The scheduled shutdown of the 3.5m during the summer monsoon season has gone very well due to the efforts of the engineering staff, and there is a significant possibility that the shutdown work, including on-sky recommisioning of the telescope and instruments (which is, of course, weather dependent) will be finished EARLY! If no unexpected problems are encountered (knock on wood) and if the weather causes no significant delays, it might be possible to resume science operations as early as Wednesday evening, August 29. This would provide 3 additional nights of telescope time, i.e., time not currently scheduled for specific scince programs. This would be bright time. Of course, it is also possible that only 1 or 2 of the nights would be available, or none at all, if things do not go so smoothly. So, this message is a "heads up". If it still appears likely that any time will be available early next week, I will invite requests for the available OPEN time on Monday or Tuesday. I hope this alert gives you sufficient time to consider reasonable possibilities for responses to this very short lead time opportunity, if it occurs. Time allocated for Aug. 29-31 will not be charged to institutional allocations. Ed Turner APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 515 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