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--- uc:uc20240903_september_3_2024 [2024/09/23 21:39]
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+++ uc:uc20240903_september_3_2024 [2024/10/01 02:16] (current)
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   * Oklahoma - nothing to report
   * Seattle - nothing to report; Joanne has been talking to Jamey about slit masks for KOSMOS
-  * UVa - nothing to report other than a user was searching for info on ARCSAT using the new web site and reported that many of the links are broken
+  * UVa - a user was searching for info on ARCSAT using the new web site and reported that many of the links are broken
   * Washington - nothing to report
   * Wyoming - nothing to report
@@ Line 57: / Line 57: @@
 === Additional site, telescope and instrument discussion ===
-The weather pattern continued to be monsoonal throughout August. The 3.5m returned to science nicely on 8/27/24 after the summer shutdown. The shutdown provided lots of training opportunities for our newest 3.5m staff members (Cary Smith and Torrie Sutherland). We are currently experiencing an issue with the tip-tilt mechanism on the tertiary mirror. This seems to happen yearly (perhaps due to noise on the lines?). The system was power cycled and rehomed twice in past week and we are continuing to monitor it. Nancy asked what this issue would look like from an observer's perspective. The tertiary error message would come through on the TUI logs and should be spotted by the obs-spec on duty.  An observer might notice pointing or focus issues, especially after changing ports from NA2 to the echelle. If the recovery process is straightforward it takes 15-30 minutes.
+The weather pattern continued to be monsoonal throughout August. The 3.5m returned to science nicely on 8/27/24 after the summer shutdown. The shutdown provided lots of training opportunities for our newest 3.5m staff members (Cary Smith and Torrie Sutherland). We are currently experiencing an issue with the tip-tilt mechanism on the tertiary mirror. This seems to happen yearly (perhaps due to noise on the lines?). The system was power cycled and rehomed twice in the past week and we are continuing to monitor it. Nancy asked what this issue would look like from an observer's perspective. The tertiary error message would come through on the TUI logs and should be spotted by the obs-spec on duty.  An observer might notice pointing or focus issues, especially after changing ports from NA2 to the echelle. If the recovery process is straightforward it takes 15-30 minutes.
-FlareCam cooling fans replaced, back on telescope.
+For ARCSAT the FlareCam cooling fans were replaced and the instrument is now back on the telescope.
-KOSMOS - behaving as expected.
+KOSMOS is behaving as expected.
-ARCTIC - vacuum cycled
-Agile failure - TEC failure, working on repair now. No estimate for return date yet.
-ARCES - problematic last month. Disk drive failure, software RAID array on 2 disks. Intermittent failure due to power supply in computer - currently desktop temp solution and then new drop-in power supply on order. IOL nominal. Haven't seen any disk errors since new one installed. Would manifest as slowing down of instrument operations - lots of info is scrolling by, log starts filling up.
-DIS red experienced electronics issue right before shutdown. Has constant pixel value when it fails. Bill rebooted and issue went away. Vacuum servicing likely to happen in Q4.
+ARCTIC was vacuum cycled.
-NICFPS vacuum cycled over shutdown.
+The Agile failure has been diagnosed as a failure of the thermoelectric cooler (TEC), and an outside vendor is working on the repair now. We currently have no estimate for its return date yet.
-Tcam and Tspec operational.
+ARCES was problematic last month. There was a disk drive failure of the software RAID array on 2 disks. We haven't seen any disk errors since a new one was installed. This would manifest as slowing down of instrument operations; lots of instrument-specific info is constantly scrolling by in the TUI log window and the instrument log would start filling up. ARCES also has exhibited intermittent failures due to a failing power supply in the computer. We are currently using a temporary desktop one for a stop-gap solution and there is a new drop-in power supply on order. The echelle's inter-order light is nominal.
-THANK  YOU TO 3.5m STAFF FOR DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB WITH SHUTDOWN ACTIVITIES AND TRAINING!
+The DIS red channel experienced an electronics issue right before shutdown. In this failure mode it has constant pixel values. Bill rebooted it and the issue went away. Vacuum servicing of DIS is likely to happen in Q4.
+NICFPS was vacuum cycled over shutdown.
+For TripleSpec, both Tcam and Tspec are operational.
+**Nancy expressed her sincere thanks to the 3.5m staff for doing such a great job with the summer shutdown and the training activities for the newer staff members.
+**
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 === 2024 Q3 3.5m scheduling ===
-We have one remaining unassigned half night in Q3 (Sep 14B). Users should look at the schedule and follow the usual channels for requesting this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter).
+We have one remaining unassigned half night in Q3 (Sep 14B). Users should look at the schedule and follow the usual channels for requesting this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter). [Note added in proof: there is no more unassigned time remaining in Q3.]
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 === 2024 Q4 3.5m scheduling ===
-The Q4 schedule is being assembled now; it should be out early next week. October A halves are extremely oversubscribed; some programs may not get exactly what they asked for. Lots of partial night programs in Q4 (monitoring) - look for flexible programs to fit in after/before them.
+The Q4 schedule is being assembled now; it should be out early next week. October A halves are extremely oversubscribed; some programs may not get exactly what they asked for. There will be lots of partial night (monitoring) programs in Q4, so the scheduling team will be looking for flexible programs to fit in after or before them during a half-night.
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 === 2024 Q3 0.5 scheduling ===
-The Q3 ARCSAT scheduled is posted; there is no open time available. The call for Q4 proposals will be issued after the Q4 3.5m schedule is finished. Anticipate coordinated programs in Q4
+The Q3 ARCSAT scheduled is posted; there is no open time available. The call for Q4 proposals will be issued after the Q4 3.5m schedule is finished. We anticipate that there may be some requests for coordinated programs between the 3.5m and ARCSAT in Q4.
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 === Website Modernization Effort ===
-xxx
-)  Good news:  Everything regularly used that is static is ported! (might have missed some) - let us know if missing anything, send us link of old
+Starting with the good news: All of the content that is regularly used and is relatively static has been ported to the new web site (https://newapo.apo.nmsu.edu). We might have missed some, so users should definitely let us know if we missing anything. Please provide this feedback to Shane Thomas, Ben Williams or Nancy Chanover and send us the link of the old information that did not get copied over. The next step is for Shane to stand up a development web server to stage the deployment and test how renaming the site will affect its performance. This development server will allow him to test how the new website will work once the old website is taken down (especially links that go from the new site to content on the old site) and check for broken links. The timescale for implementing the development server depends on how many other telescope issues come up in the meantime (for example, the echelle problems took quite of bit of time away from this effort during summer shutdown).
-)  Next step:  Make a development web server to stage the deployment to test how renaming the site will affect performance.
-)  In particular, this development server will allow him to test how the new website will work, once the old website is taken down (especially links that go from new to old), including testing swapping the URL, and checking for links that break.
-) The schedule of this depends significantly on how many telescope issues come up, such as the echelle problems that took quite of bit of time away from this effort during shutdown.
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 === Time Domain Astronomy Opportunity ===
-Adam - 5 replies - transient science priority for decade, open new support for grants (emeritus), new theory person very interested, Has there been use for ToO science over years and how much? Adam - wondering if spectra are of science quality or intended for quick look classification, brainstorming how could be used for flare star science. Someone close to Shri 40 pg manifesto about optical/IR science - few paragraphs relevant to 3.5m. Role of 3.5m cites Hypercam instrument could fill niche with time domain -
+Nancy collected input from the UC members about their departments' interest levels in having the 3.5m host a robotic spectrograph for rapid classification of newly discovered transients. She will assemble the information into a single summary document then respond to the instrument PI with a decision. //Thank you to all users who provided feedback.//
-Kevin - 3 users (2 faculty, 1 student), enthusiastic but likely not sure how serious that is.
-Moire - no one volunteered
-OU - 2 responses - both would prefer to use higher res instrument but no one does transient science there
-UWy - nothing
-Aleksandr - no BYU users
-Joanne - generally supportive (vague)
-Derek - too low of resolution
-Anne - got an email from Mariam Bochaz - expressed great interest in instrument and would like it for Rubin/LSST followup, happy to be involved in working group
-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, has been on the 60" telescope at Palomar and it is the leading classifier of transients. In addition to being an IFU spectrograph there is an EMCCD that can used in imaging mode or photon-counting mode (but it has a small FOV and an occultation in the center of the frame due to a pickoff mirror). It has been used for stellar science, AGN, and other science, but transient classification is really its main goal. We want to understand from the 3.5m user community whether there is an appetite for devoting some telescope time to this kind of science. This topic raised some great questions and comments:
-  * 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's port, that would require a rotator, which could be an expensive addition.
-  * Adam: would users be able to propose to use the instrument for their own programs or would it be used only for transient observations? Nancy: We would want our users to be able to use it for other science.
-  * 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 several years ago there was interest in the possibility of cross-institutional collaboration to use a portion of the available time for this kind of work.
-**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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 Open action items from previous meetings:
-  * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. Sarah reported that she is still working with few different vendors due to some weird materials issues. Apparently the KOSMOS gratings were made in an unusual way and now one or two of the glasses are no longer available. She is trying to understand what about the design is making vendors uncomfortable and several of them are no longer doing this work for astronomy. STATUS: OPEN. - Finalized quote from 1 vendor and confirmed that it includes manufacturing - it is more money, what is the process for getting them?
+  * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. Sarah reported that she has a finalized quote from one vendor. These are more expensive than we expected so we need to explore potential funding sources. STATUS: OPEN.
-  * UC reps: ask your users to review the alpha version of the new web site to determine whether the content they are used to finding on the web site is still there and easy to find. All feedback should be provided through the Google sheet given above. STATUS: OPEN.
+  * UC reps: ask your users to review the alpha version of the new web site to determine whether the content they are used to finding on the web site is still there and easy to find. All feedback should be provided through the Google sheet (link given in the August Users Committee meeting minutes). STATUS: CLOSED.
   * Nancy: Ensure that a short description of the impact of satellites be posted on the APO website somewhere and updated every 6 months or so. STATUS: OPEN. Waiting for new web site deployment may not be the best approach. Nancy will get examples of this issue from Anne Verbiscer and get something added to the current web site before the next meeting.
-  * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q3 schedule and request OPEN/DD time if they can make a good case for it.
+  * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q3 schedule and request OPEN/DD time if they can make a good case for it. Status: CLOSED.
-  * Nancy: send UC reps a summary of the time domain discussion and request to users.
+  * Nancy: send UC reps a summary of the time domain discussion and request to users. Status: CLOSED.
-  * UC reps: send Nancy's time domain discussion summary and solicit user comments and interest levels by next meeting.
+  * UC reps: send Nancy's time domain discussion summary and solicit user comments and interest levels by next meeting. Status: CLOSED.
 Open action items from this meeting:
+None.
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