APO 3.5-m Users Committee Phonecon, 10/17/06 Attending: Suzanne Hawley, Bruce Gillespie, Michael Strauss, Scott Anderson, Jon Fulbright, John Bally, Al Harper, Jon Holtzman Absent: Rene Walterbos, Russet McMillan, Don York, Remy Indebetouw Minutes taken by Bruce Gillespie ********************************** User feedback, comments from institutional representatives: Colorado (Bally) - John had no user feedback to report. He did mention that there is a new problem with NIC-FPS Leach controller that is affecting performance. Stephane Beland is going to diagnose and recommend a work around until the problem can be fixed. John also said that the NIC-FPS Fabry-Perot has been sent to IC Optical for evaluation and possible repairs. CU is bringing a large group of students to APO for orientation and training in a couple of weeks. JHU (Fulbright) - Jon said that his users say things are OK, and he'll get us a JHU science highlight for the annual report. Princeton (Strauss) - Michael said everything is fine, and the PU science highlight is on the way. Chicago (Harper) - Al said that there were no new issues. NMSU (Holtzman) - Jon mentioned that he had just had a large NMSU student group at APO. He said that during cloudy weather he practiced with NIC-FPS and found various performance issues [see above] and that its on-line documentation is sparse. Suzanne mentioned that Gabrelle Saurage (the new Obs. Specialist) is working on instrumentation web documentation and will have new materials on line shortly. Bruce mentioned that the observatory has not yet officially accepted NIC-FPS because of documentation and the problem with the Fabry-Perot. Washington (Anderson) - Scott said he'd heard very positive feedback from George Wallerstein about the recent excellent seeing at the telescope. Virginia (Indebetouw) - no report available ********************************** Discussion of telescope/instruments report: The report is given below; there was no discussion: ************************* 3.5-m Telescope, Instruments, and CIF Projects Highlights, 9/16/06 through 10/13/06 Bruce Gillespie 0) Overview With unflinching dedication and long hours of effort by the engineering staff and Observing Specialists, the new top end was successfully installed and put into service. Initial on-sky usage subjectively suggests that the stiffness and positioning performance of the 2ndary mirror is improved, but more testing and a longer time baseline will be needed to characterize the improvements definitively. The weather also cooperated as we came out of shutdown, which allowed ample on-sky commissioning tests and adjustments prior to returning to science observing, on schedule. Aside from some unexpected instrument problems, the rest of the period has been spent in summer-shutdown recovery and preparing for the onset of winter. 1) Telescope Aside from the new top end being put into service, the telescope experienced some "waking-up" troubles coming out of shutdown, most notably an altitude drive problem that was ultimately diagnosed to be a bad DC motor, which was replaced. There is still a fair number of little clean-up tasks left to do, and we are beginning to collect performance data (e.g., focus with temperature, 2ndary transverse- motion collimation [new!], wind-induced image jitter, etc.). One observer has reported one-half arcsecond seeing at the echelle, which may be a harbinger of good things to come. 2) Instruments DIS spectrographs were given their seasonal refocussing, and found not to need very much adjustment. DIS engineering time to complete the optics and detector upgrades is scheduled for the week of 6 - 10 November. The echelle auto-fill LN2 system became non-functional due to a faulty sensor, allowing the dewar to warm. This necessitated repumping the dewar before recooling. All seems OK with the system now. SPIcam has been showing signs of cold-head temperature fluctuating. This may be due to problems with its ion pump; diagnosis is underway, but the instrument is otherwise usable. The cabling for the Goddard Fabry-Perot was reworked, and the instrument will be checked out by the PI team shortly. 3) Engineering and CIF projects The following message about the major CIF project this year, replacing the top end of the telescope, was sent to apo35general on 20 Sept, repeated here for the record: "After years of discussion, and nearly two in design and construction, we are pleased to announce that the APO 3.5-m telescope has a new "top end" consisting of a new square frame, vanes, mirror cage and actuators. The redesign greatly improves the safety of the glass, and additionally the new top end has stiffer components and a new transverse actuator system for the secondary mirror, both of which promise to deliver better image quality. Also the new axial actuators should allow smoother, and backlash free, focussing adjustments which we have been waiting for in order to consider implementing an autofocus capability on the telescope. Many people have contributed to the success of this project, which was led by Mark Klaene. We also send our thanks to Larry Carey, Jon Davis, Dave Woods, Eric Sandberg, Russell Owen, Fritz Stauffer, Jon Brinkmann, Ben Harris, Jim Davenport, Michael Spector, Craig Loomis, Russet McMillan, Bill Ketzeback, Gabrelle Saurage, Jack Dembicky, Gretchen Van Doren, Mike Evans and the staff at the UW Physics Machine Shop for their contributions, large or small, to this fine accomplishment. The 3.5-m telescope will return to normal science operation on schedule tonight. Along with the work on the new top end, numerous other maintenance tasks were performed on the telescope and instruments during the sumemr shutdown. We ask that observers be alert and communicate to the Observing Specialists any unusual behavior in the telescope or data systems, and also to exercise patience as we perform additional necessary engineering tasks in coming out of the shutdown. Suzanne Hawley, APO 3.5m Director Bruce Gillespie, APO Site Operations Manager" 4) Miscellaneous The APOLLO program has transitioned into its near-normal operational style of short observing runs two or three times a week. The system is being operated by APO staff (led by Russet McMillan). The APOLLO "Leopard" laser was given its "50,000-photon" overhaul by company representatives. Also, the telescope, instruments, and enclosure were given their annual cleanings. ********************************** Future of old top end - Hawley: Suzanne announced that we need to make a decision about what to do with the old top end. If we don't want to use if for a special project, e.g., a chopping 2ndary mirror, a prime-focus camera, etc., we should remove it from the current location (on the secondary exchange platform), so that we don't have a large, unnecessary thermal mass near the telescope. Moving it from the 2ndary exchange platform will require cutting it up, rendering it scrap. If we're not going to use it, we should get rid of it, if only to get rid of the unnecessary thermal mass near the telescope. There was a limited discussion of possibilities, but no clear winners. Suzanne said we'd wait a month, and if no compelling suggestions come forward, we'll scrap the old top end. ********************************** Request for 2006 science highlights - Hawley: Suzanne reminded the group that we need one or two science highlights from each institution for the annual report to the ARC Board of Governors. [ed. note: as of this writing, we have highlights from everyone except the Goddard team that uses the GFP] ********************************** Preliminary view of next year's projects - Hawley, Gillespie: Suzanne listed the projects being planned for next year: Telescope - Refurbish old drive boxes to use as spares - Upgrade NA2 rotator (needed for TripleSpec) - replace drive axis controllers (old ones obsolete) - as time permits, study autofocus, and new tertiary mount Instruments - receive and commission TripleSpec - receive and commission Agile (high-speed photometer) Someone asked if TripleSpec and Agile will be TUI-compatible. The answers are yes for TripleSpec, and maybe for Agile if it becomes widely used. ********************************** ARC-related news (CfP, Futures) - Hawley: Suzanne updated the status of the post-2008 Call for Proposals review and the Futures Committee work. The CfP review panel is close to a recommendation, which will be sent to the Board hopefully next week. The recommendations will be discussed at the annual Board meeting next month. We also expect the Futures Committee report to be finalized prior to the Board meeting. ********************************** [open from previous months]: ACTION: Bruce to discuss issues of computer and network security with Fritz Stauffer. STATUS: Working group (site staff and users) formed to frame requirements. Fair amount of work has been done, and will be reported on at next meeting. Worth mentioning here that the new user computer newton has been installed in the observing room replacing tycho. At the next meeting we will discuss how users can access it remotely ACTION: Users Committee members should send Michael (strauss@astro.princeton.edu) the names and e-mail addresses of 3.5-m users who are not yet signed up for the apo35general mailer. STAUS: Michael sent the list of mailer recipients to the committee members for review and editing, has received feedback from a couple of institutions. [new actions from last month]: ACTION: Users Committee representative to gather one or two science highlights and send them to Bruce and Suzanne not later than mid- October. STATUS: Nearly closed. ********************************** Next meeting: The next Users Committee phonecon will be on Monday, 20 November, at 8:30 AM Pacific Time. Agenda and other materials will be sent to the committee members during the preceding week. APO APO APO APO APO Apache Point Observatory 3.5m APO APO APO APO APO This is message 991 in the apo35-general archive. 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