Subject: APO 3.5-m Users Committee minutes 8/9/04
From: Bruce Gillespie
Submitted: Wed, 11 Aug 2004 13:37:26 -0600
Message number: 824
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APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 8/9/04
Attending: Ed Turner, Jon Holtzman, Michael Strauss, Russet McMillan,
Karl Glazebrook, Rene Walterbos, Don York, Bruce Balick, Bruce
Gillespie, Suzanne Hawley, John Barentine
Absent: Al Harper, Jim Green, John Bally
Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie
**********************************
Engineering shutdown status (including the extension):
Bruce G reported that nearly all of the shutdown tasks have been
completed or are in a state of good progress. All the instruments have
had their annual service except for GRIM2 and the Echelle, which has
been pumped but the detector will not be cooled until next week. GRIM2
servicing will be done next week. The damaged mirror covers have been
repaired, and the telescope reassembly has begun. This week, we are
working on the air cooling hose for the new NA2 guider, which required
using a bigger diameter plenum than earlier planned, so some mechanical
modifications are being made. All in all, it looks like we may be
ready for science as predicted on 26 August unless an unexpected
show-stopper pops up. Jon Holtzman asked if we were doing additional
things during the shutdown since there is more time than originally
scheduled, such as TUI work. The answer is no, for the most part.
Russell has been working on TUI, but Craig has been heavily involved in
the software for the new NA2 guider. Also, with a more limited labor
pool than in previous years, we are barely able to accomplish the
routine annual housekeeping jobs during this shutdown, especially since
some of the staff is shared with SDSS which has been in its own
engineering shutdown for the past month. Unless more manpower can be
found and applied to our future shutdowns, making any significant
improvements to the telescope will continue to be problematic. Don
York asked about the new NA2 guider, and in the following discussion is
was agreed that we should consider sparing the new camera and making
sure that our other guider cameras had ready spares, e.g., for the
Echelle guider.
**********************************
NICFPS status and plans:
Jon Barentine has been seconded to the NIC-FPS instrument team for the
past few weeks to help with final assembly and lab tests. He reported
that the instrument is getting close to being finished, and he expects
an initial delivery to APO and late September.
According to John, the optics have been integrated and cold-cycled, as
have all the mechanical components. They have had "First Lab Light"
and the pinhole image on the detector is 3 pixels fwhm, or smaller--the
shape of the image is OK. The mechanical cold tests all worked fine,
but they haven't yet tested the IR etalon itself because they are
waiting for parts. All the optical filters are on hand, and will be
cold tested shortly. After the initial fit tests on the telescope in
September, it is planned to take the instrument back to Boulder for
some rework, if necessary. Then the instrument would return to APO in
October for full commissioning tests, which are expected to take up to
10 nights. The ARC user community will be soon asked to propose
science commissioning observations; the NIC-FPS team will make explicit
what level of involvement in data collection and reduction will be
provided for these tests. Ed Turner mentioned that having John
Barentine working with the NIC-FPS instrument team has proven to be
invaluable, and is a lesson we should remember for future projects. He
also said that the allocation for telescope time during Q4 assumes that
10 nights will be devoted to NIC-FPS commissioning.
**********************************
UVa/triplespec situation:
Suzanne Hawley started the discussion by recapping the history and
current status of our involvement and discussions with the University
of Virginia. John Wilson and Mike Skrutskie brought their CorMASS
instrument to APO in April, and had a very successful observing run in
early May on targets mostly proposed by ARC scientists. This led to
informal discussions between several UVa astronomers and Ed, Suzanne,
and Bruce G about the possibilities of keeping CorMASS at APO, ARC's
possible interest in having UVa build us a medium-resolution IR
spectrometer (called Triplespec, with R~3000, which UVa has plans to
build up to three instruments for other telescopes), and whether there
was a mutual interest in exploring how UVa and ARC could collaborate in
general.
Ed, Suzanne, and Bruce G plan a visit to UVa in late August to further
discuss these possibilities with their faculty and staff. Ed mentioned
several potential benefits of a collaborative arrangement: we get a
very desirable instrument, we develop a liaison with a strong telescope
and instrumentation group, and potentially could get much-needed
engineering support for the telescope. What we need soon is for the
Users Committee members to poll their users to see what level of
support they have for Triplespec and possible affiliation between ARC
and UVa. The committee was largely supportive of the idea and
encouraged pursuing further discussions with UVa. It was also
mentioned that the ARC BoG is also discussing/considering possible
arrangements with UVa. Don York pointed out that the data reduction
software for Triplespec data would likely be very difficult to write
and use, and that we should make sure this is part of any arrangement
to have UVa build Triplespec for us.
**********************************
Sloan SN follow-up project in 4Q2004
Ed and Don said that a proposal would be submitted to the UChicago TAC
for Q4 to test the proposed SDSS Supernovae extension project. During
dark and grey time, the 2.5-m will find supernovae and the 3.5-m will
make followup observations of their light curves at a cadence of every
2 to 3 nights. The 3.5-m would be scheduled for these observations in
advance, on the assumption that the supernovae will be readily found.
If approved, this test program will create a new scheduling constraint
for Ed, making it difficult if not impossible to schedule other dark or
grey runs than need several consecutive nights on the telescope. On
the other hand, if the tests are successful it will demonstrate the
synergistic power of the 2.5-m/3.5-m working in tandem on a very
important area of astrophysical research, lending support to the
current SDSS extension projects proposal which is under review by the
NSF.
**********************************
Last month's minutes were approved without comment.
Next phonecon will be on Monday, Sept. 13, 2004, at 11:30 AM Eastern
Time
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