Due to the largely successful ongoing commissioning, and early experience during the January block-scheduled run, it appears that NIC-FPS usage is now robust enough that we can make it available for use outside of the block scheduling during February and March. This allows time trades with users outside of the block, and also use as an alternate instrument. NIC-FPS may also be used for GRB target-of-opportunity observing during these two months, subject to a GRB observing plan being approved (see January users committee minutes, apo35-general message 888, for more information on this). For regularly scheduled observing, please let the APO staff know at least two days ahead of time (via the normal automated setup message) if you plan to use NIC-FPS instead of the instrument shown on the schedule. Also note that the observing specialists are still learning the instrument themselves, so they may not be able to answer as full a range of questions about the instrument and observing strategy as they usually can with the other facility instruments. Potential observers are strongly encouraged to look at the information on the APO website, and to contact Fred Hearty and/or John Barentine well before their runs with additional questions. Note that NIC-FPS usage is still considered shared-risk for all of Q1, and observers may need to be pre-empted for engineering and commissioning tasks as described in the Q1 2005 proposal procedure. See messages 850 and 851 in the apo-35 general mail archive for more information. Suzanne Hawley APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 890 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