Visual inspection of the cracks in the 3.5m enclosure rotation wheels indicate that their growth rate has increased substantially during the past few weeks. Possible causes include lower temperatures and frequent use of the snow/ice removal program which causes many and large enclosure rotations. Therefore, use of the "snow program" will be discontinued until the wheels can be repaired (see minutes of User Cmte meetings for further details) or until its relation to the cracking rate is better understood. The immediate implication is that observations will be interrupted for a longer period of time following accummulation of snow or ice on the dome. This disadvantage is offset by the decrease in the chance of enclosure wheel failure which would result in an extended interuption of telescope operations. Ed Turner APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 38 in the apo35-general archive. You can find APO the archive on http://astro.princeton.edu:82/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