--============_-1140621913==_ma============ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 12/8/03 Attending: Ed Turner, Michael Strauss, Bruce Gillespie, John Bally, Rene Walterbos, Al Harper, Jon Holtzman, Russet McMillan, Don York, Jim Green Absent: Karl Glazebrook, Bruce Balick Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie ********************************** 2003 ARC Board of Governors meeting. Highlights included: Increased down-time in 2003, partly due to aging systems High turnover of off-site 3.5-m principals, and many new faces in ARC Good progress in 2003 projects and user support documentation Utilization of instruments changing, partly due to more programs specifying multiple instruments More certainty in CIF plans for 2004, half of 2003 CIF money unspent (on purpose) and to be carried forward 3.5-m site and CIF budgets approved as proposed Priority to be given to keeping general-purpose observatory profile Forecasts and discussion of "Post-SDSS" operations scenarios 3.5-m connections to SDSS extension proposal discussed, mainly for supernovae searches New Director search, optimism for completion by spring 2004 Futures Committee, charge to be more oriented to scientific directions Copies of the 3.5-m Annual Report have been sent to all the Users Committee members. ********************************** CIF Plans for 2004. The proposed items for 2004 CIF are: Finish telescope baffling at Nasmyth port Finish and release new remote observing s/w Build/buy spare parts for telescope drives Re-design/build new telescope drives Finish design of new mirror supports, actuators, safety systems NIC-FPS support (manpower, some funding) Near-IR spectrograph project (select source, funding) SPIcam upgrade design (define project, form team) Echelle throughput (AR-coated optics) There is certainly not enough manpower nor funds to complete all of these projects in 2004. The Near-IR spectrograph remains a high priority project, but the priorities of the other items will be determined in the coming few weeks. If any members of the Users Committee or other telescope users have pro or con opinions about any of the listed projects, they should communicate these to Ed Turner as quickly as possible. There will not be a "community meeting" at the AAS next month. ********************************** Secondary/Tertiary actuator problems. The 3.5-m is back to scheduled science, after losing about five nights to problems with the actuators of the 2ndary mirror, remedied by an heroic effort on the part of the APO site engineering staff. First seen under cold (but not the coldest) conditions, the three 2ndary mirror actuators were sticking/stalling. After disassembly, problems were discovered in one harmonic drive, three actuators, and the linear bearing that supports the mirror in the middle of its back. Although we're not certain, it's likely that the root cause of the problems were caused by contamination in the linear bearing (dust, paint chips, etc.) which may have caused the bearing to have more resistance in cold weather. The three motion actuators are "designed" to break if they meet resistance, and this is what appears to have happened. The broken parts were replaced, one harmonic drive was adjusted, and the linear bearing was cleaned and relubed (low-temp grease). To keep the linear bearing clean, a flexible bellows boot was installed. ********************************** Instrument News. NIC-FPS report: Jim Green reported that a Leach controller for the detector has been procured, given that Rockwell still has yet to deliver theirs. With Ball Aerospace help, they are just beginning to test and characterize the engineering-grade chip, and then will do the science grade chip after the holidays. The controller for the Fabry-Perot etalon has been ordered, and the mechanical stability tests of the dewar and mounts look great. Cryo tests are scheduled next, and the camera delivery to APO looks to be on track for Jul/Aug 04. The Rockwell data on the science-grade detector looks impressive, and Jim Green said that he will see to it that the NIC-FPS web page gets updated as the project evolves. GRIM2 report: Al Harper reported that Dale Sandford will come to APO the week of Dec. 15 to look into the missing-quadrant problem. There will be adequate site staff around to help Dale, and maybe learn some tricks. JHU IR Spectrograph report: Ed Turner reported that a near-IR spectrograph remains one of, if not the, highest priority new capital project for the telescope. JHU has offered to build one to Alan Uomoto's design, with Paul Feldman as PI and Steve Smee as the chief engineer. We have also been informally told that CU would be interested in building one, after NIC-FPS is finished. And third, Mike Skrutskie at UVirginia is planning to build as many as three near-IR spectrographs, one not as yet committed to any telescope, so a possible partnership there is also conceivable. One of the early tasks for 2004 CIF planning will be to decide which route to take and how to finance the building of a medium-resolution near-IR spectrograph for the 3.5-m. ********************************** Director's Search. Rene said that he hopes to see the selection process concluded by this coming spring. ********************************** Last month's minutes were approved without comment. Next meeting Monday, January 12, 2004, at 11:30 AM Eastern Time --============_-1140621913==_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 3.5-m Users Cmte minutes 12/8/03</title></head><body> <div align="center"><b>APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 12/8/03</b></div> <div><br></div> <div>Attending: Ed Turner, Michael Strauss, Bruce Gillespie, John Bally, Rene Walterbos, Al Harper, Jon Holtzman, Russet McMillan, Don York, Jim Green</div> <div><br></div> <div>Absent: Karl Glazebrook, Bruce Balick</div> <div><br></div> <div>Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie</div> <div><br></div> <div><br></div> <div>**********************************</div> <div><b><br></b></div> <div><b>2003 ARC Board of Governors meeting</b>. Highlights included:</div> <div><br></div> <ul> <li>Increased down-time in 2003, partly due to aging systems <li>High turnover of off-site 3.5-m principals, and many new faces in ARC <li>Good progress in 2003 projects and user support documentation <li>Utilization of instruments changing, partly due to more programs specifying multiple instruments <li>More certainty in CIF plans for 2004, half of 2003 CIF money unspent (on purpose) and to be carried forward <li>3.5-m site and CIF budgets approved as proposed <li>Priority to be given to keeping general-purpose observatory profile <li>Forecasts and discussion of "Post-SDSS" operations scenarios <li>3.5-m connections to SDSS extension proposal discussed, mainly for supernovae searches <li>New Director search, optimism for completion by spring 2004 <li>Futures Committee, charge to be more oriented to scientific directions</ul> <div><br></div> <div>Copies of the 3.5-m Annual Report have been sent to all the Users Committee members.</div> <div><br></div> <div>**********************************</div> <div><b><br></b></div> <div><b>CIF Plans for 2004</b>. The proposed items for 2004 CIF are:</div> <div><br></div> <ul> <li>Finish telescope baffling at Nasmyth port <li>Finish and release new remote observing s/w <li>Build/buy spare parts for telescope drives <li>Re-design/build new telescope drives <li>Finish design of new mirror supports, actuators, safety systems <li>NIC-FPS support (manpower, some funding) <li>Near-IR spectrograph project (select source, funding) <li>SPIcam upgrade design (define project, form team) <li>Echelle throughput (AR-coated optics)</ul> <div><br></div> <div>There is certainly not enough manpower nor funds to complete all of these projects in 2004. The Near-IR spectrograph remains a high priority project, but the priorities of the other items will be determined in the coming few weeks. If any members of the Users Committee or other telescope users have pro or con opinions about any of the listed projects, they should communicate these to Ed Turner as quickly as possible. There will not be a "community meeting" at the AAS next month.</div> <div><br></div> <div>**********************************</div> <div><b><br></b></div> <div><b>Secondary/Tertiary actuator problems</b>. The 3.5-m is back to scheduled science, after losing about five nights to problems with the actuators of the 2ndary mirror, remedied by an heroic effort on the part of the APO site engineering staff. First seen under cold (but not the coldest) conditions, the three 2ndary mirror actuators were sticking/stalling. After disassembly, problems were discovered in one harmonic drive, three actuators, and the linear bearing that supports the mirror in the middle of its back. Although we're not certain, it's likely that the root cause of the problems were caused by contamination in the linear bearing (dust, paint chips, etc.) which may have caused the bearing to have more resistance in cold weather. The three motion actuators are "designed" to break if they meet resistance, and this is what appears to have happened. The broken parts were replaced, one harmonic drive was adjusted, and the linear bearing was cleaned and relubed (low-temp grease). To keep the linear bearing clean, a flexible bellows boot was installed.</div> <div><br></div> <div>**********************************</div> <div><b><br></b></div> <div><b>Instrument News</b>.</div> <div> </div> <div>NIC-FPS report: Jim Green reported that a Leach controller for the detector has been procured, given that Rockwell still has yet to deliver theirs. With Ball Aerospace help, they are just beginning to test and characterize the engineering-grade chip, and then will do the science grade chip after the holidays. The controller for the Fabry-Perot etalon has been ordered, and the mechanical stability tests of the dewar and mounts look great. Cryo tests are scheduled next, and the camera delivery to APO looks to be on track for Jul/Aug 04. The Rockwell data on the science-grade detector looks impressive, and Jim Green said that he will see to it that the NIC-FPS web page gets updated as the project evolves.</div> <div><br></div> <div>GRIM2 report: Al Harper reported that Dale Sandford will come to APO the week of Dec. 15 to look into the missing-quadrant problem. There will be adequate site staff around to help Dale, and maybe learn some tricks.</div> <div><br></div> <div>JHU IR Spectrograph report: Ed Turner reported that a near-IR spectrograph remains one of, if not the, highest priority new capital project for the telescope. JHU has offered to build one to Alan Uomoto's design, with Paul Feldman as PI and Steve Smee as the chief engineer. We have also been informally told that CU would be interested in building one, after NIC-FPS is finished. And third, Mike Skrutskie at UVirginia is planning to build as many as three near-IR spectrographs, one not as yet committed to any telescope, so a possible partnership there is also conceivable. One of the early tasks for 2004 CIF planning will be to decide which route to take and how to finance the building of a medium-resolution near-IR spectrograph for the 3.5-m.</div> <div><br></div> <div>**********************************</div> <div><b><br></b></div> <div><b>Director's Search</b>. Rene said that he hopes to see the selection process concluded by this coming spring.</div> <div><br></div> <div>**********************************</div> <div><br></div> <div>Last month's minutes were approved without comment.</div> <div><br></div> <div>Next meeting Monday, January 12, 2004, at 11:30 AM Eastern Time</div> <div><br></div> <div> </div> </body> </html> --============_-1140621913==_ma============-- APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 729 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