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--- uc:uc20240604_june_4_2024 [2024/06/04 19:29]
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+++ uc:uc20240604_june_4_2024 [2024/06/04 19:36] (current)
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 === Additional site, telescope and instrument discussion ===
-The weather improved during May (although thunderstorms are in the forecast for later this week!). Dust and wind have been the main weather issues of late. Despite the seasonal increase in temperature the telescope is performing well. The DSSI guest instrument team was on site in May, but no class groups. The fire near Timberon that was reported on last month has been put out/contained. A subsequent fire near Cloudcroft broke out but was handled quickly. The biggest fire we are currently watching is in Ruidoso; it has increased in size to about 8000 acres and is at the ~50% containment level. There is a huge smoke plume associated with this fire but currently it is moving in a direction away from APO. As for other site happenings, Jamey has continued to offer science talks for the day staff; this helps them understand what the 3.5m telescope is being used for and allows the staff to put a face with a name. We encourage visiting scientists to give science talk when coming to site so please consider this when you plan your next trip to APO! We gave a tour to a group from the Air Force Reliability Lab. Also, the site had some spectacular views of the northern lights last month with the all-sky camera. As for operations updates, the telescope is working well. The new 1.25" slits arrived from UW and engineering tests revealed that their performance is good. The ARCTIC diffuser rotation mechanism is fixed. UC reps: please notify your ARCTIC users that the diffuser rotation capability is available once again. Agile is currently being investigated by Cary and Bill and we expect to have an update next month if not sooner. Everything else is behaving as expected.
+The weather improved during May (although thunderstorms are in the forecast for later this week!). Dust and wind have been the main weather issues of late. Despite the seasonal increase in temperature the telescope is performing well. The DSSI guest instrument team was on site in May, but no class groups. The fire near Timberon that was reported on last month has been put out/contained. A subsequent fire near Cloudcroft broke out but was handled quickly. The biggest fire we are currently watching is in Ruidoso; it has increased in size to about 8000 acres and is at the ~50% containment level. There is a huge smoke plume associated with this fire but currently it is moving in a direction away from APO. As for other site happenings, Jamey has continued to offer science talks given by visiting astronomers for the day staff; this helps them understand what the 3.5m telescope is being used for and allows the staff to put a face with a name. We encourage visiting scientists to give science talk when coming to site so please consider this when you plan your next trip to APO. We gave a tour to a group from the Air Force Reliability Lab. Also, the site had some spectacular views of the northern lights last month with the all-sky camera. As for operations updates, the telescope is working well. The new 1.25" slits arrived from UW and engineering tests revealed that their performance is good. The ARCTIC diffuser rotation mechanism is fixed. **UC reps: please notify your ARCTIC users that the diffuser rotation capability is available once again.** Agile is currently being investigated by Cary and Bill and we expect to have an update next month if not sooner. Everything else is behaving as expected.
 Joanne has been in touch with Bill about the turnaround time for new slit masks for KOSMOS; the bare minimum is 2 weeks but ideally people should allow longer. She may ask for some more masks to be made this week in preparation of her summer observing runs (on June 28 and in Q3).
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 === 2024 Q3 3.5m scheduling ===
-Amanda is working on the draft schedule; we hope to have it done by the end of this week or early next week.
+Amanda is working on the Q3 schedule; we hope to have it finalized and published by the end of this week or early next week.
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 === 2024 Q2 0.5 scheduling ===
-All of the Q2 time on ARCSAT is spoken for (the last week of June is reserved for engineering). The call for Q3 requests will go out after the 3.5m schedule is published, and proposals will likely be due in the last week of June (with the Q3 schedule starting in early July). The shutdown dates for ARCSAT will be same as for the 3.5m, i.e. August 12-26.
+All of the Q2 time on ARCSAT is spoken for (the last week of June is reserved for engineering). The call for Q3 requests will go out after the 3.5m Q3 schedule is published, and proposals will likely be due in the last week of June (with the Q3 schedule starting in early July). The shutdown dates for ARCSAT will be same as for the 3.5m, i.e. August 12-26.
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 === Website Modernization Effort ===
-A lot of work has been done behind the scenes to develop a new APO web site. Shane Thomas has created a whole separate web site with a more modern front end and database-driven apps on the back end. It has been time consuming to port all of the existing web site content over, which was the first step, and recently we have been evaluating how to improve the user experience and remove redundant or unnecessary information. We are now at the point of being ready to solicit feedback on the content of the new web site. All users are encouraged to review at the new web site and confirm that the information you frequently wish to access is there and easily findable for you. We are not seeking comments on the look-and-feel or style (yet). The current version is considered to be in the "alpha state" so it is still fairly preliminary. Once we receive and address the first round of feedback then we will go to a beta version and then deploy it, likely in a tiered fashion. The new web site is going to be mobile friendly, though it may not work well on all pages yet. **UC reps: ask your users to review the new web site (https://newapo.apo.nmsu.edu/) and provide any feedback on this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XTGF1ekWatAW-T2xl71rIZgVlEBhtLVWJrkX8cSh8Nw/edit?usp=sharing.
+A lot of work has been done behind the scenes to develop a new APO web site. Shane Thomas has created a whole separate web site with a more modern front end and database-driven apps on the back end. It has been time consuming to port all of the existing web site content over, which was the first step, and recently we have been evaluating how to improve the user experience and remove redundant or unnecessary information. We are now at the point of being ready to solicit feedback on the content of the new web site. All users are encouraged to review the new web site and confirm that the information you frequently wish to access is there and easily findable for you. We are not seeking comments on the look-and-feel or style (yet). The current version is considered to be in the "alpha state" so it is still fairly preliminary. Once we receive and address the first round of feedback then we will go to a beta version and then deploy it, likely in a tiered fashion. The new web site is going to be mobile friendly, though it may not work well on all pages yet. **UC reps: ask your users to review the new web site (https://newapo.apo.nmsu.edu/) and provide any feedback on this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XTGF1ekWatAW-T2xl71rIZgVlEBhtLVWJrkX8cSh8Nw/edit?usp=sharing.
 The deadline for providing feedback on the alpha version of the new web site is Tuesday July 2 at 10:00 am MDT.**
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 Open action items from previous meetings:
-  * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. Sarah Tuttle provided an update on this at today's meeting: she is working on getting quotes from 4 different vendors, two of which have been responsive. There is some glass supply chain issues; if we bundle an order of several grisms together we may get a slight discount but probably not a substantial one. The approximate cost per prism will be ~ $20k-$30k. When KPNO purchased additional grisms they bought them piecemeal and assembled them in-house; we prefer not to do that. Once Sarah receives final quotes she will discuss them with Nancy and then we will check in with the Users Committee again to identify final priorities. STATUS: OPEN.
+  * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. Sarah Tuttle provided an update on this at today's meeting. She is working on getting quotes from 4 different vendors, two of which have been responsive. There are some glass supply chain issues, which is making it more challenging to get a solid quote. The approximate cost per grism will be ~ $20k-$30k; if we bundle an order of several grisms together we may get a slight discount but probably not a substantial one. When KPNO purchased additional grisms they bought them piecemeal and then assembled them in-house; we would prefer not to do that. Once Sarah receives some final quotes she will discuss them with Nancy and then we will check in with the Users Committee again to identify final priorities. STATUS: OPEN.
   * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q2 schedule and request OPEN/DD time if they can make a good case for it. STATUS: OPEN.
   * UC reps: remind your users to send Nancy references for all 3.5m- and 0.5m-related publications from Jan. 1 2023 to present by the deadline of June 30. STATUS: OPEN.

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