Subject: APO 3.5-m Users Committee minutes 4/19/04
From: Bruce Gillespie
Submitted: Fri, 23 Apr 2004 10:14:36 -0600
Message number: 774
(previous: 773,
next: 775
up: Index)
APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 4/19/04
Attending: Ed Turner, Michael Strauss, Bruce Gillespie, John Bally,
Fred Hearty, Cynthia Froning, Russet McMillan, Rene Walterbos, Jon
Holtzman
Absent: Don York, Bruce Balick, Karl Glazebrook, Al Harper
Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie
**********************************
Summer shutdown plans:
Bruce Gillespie reported the planned dates and work list for the '04
summer shutdown. The planned start/finish dates are 28 June through 13
August. Work is planned for DIS and its slit viewer, realuminization
of the 2ndary, tertiary mirror wiring improvements, primary mirror
washing, and vacuum pumping of DIS and SPIcam. Also planned for late
in the shutdown is the delivery of NIC-FPS to APO--Fred Hearty needs to
contact Mark Klaene to coordinate the delivery and integration. The
length of the shutdown is about what we usually take, but the work
scope is a little lighter than in past years, in part because we have
uncertain levels of manpower for the shutdown and that we want to avoid
"hero mode" for the work. There is a possibility that the shutdown
could end early, and what to do with the leftover time was discussed.
The most popular options seemed to be to schedule low-priority
provisional programs in the last week or so of the shutdown that could
be cancelled if needed, or to give any contingency time to NIC-FPS for
commissioning tests, if it were ready for on-sky use. Ed will decide
how to allocate this provisional time when he makes the call for the
next quarter proposals in early May.
**********************************
NIC-FPS report:
Fred Hearty and Cynthia Froning (NIC-FPS Program Manager) reported that
the NIC-FPS mechanical systems are undergoing integration and testing,
which is going well. The filter wheel assemblies and etalon mover are
the main focus at the moment, and the cables (and spare cables) are
being assembled. It is expected that the "bench" will be fully
integrated in about a month, and that the detector will be joined to it
shortly thereafter. Detector testing has been plagued by configuration
problems, but they have recently taken an image with it in the lab.
Delivery of NIC-FPS to APO is planned for 1 August.
**********************************
DIS Blue noise gone?:
Jon Holtzman said that through some recommendations and tests by
various people, it appears that the low-level pattern noise in DIS Blue
has been reduced about a factor of 10, making it virtually nonexistent.
The key fix was in replacing the clock cable to the blue dewar. Jon
said that this episode shows we have at least two bigger problems: Why
did it take so long for us to discover that the blue camera had this
noise--users of DIS should have noticed this months ago and alerted the
observatory staff. Users need to be reminded that they have an
obligation and duty to report anomalies they detect with the
observatory systems. Also, Jon suggests that some kind of monitoring
and trending program needs to be instituted to watch for these kinds of
telescope and instrument performance degradations. The second problem
is that the 3.5-m telescope is seriously shorthanded in expertise on
instrumentation and electronics, owing to the recent departures of
several key people at various 3.5-m consortium institutions. Bruce
Gillespie made the point that the 3.5-m consortium institutions should
consider this to be an "opportunity" for an in-house person (or
persons) to get involved with electronics and instrumentation projects
at APO.
**********************************
Integral Field Spectrograph report:
John Bally reported that he is revising the instrument concept to
accommodate a larger lenslet scale, and that this requirement is
driving some interesting, albeit challenging, design changes. He plans
to update the white paper that describes the instrument in the next few
weeks. No feedback has been received from the CFHT on their potential
interest in such an instrument.
**********************************
New Instrument Call for Proposals:
Ed is preparing a CP for a new ARC instrument for the 3.5-m, which will
have provisions for significant CIF funding support, plus an allowance
of Director's Discretionary time for commissioning and science
programs. The proposals would be due this summer, with a late summer
decision likely. The issuance of the CP has been delayed, but will
probably be launched within the next few weeks.
**********************************
CorMASS is coming, last call:
Bruce Gillespie again reminded the user community that the low-res NIR
spectrograph CorMASS has arrived at APO, with commissioning runs
scheduled for 3 - 7 May. If users are interested in any tests or
science commissioning experiments during this run, they should contact
Bruce Gillespie (gillespi@apo.nmsu.edu). More information on the
capabilities of CorMass will be posted shortly to apo35general.
**********************************
CIF projects:
Bruce Gillespie reported that the design of the NA2 light baffle is
done, and that fabrication is beginning at the Sunspot shop.
Completion of the baffle is likely to take several months, and probably
won't be installed in the telescope until after the summer shutdown.
Design work for the new "top-end" continues, with a set of M2
requirements being posted by Jon Davis for review.
**********************************
Split-nights discussion:
The group discussed ways of mitigating the problem caused by having a
short program scheduled at the beginning of a half-night, thus taking
away the twilight calibration time, and in summer, leaving the residual
half night program without much time to do useful observing. Various
policies were discussed which had a variety of pros and cons, and no
real consensus was reached. One idea offered was to limit each night,
maybe only in the summer months, to a maximum of two programs per
night, however long the programs are. If there were a short program at
the beginning or end of the night, the other program gets the entire
remainder of the night. This ensures that every program gets twilight
for calibrations, but adds yet another scheduling constraint that will
complicate scheduling. Ed will ponder the problem some more, and
invites others to send him opinions and ideas.
**********************************
10Mb/sec Internet coming to APO?:
Bruce Gillespie reported that we have been given US Forest Service
permission to have a high-speed microwave internet system installed at
APO, which if it works, would give us a tenfold increase in bandwidth
at the site. It may take a few months to get the contract and hardware
in place, and then there will be an evaluation period before we cut the
cord to our current T1 service.
**********************************
10th anniversary celebration:
There was a brief discussion of the 10th anniversary celebration, and
the turnout and contributed science talks are looking to be fairly
substantial. The deadline for making reservations is this week, but if
people discover later that they can come, we will find a way to fit you
in and get you accommodations.
**********************************
Last month's minutes were approved without comment.
Next phonecon will be on Monday, May 10, 2004, at 11:30 AM Eastern Time
APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO
APO
APO This is message 774 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