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--- uc:uc20230606_june_6_2023 [2023/06/05 20:47]
nchanove
+++ uc:uc20230606_june_6_2023 [2023/06/06 19:24] (current)
nchanove
@@ Line 3: / Line 3: @@
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-Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU),
+Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Gordon MacDonald (APO), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Eric Bellm (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Misty Bentz (GSU), Ben Williams (UW), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Eric Nielsen (NMSU), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Russet McMillan (APO)
-Jamey Eriksen (APO), Gordon MacDonald (APO), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Eric Bellm (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Adam Kowalski (CU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Ben Williams (UW)
 === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives ===
-nothing to report
+  * JHU - nothing to report
-no report
+  * UVa - nothing to report
+  * Georgia State - nothing to report
-  * JHU -
+  * NMSU - Eric is glad to be able to attend UC meetings once again, otherwise nothing to report
-  * UVa -
+  * Seattle - Joanne reports that her team had a wonderful visit to APO in May. They brought 3 students from Seattle University and 4 from Saint Martin's University, along with SMU astronomer Andrea Kunder who needed to be trained. Thanks to Russet, Candace, and Amanda for all their help with the training and the implementation of new KOSMOS slit masks. The weather and telescope both cooperated and 4 of the 5 masks worked well. While there was a learning curve for getting the masks made, they learned that one can reliably make masks using positions from Gaia. Joanne is typing up her notes (along with Amanda's notes on how to align the masks) with the goal of providing a cookbook for how to make KOSMOS masks that we can post on the wiki. We will make sure that Bill, Russet and Joe Burchett also have an opportunity to review/contribute to the cookbook.
-  * Georgia State -
+  * FGCU - nothing to report other than some recent bad weather (sent by email)
-  * NMSU -
+  * Colorado - no report
-  * Seattle -
+  * Oklahoma - nothing to report
-  * FGCU -
+  * Washington - nothing to report
-  * Colorado -
+  * BYU - nothing to report
-  * Oklahoma -
+  * Wyoming - nothing to report
-  * Washington -
+  * NAPG - no report
-  * BYU -
-  * Wyoming -
-  * NAPG -
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@@ Line 45: / Line 40: @@
 .5m telescope: issues with camera control and instrument drivers are being worked on.
-KOSMOS upgrades implemented for the umbilical hose to further limit any issues from LN2 vent.
+KOSMOS: upgrades were implemented for the umbilical hose to further limit any issues from the LN2 vent.
-Arctic diffuser is rotator service is had to be postponed, will be rescheduled for a later date.
+ARCTIC: the diffuser rotator service had to be postponed; it will be rescheduled for a later date.
-Agile timing board was swapped, sync issue is still being investigated as board swap did not eliminate the issue.
+Agile: the timing board was swapped, but the sync issue is still being investigated as the board swap did not eliminate the issue.
-Echelle interorder light ratios (measure of scattered light in the instrument) are still quite excellent but are declining again in the warmer weather.
+Echelle: the inter-order light ratios (measure of scattered light in the instrument) are still quite good but are declining again with the warmer weather.
-DIS scattered light is improving slowly as expected, however blue is still considered bad and Red is considered borderline usable by APO.
+DIS: scattered light is improving slowly as expected, however, the blue channel is still considered by the APO staff to be poor and the red is considered borderline usable.
 ) Other
-                Mirror coating system for LDT chamber design is being manufactured at APO.  Planning is continuing for August recoating at Lowell.
-                Repairs and maintenance are ongoing for various site metrology units (dewpoint and dust sensors).
+The mirror support system to hold our 3.5m mirror in the LDT coating chamber is being manufactured at APO. Plans are continuing for the scheduled August recoating at Lowell.
+Repairs and maintenance are ongoing for various site metrology units (dewpoint and dust sensors).
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 === Additional telescope and instrument discussion ===
-The moths are back at APO for the warm weather season :(    The KOSMOS hose was repaired and the ARCTIC diffuser will be serviced soon to troubleshoot the rotation issue. The NA2 baffle fence has been installed and ARCTIC users can now take dome flats. BYUCam is performing nicely.
+June is going to be a busy month with multiple groups visiting, as indicated in the above report. Russet reports that recent engineering data with DIS show that the red side is looking a bit better and
+is "kinda usable," although the throughput is about half as good as it was last month (which was already much lower than where it should be). The blue channel is still poor. To make these determinations she used DIS to observe a standard star, a planetary nebula to assess the broadening of emission lines, and the recent supernova in M101 (to get observations of it with as many APO instruments as possible).
-Plans are proceeding to have M1 realuminized at Lowell Observatory this summer. The design for the mirror support system in the Lowell chamber is finished. Note added in proof: the dates for the summer shutdown have been finalized. ** Shutdown will start on July 26 and the anticipated return to science is August 22 ** (although that could slip by several days if the weather during engineering recovery is poor).
+To reiterate from last month, ** summer shutdown will start on July 26 and the anticipated return to science is August 22 ** (although that could slip by several days if the weather during engineering recovery is poor or if the coating process takes more time than anticipated).
+Last Friday APO hosted a visit from the new NMSU Provost. A site visit is helpful for our institutional administrators to see the nature of the facility and learn more about their research investment. Some institutional representatives will have an opportunity to visit APO this November in conjunction with the ARC Board of Governors meeting, but we would welcome other visits from institutional administrators if there is ever a need or desire to schedule one.
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@@ Line 71: / Line 71: @@
 === KOSMOS update ===
+We have received several reports of scattered light being a problematic issue for certain types of observations with KOSMOS. We have been in contact with the affected users and have a meeting scheduled to discuss it and learn more about it next week; a mitigation plan will be forthcoming after that. This concern has been prioritized and we look forward to gaining a better understanding of the problem next week.
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@@ Line 76: / Line 77: @@
 === Q2 3.5m scheduling ===
-There is some unassigned time at end of May: 1 unencumbered dark B half (19 May) and 2 grey A halves (24, 25 May) adjacent to sunset APOLLO observations. And also some time early June: June 1B and June 4B (both unencumbered but bright). Users are encouraged to request this time if they can make use of it (particularly those who have been weathered out recently). As a reminder, users should include Ben, Russet, Amanda, Nancy and their institutional scheduler on all schedule related emails.
+There is some unassigned time at end of June: 1 unencumbered dark B half (21 June) and 1 grey partial A half (23 June) adjacent to sunset APOLLO observations. Users are encouraged to request this time if they can make use of it (particularly those who have been weathered out recently). As a reminder, users should include Ben, Russet, Amanda, Nancy and their institutional scheduler on all schedule related emails.
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@@ Line 82: / Line 83: @@
 === Q3 3.5m scheduling ===
-Ben will be sending out the institutional allocations later this week. UC reps/institutional schedulers: please notify your users of the summer shutdown dates and remind Q3 proposers that the return to science date is contingent upon having good weather during the recovery period.
+The Q3 schedule is in progress and we expect to publish it in a few days. Challenges in building the Q3 schedule include a class visit in July, a visiting instrument run, and the fact that several users will be attempting to observe Venus in the pre-dawn hours. Due to the fact that Q3 is a short quarter because of the summer shutdown there will be very little DD or OPEN time available (and there could be even less if there are difficulties with summer shutdown or recovery). **UC reps: please urge your users to review the Q3 schedule and let us know immediately if there are errors**; it will be much more challenging to fix them later in the quarter since we will have very little flexibility in the schedule.
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-=== Q2 0.5m scheduling ===
+=== Q2-Q3 0.5m scheduling ===
-There is some unassigned time at end of May: 1 unencumbered dark B half (19 May) and 2 grey A halves (24, 25 May) adjacent to sunset APOLLO observations. And also some time early June: June 1B and June 4B (both unencumbered but bright). Users are encouraged to request this time if they can make use of it (particularly those who have been weathered out recently). As a reminder, users should include Ben, Russet, Amanda, Nancy and their institutional scheduler on all schedule related emails.
+There is an open week from June 25 to July 1 but this is not scheduleable due to the fact that we will have a visiting instrument on 3.5m that will require all of the attention of the observing specialist. Once the Q3 3.5m schedule comes out we will issue a call for Q3 ARCSAT proposals. ARCSAT will be following the same shutdown schedule as the 3.5m, thus it will not be operating during summer shutdown. There have been some recent issues with BYUCam that we think we have traced to a hardware problem. We are currently encouraging people to use FlareCam and will include more information about the status of BYUCam in the Q3 call for proposals.
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 === Annual Request to Update Publication Record ===
@@ Line 103: / Line 103: @@
 Open action items from previous meetings:
-  * Nancy: track down missing ARCTIC data reduction scripts for wiki. -> OPEN
+  * Nancy: track down missing ARCTIC data reduction scripts for wiki. -> OPEN. Making progress on it this week.
   * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q2 schedule and request OPEN/DD time if they can make a good case for it. -> OPEN
-  * UC reps: Notify your users that we have funds to purchase slit masks for MOS runs with KOSMOS
+  * UC reps: Notify your users that we have funds to purchase slit masks for MOS runs with KOSMOS -> CLOSED
-  * UC reps: Notify your users of the summer shutdown dates, and remind them when submitting their Q3 proposals that the return to science date is dependent on good weather during the recovery engineering time.
+  * UC reps: Notify your users of the summer shutdown dates, and remind them when submitting their Q3 proposals that the return to science date is dependent on good weather during the recovery engineering time. -> CLOSED
-  * UC reps: Have any department members who are planning to attend the summer AAS meeting and present APO-related science contact Nancy.
+  * UC reps: Have any department members who are planning to attend the summer AAS meeting and present APO-related science contact Nancy. -> CLOSED
 New action items from this meeting:
-xxx
+  * UC reps: please urge your users to review the Q3 schedule and let us know immediately if there are errors.
+  * UC reps: please notify your department members of the July 31 deadline for sending Nancy listings of papers from January 1, 2022 to present that made use of 3.5m and/or ARCSAT data.
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 === All Other Business ===
-xxx
+None.
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-=== Next meeting ===
+=== Next meeting(s) ===
-The next meeting will be on **Tuesday July 11, 10:30 am MDT.** This is one week later than our regular schedule of the first Tuesday of the month to avoid Independence Day. The August meeting, which would be scheduled for August 1, will be canceled.
+The next meeting will be on **Tuesday June 27, 10:30 am MDT.** This is one week earlier than our regular schedule of the first Tuesday of July to avoid Independence Day. By having the meeting in late June this will give people an opportunity to provide feedback on the summer schedule, open time, instruments, etc. before July. The August meeting, which would be scheduled for August 1, will be canceled as it will be in the middle of summer shutdown. The September meeting, on September 5, will be used to discuss our return to operations after summer shutdown.
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