Subject: 3.5-m Users Committee minutes 4/04/06
From: Bruce Gillespie
Submitted: Thu, 13 Apr 2006 10:43:13 -0600
Message number: 959
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APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 4/04/06
Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Bruce Gillespie, Jon Holtzman, Remy
Indebetouw, Michael Strauss, John Wilson, John Bally, Al Harper
Absent: Don York, Karl Glazebrook, Bruce Balick
Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie
**********************************
User feedback, comments from Institutional representatives:
Princeton (Michael Strauss): Everything is fine, but one concern
noted. Princeton users seem to have lost the ability to transfer
data via anonymous ftp. Do we have to use TUI? Some discussion led
to the conclusion that this needs looking into.
ACTION: BruceG to discuss this with Fritz Stauffer.
Colorado (John Bally): No comments, things are running well.
NMSU (John Holtzman): Nothing to report.
Johns Hopkins: No report.
Chicago: No report.
UWashington (Suzanne Hawley): Things are going smoothly.
Univ. of Virginia (Remy Indebetouw): Although UVa has relatively
small number of users, they are impressed so far.
**********************************
Discussion of telescope/instruments report:
BruceG summarized highlights from the report (see below). There was
no substantive discussion.
*************************
3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights,
2/22/06 through 3/29/06
Bruce Gillespie
0) Overview
Highlights include a welcome return of some precipitation at the
site, a mostly well-behaved telescope, two problematic instruments,
good progress on the new top-end project, and a spate of site
infrastructure problems.
1) Telescope
The 3.5-m telescope was largely well behaved during the past month.
The only notable problem was an occurrence of an overcurrent shutdown
of the alt drive during observing. Subsequent tests showed no
problem with the system, and the thinking is that the drive was
overcurrented by wind loading, which was near the closure limit at
the time.
In addition, the TCC program was updated.
2) The performance of the instruments was generally good, and
noteworthy are:
o DIS: The blue dewar developed a problem with its ion pump,
and at the same time the scattered light in the spectrum was noticed
to have returned. The ion pump was replaced and the dewar was warmed
during repumping. The new ion pump seems to working fine, and the
blue scattered light appears to be better. We'll continue to monitor
this.
o NIC-FPS: The ion pump in NIC-FPS also failed (by some
contagion from DIS?). The CU team quickly came to the site and
repaired the pump and reinstalled it. The repair seemed to work for
a while, but the problem returned so the CU team came back and
replaced the pump with a spare unit loaned to us from SDSS. The new
pump is working well at this time, and the instrument has been back
in service for a couple of weeks with no problems.
3) Engineering and CIF projects
Design and fabrication work continued on the new top end, and a
quarterly management review was conducted that indicated that the
project is fairly well on track. Maintenance and enhancement of TUI
and other software systems continued. The DIS upgrade project
(gratings, optics, new detector) is continuing; parts are being
ordered and components are being machined. The new red detector has
still not been delivered from e2v.
4) Miscellaneous
We have arranged for Eric Sandberg to be at APO on loan from Yerkes
to provide electronic engineering project support to the site for a
few months. We have also begun the recruitment of a telescope
systems engineer to replace Jon Davis, who is leaving APO in July.
Due to the extended drought, the surrounding forest is in imminent
danger of a forest fire. In order to better protect our facilities
from damage from a fire, we are implementing several fire-protection
improvements to the site: the removal of 28 trees in sensitive areas
around buildings, reacquisition of a loaned fire engine from the
Sunspot Fire Dept., metal exterior shutters are being installed on
building windows, and an exterior water sprinkler system was
purchased to be installed along the ridgeline between the 3.5-m and
2.5-m telescopes. The fact that we're taking these preventive
measures may explain the recent return of rain and snow at the site.
We were also busy repairing various broken parts of the site's
infrastructure. A serious underground water leak developed in the
pipes between the operations building and the dorms, which was found
and repaired. The new hot-water boiler failed and had to be replaced
under warranty. The air-conditioning unit for the computer room
failed, and was replaced.
**********************************
Time-domain observing - Hawley:
The discussion was mainly in the context of preplanned and unplanned
Target-of-Opportunity science programs. Suzanne pointed out that for
predictable ToOs, users can and should propose these through their
institutional TACs. If an unpredictable ToO occurs, unless time is
extremely critical and the science compelling, the request to Suzanne
for a ToO preempt or swap should be cleared first through the user's
institutional scheduler. If a preempt or swap can be accommodated
involving astronomers within an institution or institutions that are
partnering time, that can be managed internally. Otherwise, the
scheduler should forward a proposal using the normal APO cover page
so that the program can be assigned an Institutional ID Number and
entered into the night logs appropriately. Such proposals should
clearly state the start and end dates of the ToO observations and the
cadence required (together with scientific justification).
Additional required information includes the observational setup and,
if the Observing Specialists are to be involved in the observations,
a detailed account of the observing sequence (calibrations, etc.)
We have seen an upswing in the number of ToO requests, and at the
level of a few observations per quarter these can be accommodated
without too much strain on the scheduling process. If there is a
further increase in demand for ToO programs, we may need to devise a
multi-path process to get these on the telescope in a manner that is
accountable and orderly. There are questions about levels of
protection to users against being preempted, and the direct
involvement in the observing by the Observing Specialists. Although
everyone agrees that rapid-response rescheduling is a strong suit of
our telescope, increasing the amount of ToO observing could be a
slippery slope leading to a queue/service mode observing model for
the telescope, instead of the largely hands-on remote observing
template that we've developed over the years. This would have large
operational impact (i.e., labor and management costs).
John Bally mentioned that Guy Stringfellow appreciates the recent
support he has received in getting RS Oph ToO observations in
twilight. Suzanne said that she has yet not reached a conclusion in
general--she sees the potential value of ToO science, which could be
promoted for our telescope, but there would be complicated costs and
other impacts if we were to significantly enlarge the fraction of
observing time dedicated to ToOs.
ACTION: UC members should poll their constituents about ToO
observations on the telescope. Do they envision doing this type of
science? Would expanding ToO opportunities be useful to them? How do
they feel about being asked to voluntarily give up time, and to
having their time pre-empted (perhaps with later payback)?
Jon Holtzman said that he thought users generally wouldn't complain
of being preempted if it were voluntary, unless ToOs were occurring
frequently. John Bally said that the case of a twilight ToO should
be treated differently than one that happens during the night.
In conclusion, it was decided that once the community feedback is
obtained by the users committee members, we will develop a policy
which will be discussed with the users committee and then
disseminated to the community.
**********************************
Student training, remote-observing orientation policies - Hawley,
Gillespie:
As as introduction to new committee members and users, and a reminder
to the old-timers, BruceG and Suzanne reiterated the long-standing
(and before now, unwritten) policies regarding a) student training
and b) remote-observing orientation (aka "training", mistakenly).
These are two separate and independent guidelines:
*********
Student Training - APO staff will generally not train student users
how to use the 3.5-m telescope and instruments. Teaching a student
how to observe and conduct research is the purview of that student's
university. Arrangements for this instruction is the responsibility
of the student's department, e.g., by, or arranged for by, his/her
faculty advisor. As part of this instruction, a 3-day visit to the
Observatory, accompanied by the faculty advisor or other designated
experienced observer, will count as the remote-observing orientation
(see next item).
*********
Remote-observing orientation - Before a new Ph.D.-level user can use
the 3.5-m telescope remotely, he or she must spend three nights in
person at the telescope. There are no other conditions, because the
principal goal of the three-night orientation is for the new user to
develop a first-hand mental picture of the physical hardware and
operational procedures at the site. The orientation period does not
have to be during telescope time scheduled for the new user, nor does
it matter if the telescope is closed for weather. Once the three
nights have been spent at APO, the new user can use the telescope
remotely. This orientation does not need to be periodically
refreshed, but APO will gladly host refresher sessions for out-of-
practice users on request.
The APO staff will assist the new user during orientation to learn
the operating procedures. There is a checklist of items that we feel
are important for new users to be familiar with, which is given to
the new user on arrival. But the only hard requirement is that the
new user be physically present at the site for three nights. The
rationale for this guideline is the belief that remote observing can
only be safe and effective if the remote user has an in-person
appreciation of the facilities and procedures at the other end of
their remote connection while observing.
*********
As with policies and guidelines in general, exceptions will be
considered for good reasons, if brought to the attention of Suzanne
in advance.
ACTION: BruceG will ensure that the orientation checklist is up to
date and available on-line, so that prospective new users can review
it prior to their orientation site visit.
**********************************
Triplespec white paper closure - Hawley:
There were a few comments to the document that are being addressed,
and no substantive objections. Therefore, Suzanne will forward the
document to Mike Evans and Ed Turner with the recommendation to the
ARC Board of Governors that the document be accepted.
**********************************
Data and s/w backup on RAID drive - Gillespie:
In the spirit of protecting the site from forest fires or other
disasters, Fritz Stauffer has suggested that we buy a RAID (Redundant
Array of Independent Disks) system that mirrors the telescope
software and engineering data, and have the RAID housed away from APO
as a backup. Jon Holtzman said that this would be straightforward to
do at the NMSU campus, and we'll talk about the details separately.
ACTION: Jon Holtzman to talk to Fritz and BruceG about installing a
RAID backup at NMSU.
**********************************
Actions from previous meetings:
ACTION: BruceG will write a paragraph about the importance of having
back-up programs, to be added to the e-mail automated message we send
observers prior to their runs. STATUS: Completed.
ACTION: The Users Committee members will need to help disseminate
the [Futures Committee] draft report to their users. STATUS: Report
not yet available.
ACTION: BruceG will ask Russell what the pros and cons are of
keeping TUI compatible with older versions of operating systems and
libraries. STATUS: Discussed with RO, no final decision yet.
ACTION: Users Committee members should poll their users to ask if
there are compelling reasons to keep TUI operable without using the
latest version of operating systems. STATUS: Open, no feedback so far.
[new actions from last month]:
ACTION: [re Triplespec white paper] The committee members are to
forward any feedback to Suzanne within a week, from which she will
report our assessment to the ARC Board of Governors. STATUS:
Completed.
**********************************
Next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday, 1 May, at 8:30 AM
Pacific Time. Agenda and other materials will be sent to the
committee members during the preceding week.
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