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--- uc:uc20220802_august_2_2022 [2022/07/28 22:05]
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+++ uc:uc20220802_august_2_2022 [2022/08/02 17:52] (current)
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-Attending: < fill in here >
+Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Eric Bellm (UW), Eric Nielsen (NMSU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Misty Bentz (GSU)
+=== User feedback and comments from institutional representatives ===
-Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Ben Williams (UW), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Mukremin Kilic (OU), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Adam Kowalski (CU)
+  * UVa - nothing to report
+  * Wyoming - nothing to report
+  * Washington - nothing to report
-=== User feedback and comments from institutional repraesentatives ===
+  * FGCU - no report
+  * Seattle - no problems to report; Joanne has been in discussion with observatory staff regarding preparing to use the MOS software for KOSMOS (discussed further below)
-  * UVa -
+  * JHU - nothing to report
-  * Wyoming -
+  * Georgia State - nothing to report
-  * Washington -
+  * Colorado - no report
-  * FGCU -
+  * Oklahoma - nothing to report (submitted by email)
-  * Seattle -
+  * NAPG - no report
-  * JHU -
+  * BYU - nothing to report
-  * Georgia State -
+  * NMSU - nothing to report
-  * Colorado -
-  * Oklahoma -
-  * NAPG -
-  * BYU -
-  * NMSU -
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 The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.
-//3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, xxx/2022 - xxx/2022 -- UPDATE BELOW //
+//3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 7/5/2022 - 8/1/2022 //
 ) Overview
 APO is no longer under any staffing or indoor masking restrictions from the State of New Mexico due to COVID. The COVID vaccination policy for ARC/APO has not changed.
-Weather for June has been mostly monsoonal, the New Mexico wildfires to the west and north have been affecting observing very little compared to May. Pine and juniper pollen affected observing earlier in June but was not as bad as previous years.
+Weather for July has been monsoonal, with dust also contributing to occasional closures.
 ) Telescope
-The telescope experienced an (as yet) unexplained pointing shift in March and a couple others since then. There was one occurrence of this issue in May, an effective workaround to restore pointing and collimation by homing the mirrors appears to help. Root cause of the issue is still being investigated.
+The telescope secondary issue may be related to the galil controller resetting.  A power supply board was changed out and behavior is being monitored.
-Telescope experienced an issue with a tertiary actuator that APO has not been able to duplicate as of yet. Tertiary is working currently and investigations are continuing.
 ) Instruments
-KOSMOS: Commissioning activities are continuing; the instrument is still being offered on a shared risk basis. A replacement shutter for the slitviewer has arrived and will be replaced in July or possibly over shutdown. Flux was decreased for internal lamps, more tuning is needed, which will take place at the same time as the shutter work. Work is also proceeding on prototype multiobject masks at both NMSU and UW shops.
+KOSMOS: Commissioning activities are continuing; the instrument is still being offered on a shared risk basis. A replacement shutter for the slitviewer has arrived and will be replaced during the summer shutdown. Flux was decreased for internal lamps, more tuning is needed; this will take place at the same time as the shutter work. Work is also proceeding on prototype multiobject masks at both NMSU and UW shops. Some preliminary fields were observed and lessons learned are being applied to second round of test masks.
-DIS: Been working well since the power supply failure repair. Please note that the red camera flat field lens has significant water spots. Extended object science is not recommended with the red channel at this time. We will attempt to resolve this issue in early October.
+DIS: Servicing is tentatively being planned for early October to attempt to resolve the ice droplets on the red camera.
 TripleSpec: Cold, operational and performing nominally.
-Agile: Cold, operational and performing nominally. There is a known issue with missing observatory and WCS cards from the headers that we are trying to track down. This problem seemed to originate about the time we converted and moved the hub35m to a new server (mid December).
+Agile: Cold, operational and performing nominally. There is a known issue with missing observatory and WCS cards from the headers that we are trying to track down. This problem seemed to originate about the time we converted and moved the hub35m to a new server.
 Echelle: Echelle inter-order light was slowly decreasing with the warmer ambient temperatures, but increased with cooler monsoon temperatures; the ratios are still quite good.
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 NICFPS: The instrument is performing nominally with the occasional need to reset the controller due to corrupted images, and previous cautions about rotator angle.
 ARCTIC: Cold, operational and performing nominally.
-Visiting Instruments : We had recent visits from 2 visiting PI instruments in May and June.  DSSI (UVa sponsored) and HSAR (LANL lease). They are both scheduled for more time this fall/winter.
 ) ARCSAT: Limited to no usage lately.
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 === Additional telescope and instrument discussion ===
-xxx
+We've had monsoonal weather at the observatory. The secondary mirror issue may be resolved since a board was replaced in the controller that moves the actuator on the back of the mirror. This was an old board and we are working on preparing for potential future failures. There has been some testing of MOS capabilities with KOSMOS. DIS is tentatively scheduled for servicing on red camera in early October. Everything else is nominal.
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 === KOSMOS Update ===
-xxx
+The KOSMOS activities that are planned for summer shutdown include the following:
+  * replace shutter in slit viewer camera with a new one that is rated for operation at colder temperatures
+  * try to resolve internal cal lamp brightness issue (again) by lowering the brightness of lamps with ND filtering
+  * a user is trying to use KOSMOS for bright planetary work with ND filters that are screwed on, but it was discovered that this results in interference with the cal stage. We will attempt to address this, possibly by removing some material from edge of the cal stage itself.
+  * if time allows, we will warm the instrument, pump on it, and bake out the getter
-----
+As a status update on the MOS capability for KOSMOS, Bill got the KMS software running under certain operating systems; he can provide instructions on how to install it. He has been working with Joe Burchett at NMSU on streamlining the process; currently the software outputs files in a format that is used for making electronic boards but not used by many machine shops so Bill has been converting them to SolidWorks or AutoCAD. We've had a few slit masks made at the UW machine shop using a wire EDM but this is expensive. We attempted to have some made at the NMSU machine shop using a laser cutter but the results are of low quality. However, in both cases we found that the scale factor between the slits and the sky is off by a small amount, so we are iterating on that to get the slit positions to match on-sky coordinates. Bill has also been working with former KOSMOS folks at NOIRLab to work out the intricacies of setting up the software configuration files to make it more applicable for APO. We are hoping by mid-September to have the process streamlined to help users create slit masks for multiobject spectroscopy. UC reps should remind their users of this exciting new capability at APO!
-=== Summer shutdown schedule xxx UPDATE xxx ===
-Due to the Contreras Fire at Kitt Peak, it will not be possible to realuminize the 3.5m primary mirror there in mid-August as scheduled. Thus, we are reducing the length of the summer shutdown from three weeks to two weeks: **03 - 17 August inclusive.** This means that there is an additional 7 nights of telescope time (on 01-02 and 18-22 August) that users can submit requests for. These slots are listed as OPEN and DDD01 in the current version of the August schedule. We expect that all instruments will be available.
+Chip asked if anyone knows where KOSMOS users have placed recommendations for KOSMOS flat fielding given the bright rows in the flats attributed to the zeroth order. **Nancy will follow up and share this information once she has it.**
-Although it is somewhat short notice, we encourage users to think creatively about ways to use this time, including multi-institutional requests, projects that require a full night of coverage of a time-variable phenomenon, etc. Please spread the word to all 3.5m users - we would love to receive lots of requests for this time! The process for requesting this time is the same as usual - interested users should send an email (including a short proposal form if the proposed program does not already have one in the Q3 schedule) to Ben, Russet, Nancy, and their institutional scheduler. **These proposals should be submitted by July 20 at the latest, but earlier would be even better, particularly for the 01-02 August time.**
+----
+=== Summer shutdown ===
-There was some discussion of other options aside from Kitt Peak for having M1 realuminized next summer. We are actively looking at other options, but unfortunately there are relatively few facilities that can accommodate a 3.5m mirror. The cost for building our own facility on-site is prohibitive (millions of dollars) and would require U.S. Forest Service permitting, which is a time-consuming process.
+Last month we discussed the fact that we have to delay the realuminization of the primary mirror due to the Contreras Fire at Kitt Peak. We are still actively pursuing other options, including whether a silver overcoat is an option that we can consider (we need to make sure that the short wavelength performance matches the needs of our users). Discussions of this topic remain ongoing.
 ----
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 === Q3 3.5m scheduling ===
-Aside from the perturbation due to the change in summer shutdown schedule, there is relatively little open time that users can request. We will be trying to fill July 19B relatively soon.
+As a reminder, because our summer shutdown was curtailed we have OPEN/DD time in August that can be requested. The early August time has been allocated, and although we have received several requests for the available time later in August, there is still some available. **UC reps please remind your users that they can request this time through the usual process** (submit requests to Russet, Nancy, Ben, and institutional scheduler, including a proposal cover page if the program doesn't already have one in place for Q3.
+----
+=== Q4 3.5m scheduling ===
+The emails with the institutional allocations will be sent out later this week. We would like to know ASAP if any institutions expect to bring a class group to the site for training in Q4. This impacts our staffing schedule, for which we already have several constraints. //No one on today's call indicated that their institution is planning a class trip in Q4.//
 ----
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 === Publications reminder ===
-APO needs your help in updating the observatory publication record! Please send Nancy (nchanove@nmsu.edu) any references for 3.5m-related publications (refereed publications and student theses/dissertations that have been published or submitted) from Jan 1, 2021 to now. **The deadline is July 31.**
+APO needs your help in updating the observatory publication record! Please send Nancy (nchanove@nmsu.edu) any references for 3.5m-related publications (refereed publications and student theses/dissertations that have been published or submitted) from Jan 1, 2021 to now. **The deadline was nominally July 31 but Nancy can take all updates through the month of August.**
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 Open action items from previous meetings:
-  * Nancy: start investigations re: short wavelength throughput (climate data, other facilities). Status: OPEN. Nancy reached out to some colleagues at other observatories to ask about short wavelength performance degradation of their optical coatings. She got some names from Bill and will contact those individuals next.
+  * Nancy: start investigations re: short wavelength throughput (climate data, other facilities). Status: OPEN. Nancy reached out to some colleagues at other observatories to ask about short wavelength performance degradation of their optical coatings. She got some names from Bill and will contact those individuals next. The ongoing discussions about new coatings for the primary also relate to this issue so we will determine our coatings first before continuing to pursue this line of investigation.
+  * UC reps: notify your users of remaining open/DD time in Q3.
+  * UC reps: remind your users to send Nancy all publications through 2021 by August 31, 2022.
 New action items from this meeting:
-  * UC reps: notify your users of remaining open/DD time in Q3. Status: OPEN.
+  * Nancy: track down resources for KOSMOS flat fielding and post them.
-  * UC reps: remind your users to send Nancy all publications through 2021 by July 31, 2022.

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