Subject: shutdown extended

From: elt@mudo.Princeton.EDU

Submitted: Sat, 29 Jul 2000 13:52:48 -0400 (EDT)

Message number: 448 (previous: 447, next: 449 up: Index)

In apo35-general message #446 on Thursday (7/27) I wrote:
>there appears to be relatively little
>risk of extension of the shutdown as telescope re-commissioning on
>the sky is already well advanced.  Of course, we are in the monsoon
>season, so the weather risk is elevated.

In retrospect, it was clearly unwise to tempt fate with such a bold claim.
The weather has not permitted the dome to be opened since my message,
and it will now be necessary to pre-empt scheduled science programs
until the necessary on-sky recommisioning tasks have been accomplished.
This is expected to take the equivalent of roughly one clear night.

So, to start, the scheduled programs for tonight (7/29) are canceled
and will instead be devoted to engineering if weather permits.  As we
are currently experiencing a moderately active monsoon weather pattern,
it is quite possible that it will be necessary carry on this process
for a few nights to get the needed on-sky time.

As described in detail in Mark Klaene's apo35-general post yesterday
(#447), all of the planned tasks and considerably more were successfully
accomplished on schedule in this shutdown.  We are now loosing scheduled
science time only to weather, in effect.

I will send copies of this post to affected and potentially affected
program PIs and observers, but please keep an eye on apo35-general posts
as well for further updates.

Ed Turner


APO APO APO APO APO  Apache Point Observatory 3.5m  APO APO APO
APO
APO  This is message 448 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