start next week. We
have 2 of the 3 quotes back for the optics.
**********************************
DIS red camera contamination
Similar to the echelle issue above, the red camera on DIS showed evidence
of contamination due to moisture in the dewar. We suspect these issues
are related to the high humidity the past two months. DIS was taken
offline for several days and warmed, and now looks better. John Stocke
asked about the effect on the data which is most noticeable in the spatial
direction, but does also affect the focus in the spectral direction.
Science slides for Board annual report
A couple of science slides are needed from each institution for the Board
report. They should be powerpoint, with nice pictures if possible and not
too much technical detail. Users committee members should gather and send
to Mark and Suzanne by October 15. This is an action item.
ARCSAT shutdown and Q4 call for proposals
ARCSAT shutdown to realuminize mirror and work on software issues is
planned for Sept 29 - Oct 13. Call for proposals for Q4+ observing (mid
Oct - early Feb) will go out this week and new schedule should be
available by Oct 10.
NRC O/IR committee
The NRC has convened an "OIR System Study" committee that is looking at
the role of US optical and IR ground-based telescopes of medium and large
aperture in the next decade, particularly in the LSST era. We have been
asked to participate in the next committee meeting in mid-October, and
Rene will be presenting information about the 3.5m telescope
instrumentation and operations and about the ARC collaboration. We will
emphasize time domain and flexible remote operations as usual. Input
welcome.
APOGEE fiber link to 3.5m
SDSS-4 is planning on an APOGEE-S instrument so the current APOGEE
instrument is likely to stay in the north at APO. We are therefore
investigating once again the feasibilty of a fiber link from the 3.5m.
However since APOGEE will be observing during both bright and dark time,
it will be difficult to schedule on the 3.5m during SDSS-4 operations (ie
until 2019-20). We are interested in hearing from users whether a fiber
feed to APOGEE is of strong scientific interest and whether we should
continue to pursue this. If we do put in fiber to connect the 2.5m and
3.5m, we can also include the smaller telescopes (ARCSAT, NMSU 1m), so we
are interested in hearing of any interest in using those telescopes with
fiber feeds as well.
Action: users committee to gather information from users about scientific
interest in a fiber feed to APOGEE (2.5m) and smaller telescopes on site.
Initial planning for new spectrograph
With the new imager progressing well, we are starting to consider what the
next instrument would be. A new spectrograph to replace DIS is a leading
candidate, with improvements such as better throughput, higher time
resolution, and multi-object capability (among others). We are just
beginning discussion of this idea, perhaps for a start in 2016. One
possibility is to construct a new instrument room next to the arcade, and
feed a spectrograph from a side port (like Agile) with fibers. This would
allow quicker change than mounting on the NA2 port. Rene mentioned
possibly making the echelle be fiber fed and freeing up NA1 for a new
spectrograph. We will be soliciting input from users in the coming
months.
Forest service proposal for new site infrastructure
To accomplish the APOGEE fiber feed and/or new instrument room will
require new site infrastructure, which requires a proposal to the forest
service. This could take up to a year to get approval, so is a long
lead-time item. Mark and APO staff have started work on a proposal while
we continue discussions about instruments in the meantime.
ACTION ITEMS:
[open from previous meeting]:
none
[new from this meeting]:
Action: Users committee representatives to gather science slides for Board
report and send to Suzanne and Mark by October 15.
Action: Users committee representatives to solicit expressions of
scientific interest in a fiber feed to APOGEE (2.5m) and smaller
telescopes and report at next meeting.
**********************************
Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday 20
October 2014. The agenda and other materials will be sent to the
committee members during the preceding week.
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