uc:uc20240806_august_6_2024
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uc:uc20240806_august_6_2024 [2024/08/06 18:23] nchanove |
uc:uc20240806_august_6_2024 [2024/08/06 19:17] (current) nchanove |
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| * Seattle - nothing to report | * Seattle - nothing to report | ||
| * FGCU - nothing to report other than Derek had a night of good observing recently | * FGCU - nothing to report other than Derek had a night of good observing recently | ||
| - | * Oklahoma - nothing to report (by email); | + | * Oklahoma - nothing to report (by email); |
| * NMSU - nothing to report | * NMSU - nothing to report | ||
| * NAPG - no report | * NAPG - no report | ||
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| === Additional site, telescope and instrument discussion === | === Additional site, telescope and instrument discussion === | ||
| - | There was a fire approximately 2 miles from the observatory yesterday (to the north, right before Cathey Canyon parking lot). The fire was spotted by one of the APO staff members as they were driving to work, and it was put out by the Sunspot Volunteer Fire Department. It was likely caused by lightning. | + | There was a fire approximately 2 miles from the observatory yesterday (to the north, right before |
| - | The telescope is behaving nominally. There are several items of note pertaining to the instruments; | + | The telescope is behaving nominally. There are several items of note pertaining to the instruments: |
| - | * Agile is hopefully going to be repaired; we are still waiting for an evaluation. The problem has been isolated to the camera itself, not control unit. | + | * Agile is hopefully going to be repaired; we are still waiting for an evaluation. The problem has been isolated to the camera itself, not the control unit. |
| - | * ARCES had an inadvertent partial warmup recently when a fill sensor for the CCD reservoir failed. The issue was caught a few hours after the sensor failed and manual fills were initiated. The replacement sensor was quickly replaced and there seem to no adverse effects to the instrument or the resulting data. | + | * ARCES had an inadvertent partial warmup recently when a fill sensor for the CCD reservoir failed. The issue was caught a few hours after the sensor failed and manual fills were initiated. The replacement sensor was quickly replaced and there seems to be no adverse effects to the instrument or the resulting data. |
| * NICFPS recently had a failure of its vacuum system, either a failed ion pump or the vacuum went soft. Bill had already planned to do a vacuum servicing of NICFPS during the summer shutdown so they warmed the instrument and took it offline in preparation for that. | * NICFPS recently had a failure of its vacuum system, either a failed ion pump or the vacuum went soft. Bill had already planned to do a vacuum servicing of NICFPS during the summer shutdown so they warmed the instrument and took it offline in preparation for that. | ||
| * DIS recently showed an increase in contamination. It is still useable but with a lower performance. | * DIS recently showed an increase in contamination. It is still useable but with a lower performance. | ||
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| === Website Modernization Effort === | === Website Modernization Effort === | ||
| - | A lot of work is going on behind the scenes to develop a new APO 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. The current version of the new site 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:// | + | A lot of work is going on behind the scenes to develop a new APO 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. The current version of the new site 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:// |
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| === Time Domain Astronomy Opportunity === | === Time Domain Astronomy Opportunity === | ||
| - | Nancy, Sarah, Ben and Eric Bellm recently had a discussion with Shri Kulkarni about the possibility of putting | + | Nancy, Sarah, Ben and Eric Bellm recently had a discussion with Shri Kulkarni about the possibility of putting a robotic spectrograph for fast transient classification on the 3.5m. The first version of this instrument, developed for ZTF as an R ~ 100 spectrograph for supernova classification spectroscopy, |
| * Bill: who would be doing the observing for this kind of project? Nancy/Eric: that's really up to us to decide, but we don't have an expectation that this would fall on the shoulders of the observing specialists. | * Bill: who would be doing the observing for this kind of project? Nancy/Eric: that's really up to us to decide, but we don't have an expectation that this would fall on the shoulders of the observing specialists. | ||
| - | * Bill: from a technical standpoint, if the instrument were to be mounted on Agile' | + | * Bill: from a technical standpoint, if the instrument were to be mounted on Agile' |
| * Adam: would users be able to propose to use the instrument for their own programs or would it be used only for transient observations? | * Adam: would users be able to propose to use the instrument for their own programs or would it be used only for transient observations? | ||
| * Adam: what is its primary advantage over KOSMOS given the wavelength coverage? Nancy: it has lower spectral resolution (which some but not all users would want) and the data are reduced and posted very rapidly (~ 15 minutes from data acquisition to posting online). | * Adam: what is its primary advantage over KOSMOS given the wavelength coverage? Nancy: it has lower spectral resolution (which some but not all users would want) and the data are reduced and posted very rapidly (~ 15 minutes from data acquisition to posting online). | ||
| - | * Ben: when the Time Domain Astronomy Working Group (TDAWG) was active there was interest in a possibility of cross-institutional collaboration to use a portion of their time for this kind of work. | + | * Ben: when the Time Domain Astronomy Working Group (TDAWG) was active |
| - | **Nancy will draft a synopsis of this discussion and send it to the Users Committee reps. The reps will then send it to their users and solicit their feedback in time for the next meeting.** Meanwhile Nancy will continue to discuss the technical aspects | + | **Nancy will draft a synopsis of this discussion and send it to the Users Committee reps. The reps will then send it to their users and solicit their feedback in time for the next meeting.** Meanwhile, Nancy will continue to discuss the technical aspects with the observatory staff to determine whether this is a viable option. |
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uc/uc20240806_august_6_2024.1722968593.txt.gz · Last modified: 2024/08/06 18:23 by nchanove
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