--============_-1190558059==_ma============ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Apache Point Observatory 3.5m User's Committee Meeting May 13, 2002 Attending: Bruce Gillespie, Ed Turner, Michael Strauss, Lew Hobbs, Jon Holtzman, Rene Walterbos, Jon Morse, Alan Uomoto, Bruce Balick, Mike Shull Absent: Chris Stubbs ********** Status of the DIS upgrade: ********** Ed Turner: Through the influence of the good offices of Chris Stubbs, Marconi EEV was able to locate a Grade 0 (the best) replacement chip for the blue side of DIS. We expect this new chip to arrive this week and be installed next week with minimal, if any, impact to scheduled DIS observing. If the replacement detector is successfully installed, both sides of DIS will be operable by about the 24th of May, including the improved blue throughput from the blue dewar lens replacement with the proper AR coating. The damaged chip is at EEV for evaluation, and if it can be repaired, it will be returned and used as a spare. ********** JHU Near-IR spectrograph workshop: ********** Alan Uomoto: The new APO infrared spectrograph design will be presented in Baltimore on Tuesday, May 21, 2002, 10:30AM to 5:00PM at the Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy on the JHU Homewood campus. The purpose is to confirm the technical and scientific goals of the project and to perform a preliminary design review. [Note: the latest information on this meeting with room number and earlier ending time was just posted to apo35-general by Alan Uomoto.] Reference information for the instrument is at: http://annabel-lee.pha.jhu.edu/Irspec/RefBook/book1.html ARC people are welcome (but JHU does not have travel funds for general ARC attendees). Please reply to Alan Uomoto <au@jhu.edu> if you plan to attend (including JHU people). If you can't make it but have comments, send them to Alan soon, construction of the spectrograph will commence shortly after the review. Jon Morse: What have been comments so far regarding resolution? Alan Uomoto: R=4000 is the best that can be done with this instrument, although the baseline was for R=1000 for quasars, etc. ********** Loaned and Special filters policy ********** Ed Turner: ARC and other astronomers have "loaned" optical filters to APO over the years, and APO has accommodated the occasional use of special and non-standard sized filters for its instruments. Recent events have led to the following proposed policy and procedure regarding standard and special filters on loan to APO: Loaned and Special filters policy Filters of the appropriate size may be brought/mailed to APO for use in SPIcam and DIS. Use of astronomer-furnished filters in the other instruments is discouraged. Notify APO staff (techstaff@apo.nmsu.edu) at least 2 weeks in advance if you intend to bring and use standard-size filters in SPIcam or DIS. We require that these filters be at APO at least two working days prior to their planned use. For filters with non-matching shapes or sizes, contact techstaff@apo.nmsu.edu at least one month in advance of their planned use for an evaluation of feasibility. Unless there is a compelling reason made in writing to the Director, all loaned filters at APO will be made available to other telescope users without first securing the owner's permission. A list of the loaned filters will be kept on the APO website, with the owner's name and contact information. If an astronomer wishes to use one or more of these filters, it would be advisable to contact its owner to ensure that the filter(s) will be at APO when needed. If a loaned filter is damaged or lost while at APO, the observatory will assume responsibility for its replacement. Filters will be fully insured by the owner when shipped to the site, and filters will be fully insured by APO when they are shipped back to the owner. ********** No-Show policy ********** Ed Turner, Bruce Gillespie: One of the problems with remote PI observing at APO is that occasionally the remote observer doesn't show up (in the virtual sense). This happens some 2 or 3 times a year, and a recent occurrence has prompted discussion of formalizing a policy and procedure for no-shows. In past instances of no-shows, we have made a frantic and concerted effort to find substitute science and/or engineering uses for the telescope. The purpose of the policy is to ensure that very little usable telescope time goes unused, following a set of relatively simple rules. [Director's note: Although how an institution's 3.5-m time is used is to some extent the institution's responsibility, the Director and Observatory are charged by the ARC Board of Governors to make the most effective overall use of the facility. Remote observers are expected to contact the observatory at least a day in advance with setup requirements, and to log-on or call the observatory staff at least a half-hour before their scheduled observing time starts. This includes situations even where the weather *LOOKS* hopeless.] A first draft of this policy was discussed by the Users Committee, and several points were made which have been incorporated below: "No-Show" policy If a scheduled remote observer does not log-in or notify APO by at least 15 minutes before the beginning of their scheduled observing time, he/she is defined as a "no-show" and the following procedure and policies will be invoked in an hierarchical manner: The Observing Specialist will attempt to telephone the PI and/or designated remote observers using only the phone numbers given in the observing proposal. We will add an optional field in the observing proposals for home/contact phone numbers for the PI and observers. This allows us to avoid having to keep a rolodex of home phone numbers for the ever-changing cast of remote observers. We'll have to ensure that the home phone numbers are not accessible through our public web server, however. If the remote observer fails to contact the site by 10 minutes after the scheduled starting time or is not reachable by phone, the following options are tried first: 1) if the no-show is on 2nd half, the time is offered to the first half observer 2) if the no-show is on 1st half, the time is offered to the 2nd half observer If these options do not work, the Observing Specialist will attempt to reach the institutional Scheduler by phone only if the program is for the first half of the night. We will need to get the office and home numbers of the Schedulers. These will go in a private phone list kept in the control room. The Scheduler will be given the opportunity to designate another program to run on the telescope, with a different observer (if possible), or in service observing mode (if practical). If none of these options works, the default is to initiate some specified backup science (service observing mode), engineering, training, and/or PR programs. If the no-show observer "shows up" later during their scheduled time, they will be told by the Observing Specialist that they have forfeited their time to another science program (if one has been started). If other kinds of observing has been substituted (e.g., engineering), the now "late" observer will be given the option of using the remaining time for their science program. All of the scheduled time for a no-show will be booked against that program ID and institution, regardless of the alternative use of the telescope. The Observing Specialist will detail what happened in the night log, and no other report of the no-show incident needs to be made. The Director or designee will ensure that the institutional Scheduler is made aware of the no-show incident. This policy assumes the no-show has a program with a half night or more of telescope time. If the no-show is scheduled for a block of time less than 1 hour, there really isn't more than about 10-15 minutes that can be usefully spent looking for people. For these short programs, the Observing Specialist should try to contact the PI or observers for at most 10 minutes starting 15 minutes before the beginning of the scheduled block, then the PI or observer for the previous/next program should be contacted and invited to continue/start early. In this case, the no-show forfeits any time remaining once a substitute science program has begun setup and/or data acquisition. ********** NIC-FPS report ********** Jon Morse: The enhanced Rockwell 1RG detector is being purchased, weekly telecons with the APO site engineering staff have started to work the telescope/instrument interface issues, and a site visit to APO is planned by the instrument group for June 13 to discuss the mechanical interfaces face-to-face. One design issue that has surfaced is whether or not to include a cold fast shutter in the instrument. Given the options available for the 1RG reset-read functions, it is now felt that no shutter is needed for NIC-FPS--the detector can be made dark by plugs in the filter wheels or some other arrangement in the optical path, obviating the need for an expensive and technically challenging shutter. Astronomers who believe that a fast shutter on this instrument is essential should contact Jon Morse. ********** Enabling new ports for instruments ********** Ed Turner & Bruce Gillespie: A discussion ensued on whether or not it is a high priority to enable new instrument ports on the telescope, along the lines of the original design for the telescope. Having more than two instruments mounted on the telescope at the same time enables fast (~2 minute) instrument changes. But each new port needs to be fitted with a rotator and guider (for imaging instruments) at a cost of ~$100k per port. Since we can do manual instrument changes now in about 15 minutes, is it worth the cost of the rotators and guiders, and the cost of constraining the design of new instruments for use at side ports and Nasmyth? Although manual instrument changes cost us of order a week/year of observing time, the cost of enabling several ports is equivalent to a major share of a new instrument, or other important capital improvement projects. Jon Holtzman pointed out that having easy and fast access to several instruments can actually induce observing inefficiency, as there would be increased on-sky calibration requirements, and inexperienced users could be tempted to thrash or joystick the telescope and instruments without taking full advantage of better on-target exposure time by not unnecessarily changing instruments. The original operations concept for the 3.5-m was to not have an Observing Specialist at the telescope, so multiple ports would have been the only way to make remote instrument changes. Since we can change instruments relatively quickly manually, is there a compelling reason to enable one or more additional ports to enable even faster instrument changes, and at what cost? Although there was considerable discussion of this, it was decided after a suggestion by Mike Shull to prepare a "white paper" with cost-benefits tradeoffs on this topic. Ed and Bruce will see to this and get something floated to the community shortly--a decision is important in a timely way because NIC-FPS and the JHU NIR spectrograph need their designs frozen soon on an assumption of which mounting port(s) they will be used on. Jon Holtzman pointed out that what we really need is a capable visible imager mounted on a side port, possibly an upgraded SPIcam but in a compact and lightweight package. Readers of these minutes should forward any comments to Ed Turner, Bruce Gillespie, and Jon Holtzman. ********** New grism for GRIM2 ********** Alan Uomoto has recently proposed replacing the grism in GRIM, which is rarely used, with one that has lower resolution. If this were done for very little cost and minimal risk to the instrument, it would provide a limited but scientifically useful IR spectrographic at APO, one that could be implemented in the coming months and enable some new science. It would also be a prototype for some of the development elements of the new IR spectrograph, e.g., semi-automatic IR spectra data reduction. The group agreed that the concept has merit, and asked Alan to write up a more detailed proposal. ********** Forest Fire risks ********** The recent well-publicized Penasco fire near Cloudcroft is essentially over, and the risk of fires around APO continues to be extremely high. We expect this unusually dry season to last into July, when the summer monsoon rains usually begin. ********** Adler Planetarium program update ********** Ed and Bruce have discussed the status of the Adler public night program which has been running on the 3.5-m for several years during the fall through spring seasons. An hour of twilight time has been allocated on Fridays once a month to Adler to use for public demonstrations of remote observing and some science observations. It was determined that the actual start of the observing relative to sunset needs some tuning, and that the program would be more effective if it ran for 90 minutes, the 30 minutes of post-twilight time being booked to the Director's Discretionary time. This program is in principle extensible to other ARC institutions, and a recent "open-night" on the telescope arranged through the University of Washington was highly successful. More on this topic from future meetings. The last meetings' minutes were approved. The next meeting will be held at 11:30 AM EDT on June 10. --============_-1190558059==_ma============ Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" <!doctype html public "-//W3C//DTD W3 HTML//EN"> <html><head><style type="text/css"><!-- blockquote, dl, ul, ol, li { padding-top: 0 ; padding-bottom: 0 } --></style><title>APO 3.5m User's committee meeting, 05/13/02</title></head><body> <div><br></div> <div align="center">Apache Point Observatory 3.5m User's Committee Meeting</div> <div align="center">May 13, 2002</div> <div><br></div> <div>Attending: Bruce Gillespie, Ed Turner, Michael Strauss, Lew Hobbs, Jon Holtzman, Rene Walterbos, Jon Morse, Alan Uomoto, Bruce Balick, Mike Shull</div> <div><br></div> <div>Absent: Chris Stubbs</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">********** Status of the DIS upgrade: **********</div> <div><br></div> <div>Ed Turner: Through the influence of the good offices of Chris Stubbs, Marconi EEV was able to locate a Grade 0 (the best) replacement chip for the blue side of DIS. We expect this new chip to arrive this week and be installed next week with minimal, if any, impact to scheduled DIS observing. If the replacement detector is successfully installed, both sides of DIS will be operable by about the 24th of May, including the improved blue throughput from the blue dewar lens replacement with the proper AR coating. The damaged chip is at EEV for evaluation, and if it can be repaired, it will be returned and used as a spare.</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">********** JHU Near-IR spectrograph workshop: **********</div> <div><br></div> <div>Alan Uomoto: The new APO infrared spectrograph design will be presented in Baltimore on Tuesday, May 21, 2002, 10:30AM to 5:00PM at the Bloomberg Center for Physics and Astronomy on the JHU Homewood campus. The purpose is to confirm the technical and scientific goals of the project and to perform a preliminary design review. [Note: the latest information on this meeting with room number and earlier ending time was just posted to apo35-general by Alan Uomoto.]</div> <div><br> Reference information for the instrument is at:<br> </div> <div>http://annabel-lee.pha.jhu.edu/Irspec/RefBook/book1.html<br> </div> <div>ARC people are welcome (but JHU does not have travel funds for general ARC attendees). Please reply to Alan Uomoto <au@jhu.edu> if you plan to attend (including JHU people).</div> <div><br></div> <div>If you can't make it but have comments, send them to Alan soon, construction of the spectrograph will commence shortly after the review.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Jon Morse: What have been comments so far regarding resolution?</div> <div><br></div> <div>Alan Uomoto: R=4000 is the best that can be done with this instrument, although the baseline was for R=1000 for quasars, etc.</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">********** Loaned and Special filters policy **********</div> <div><br></div> <div>Ed Turner: ARC and other astronomers have "loaned" optical filters to APO over the years, and APO has accommodated the occasional use of special and non-standard sized filters for its instruments. Recent events have led to the following proposed policy and procedure regarding standard and special filters on loan to APO:</div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">Loaned and Special filters policy</div> <div><br></div> <div>Filters of the appropriate size may be brought/mailed to APO for use in SPIcam and DIS. Use of astronomer-furnished filters in the other instruments is discouraged. Notify APO staff (techstaff@apo.nmsu.edu) at least 2 weeks in advance if you intend to bring and use standard-size filters in SPIcam or DIS. We require that these filters be at APO at least two working days prior to their planned use. For filters with non-matching shapes or sizes, contact techstaff@apo.nmsu.edu at least one month in advance of their planned use for an evaluation of feasibility.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Unless there is a compelling reason made in writing to the Director, all loaned filters at APO will be made available to other telescope users without first securing the owner's permission. A list of the loaned filters will be kept on the APO website, with the owner's name and contact information. If an astronomer wishes to use one or more of these filters, it would be advisable to contact its owner to ensure that the filter(s) will be at APO when needed.</div> <div><br></div> <div>If a loaned filter is damaged or lost while at APO, the observatory will assume responsibility for its replacement. Filters will be fully insured by the owner when shipped to the site, and filters will be fully insured by APO when they are shipped back to the owner.</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">********** No-Show policy **********</div> <div><br></div> <div>Ed Turner, Bruce Gillespie: One of the problems with remote PI observing at APO is that occasionally the remote observer doesn't show up (in the virtual sense). This happens some 2 or 3 times a year, and a recent occurrence has prompted discussion of formalizing a policy and procedure for no-shows. In past instances of no-shows, we have made a frantic and concerted effort to find substitute science and/or engineering uses for the telescope. The purpose of the policy is to ensure that very little usable telescope time goes unused, following a set of relatively simple rules.</div> <div><br></div> <div>[Director's note: Although how an institution's 3.5-m time is used is to some extent the institution's responsibility, the Director and Observatory are charged by the ARC Board of Governors to make the most effective overall use of the facility. Remote observers are expected to contact the observatory at least a day in advance with setup requirements, and to log-on or call the observatory staff at least a half-hour before their scheduled observing time starts. This includes situations even where the weather *LOOKS* hopeless.] </div> <div><br></div> <div>A first draft of this policy was discussed by the Users Committee, and several points were made which have been incorporated below:</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">"No-Show" policy</div> <div><br></div> <div>If a scheduled remote observer does not log-in or notify APO by at least 15 minutes before the beginning of their scheduled observing time, he/she is defined as a "no-show" and the following procedure and policies will be invoked in an hierarchical manner:</div> <div><br></div> <div>The Observing Specialist will attempt to telephone the PI and/or designated remote observers using only the phone numbers given in the observing proposal. We will add an optional field in the observing proposals for home/contact phone numbers for the PI and observers. This allows us to avoid having to keep a rolodex of home phone numbers for the ever-changing cast of remote observers. We'll have to ensure that the home phone numbers are not accessible through our public web server, however.</div> <div><br></div> <div>If the remote observer fails to contact the site by 10 minutes after the scheduled starting time or is not reachable by phone, the following options are tried first:</div> <div><br></div> <div>1) if the no-show is on 2nd half, the time is offered to the first half observer</div> <div><br></div> <div>2) if the no-show is on 1st half, the time is offered to the 2nd half observer<br> </div> <div>If these options do not work, the Observing Specialist will attempt to reach the institutional Scheduler by phone only if the program is for the first half of the night. We will need to get the office and home numbers of the Schedulers. These will go in a private phone list kept in the control room. The Scheduler will be given the opportunity to designate another program to run on the telescope, with a different observer (if possible), or in service observing mode (if practical).</div> <div><br></div> <div>If none of these options works, the default is to initiate some specified backup science (service observing mode), engineering, training, and/or PR programs.</div> <div><br></div> <div>If the no-show observer "shows up" later during their scheduled time, they will be told by the Observing Specialist that they have forfeited their time to another science program (if one has been started). If other kinds of observing has been substituted (e.g., engineering), the now "late" observer will be given the option of using the remaining time for their science program.</div> <div><br></div> <div>All of the scheduled time for a no-show will be booked against that program ID and institution, regardless of the alternative use of the telescope. The Observing Specialist will detail what happened in the night log, and no other report of the no-show incident needs to be made. The Director or designee will ensure that the institutional Scheduler is made aware of the no-show incident.</div> <div><br></div> <div>This policy assumes the no-show has a program with a half night or more of telescope time. If the no-show is scheduled for a block of time less than 1 hour, there really isn't more than about 10-15 minutes that can be usefully spent looking for people. For these short programs, the Observing Specialist should try to contact the PI or observers for at most 10 minutes starting 15 minutes before the beginning of the scheduled block, then the PI or observer for the previous/next program should be contacted and invited to continue/start early. In this case, the no-show forfeits any time remaining once a substitute science program has begun setup and/or data acquisition.</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">********** NIC-FPS report **********</div> <div><br></div> <div>Jon Morse: The enhanced Rockwell 1RG detector is being purchased, weekly telecons with the APO site engineering staff have started to work the telescope/instrument interface issues, and a site visit to APO is planned by the instrument group for June 13 to discuss the mechanical interfaces face-to-face. One design issue that has surfaced is whether or not to include a cold fast shutter in the instrument. Given the options available for the 1RG reset-read functions, it is now felt that no shutter is needed for NIC-FPS--the detector can be made dark by plugs in the filter wheels or some other arrangement in the optical path, obviating the need for an expensive and technically challenging shutter. Astronomers who believe that a fast shutter on this instrument is essential should contact Jon Morse.</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">********** Enabling new ports for instruments **********</div> <div><br></div> <div>Ed Turner & Bruce Gillespie: A discussion ensued on whether or not it is a high priority to enable new instrument ports on the telescope, along the lines of the original design for the telescope. Having more than two instruments mounted on the telescope at the same time enables fast (~2 minute) instrument changes. But each new port needs to be fitted with a rotator and guider (for imaging instruments) at a cost of ~$100k per port. Since we can do manual instrument changes now in about 15 minutes, is it worth the cost of the rotators and guiders, and the cost of constraining the design of new instruments for use at side ports and Nasmyth? Although manual instrument changes cost us of order a week/year of observing time, the cost of enabling several ports is equivalent to a major share of a new instrument, or other important capital improvement projects. Jon Holtzman pointed out that having easy and fast access to several instruments can actually induce observing inefficiency, as there would be increased on-sky calibration requirements, and inexperienced users could be tempted to thrash or joystick the telescope and instruments without taking full advantage of better on-target exposure time by not unnecessarily changing instruments. The original operations concept for the 3.5-m was to not have an Observing Specialist at the telescope, so multiple ports would have been the only way to make remote instrument changes. Since we can change instruments relatively quickly manually, is there a compelling reason to enable one or more additional ports to enable even faster instrument changes, and at what cost?</div> <div><br></div> <div>Although there was considerable discussion of this, it was decided after a suggestion by Mike Shull to prepare a "white paper" with cost-benefits tradeoffs on this topic. Ed and Bruce will see to this and get something floated to the community shortly--a decision is important in a timely way because NIC-FPS and the JHU NIR spectrograph need their designs frozen soon on an assumption of which mounting port(s) they will be used on. Jon Holtzman pointed out that what we really need is a capable visible imager mounted on a side port, possibly an upgraded SPIcam but in a compact and lightweight package.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Readers of these minutes should forward any comments to Ed Turner, Bruce Gillespie, and Jon Holtzman.</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">********** New grism for GRIM2 **********</div> <div><br></div> <div>Alan Uomoto has recently proposed replacing the grism in GRIM, which is rarely used, with one that has lower resolution. If this were done for very little cost and minimal risk to the instrument, it would provide a limited but scientifically useful IR spectrographic at APO, one that could be implemented in the coming months and enable some new science. It would also be a prototype for some of the development elements of the new IR spectrograph, e.g., semi-automatic IR spectra data reduction. The group agreed that the concept has merit, and asked Alan to write up a more detailed proposal.</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">********** Forest Fire risks **********</div> <div><br></div> <div>The recent well-publicized Penasco fire near Cloudcroft is essentially over, and the risk of fires around APO continues to be extremely high. We expect this unusually dry season to last into July, when the summer monsoon rains usually begin.</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div align="center">********** Adler Planetarium program update **********</div> <div><br></div> <div>Ed and Bruce have discussed the status of the Adler public night program which has been running on the 3.5-m for several years during the fall through spring seasons. An hour of twilight time has been allocated on Fridays once a month to Adler to use for public demonstrations of remote observing and some science observations. It was determined that the actual start of the observing relative to sunset needs some tuning, and that the program would be more effective if it ran for 90 minutes, the 30 minutes of post-twilight time being booked to the Director's Discretionary time. This program is in principle extensible to other ARC institutions, and a recent "open-night" on the telescope arranged through the University of Washington was highly successful. More on this topic from future meetings.</div> <div><br></div> <div> The last meetings' minutes were approved.</div> <div><br></div> <div> The next meeting will be held at 11:30 AM EDT on June 10.</div> <div><br></div> </body> </html> --============_-1190558059==_ma============-- APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 579 in the apo35-general archive. 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