Unfortunately, the first attempt to aluminize the new secondary for the 3.5-meter produced an unsatisfactory coating with poor reflectivity and areas of very large scattered light. Thus, it will be necessary to make a second attempt to aluminze it in the tank at Sunspot-NSO. Therefore, the start of science operations will be delayed for several more days. In particular, science operations will not begin before the night of 19 September, and the night of the 20th is more likely, even assuming cooperative skies during the on-sky recommissioning process. Affected programs include PU02, PU01, UW02, UW06, NM08, DD01, UC01, UC08, WS01 and JH02. (All six ARC institutions and DDT lose time as it turns out.) I am attempting to copy this message directly to the affected PIs and observers for each program but institutional schedulers and UC members are asked to help in making sure that everyone is informed in a timely manner. Those responsible for the science programs scheduled for Sept. 19th (PU02, JH02 and PU01) will be informed later in the week as to the disposition of that night. Ed Turner APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 376 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