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uc:uc20250107_january_7_2025 [2025/01/03 18:17]
nchanove created 		uc:uc20250107_january_7_2025 [2025/01/24 20:04] (current)
nchanove
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-Attending: UPDATE ALL: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Russet McMillan (APO), Gordon MacDonald (APO), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Eric Bellm (UW),  Ben Williams (UW), Michael Hayden (OU)  +Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Eric Bellm (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Russet McMillan (APO), Misty Bentz (GSU),  Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Zach Berta-Thompson (CU), Sarah Tuttle (UW),  Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Ben Williams (UW), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy)
  
 === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives === === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives ===
  
-  * Oklahoma - nothing to report+  * Oklahoma - no report
   * BYU - nothing to report   * BYU - nothing to report
   * JHU - nothing to report   * JHU - nothing to report
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   * Washington - nothing to report   * Washington - nothing to report
   * Georgia State - nothing to report   * Georgia State - nothing to report
-  * Colorado - nothing to report+  * Colorado - the ARCTIC diffuser rotator stopped working and users are asking about the timeline for getting it repaired; one user had a weird issue with KOSMOS when it stopped taking exposures
   * Wyoming - nothing to report   * Wyoming - nothing to report
   * UVa - nothing to report   * UVa - nothing to report
   * Seattle - nothing to report   * Seattle - nothing to report
-  * NAPG - nothing to report+  * NAPG - no report
  
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 The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting. The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.
  
-// UPDATE THIS 3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 11/05/2024 – 12/02/2024 //+// 3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 12/03/24 – 01/07/25 //
  
 1) Overview 1) Overview
  
-November has seen wintery weather with two snow storms, each with enough snow to impact operations.  During the month of November we had one astronomer group visit, one visiting instrument team on site, and no class visits.    +Weather wise, December was very mild in terms of both temperatures and precipitation. There were no astronomers, instrument teams or classes that visited APO in the month of December. 
-  +
-The October water leak was repaired successfully and hasn’t shown any issues since the repair.  The phone line that was damaged was eventually repaired and now all the services affected by the leak are back to normal operational state.   +
- +
 2) Operations 2) Operations
  
-3.5m Telescope: Telescope is moving as expected.+3.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected.
    
-0.5m Telescope:   Telescope is working well.+0.5m Telescope:   Telescope is working as expected.
    
 KOSMOS: nothing to report. KOSMOS: nothing to report.
    
-ARCTIC: had an emergency vacuum service performed due to the vacuum softening.  Instrument was returned to service without any missed observing time. Instrument seems to be experiencing an increased rate of the one quadrant dropping. Investigations to determine the cause of this trend are ongoing. +ARCTIC: We performed another emergency vacuum service due to the vacuum softening. The current hypothesis for the cause of this issue is that we may have gotten/installed an ion pump that had a defective/reduced lifetime; it is still struggling to maintain vacuum.  We plan to replace it ASAP with minimal or no impact to the science schedule. In the meantime, we have restricted instrument rotation to prevent the ion pump from shorting out when upside down, which seems to be a pattern. Additional maintenance on the diffuser mechanism will be scheduled as well given the reports of intermittent behavior at times. 
- +  
-Agile: Once we received the repaired camera back on site, in-lab testing revealed an issue that necessitated that we return the camera to the repair vendor to investigate the hardware that was changed.  The camera control software was not able to configure the camera as expected and was reporting issues with the gain parameter setting.  +Agile: It is being worked on at the repair house to investigate the hardware that was changed and how that impacts observing modes/gain settings. APO software control was not able to configure the camera as expected when it was initially tested at APO after the repairs.  
    
-ARCES: Instrument is performing nominally.  IOL measurements have held steady and are still very good. Recently, the quartz flat lamp bulb housing and/or wiring was worked on to due to the lamp not turning on.  A temporary repair is in place while parts are on order.  Instrument flats are working with the temporary fix.+ARCES: The system is up, however, over the holiday break there was an error indicating a failure to read images, which led to the instrument control software being restarted.  That restart led to additional errors when the system recovered in an unexpected way. We are investigating this further. Science was/is not affected, this only impacted daily engineering IOL data. 
      
-DIS:  Instrument is currently up and usable.  Vacuum servicing is not planned for Q4.+DIS: System is currently up and usable.
    
-NICFPS: Instrument is performing nominally.+NICFPS: System is cooled and usable.
    
-TripleSpec: Instrument is performing nominally.+TripleSpec: System is up and usable.
    
-APOLLO: system suffered a chiller failure due to leaks. The leaks were repaired and the system has successfully ranged to the moon after the repair.  The chiller that had the issue is a “spare” chiller being used because the in-service chiller had failed.  A replacement chiller is on order and will be integrated into the system when it arrives at APO.+APOLLO: system leaks were repaired and the system is in operation.
  
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 === Additional site, telescope and instrument discussion ===  === Additional site, telescope and instrument discussion === 
  
-xxx+Nothing to add other than what was in agenda. There is a multi-day weather system coming in tonight, which could include snow. The KOSMOS weirdness that Zach reported above has been resolved. There was an emergency vacuum servicing done for ARCTIC; the ion pump was replaced this past weekend. ARCTIC was used B half last night without issue. Russet suggested that we remove the rotation restriction for ARCTIC. The diffuser rotator repair is still to be scheduled; it was tensioned but the rotation sensor is not working properly. Agile is still at the repair shop. ARCES is back and usable after the issue with daytime metrology data described in the site report above. Russet will check with Amanda about headers not being written properly for KOSMOS; this anomaly affected Zach BT a few weeks ago. 
  
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 === 2025 Q1 3.5m scheduling === === 2025 Q1 3.5m scheduling ===
  
-We have some unassigned time in Q1 next week (xxx) as well as in Feb (xxx). 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). Users can request time listed as OPEN or DD.+We have some unassigned time in Q1 (mostly B halves). This time is listed as OPEN on the Q1 schedule. 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).
  
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 === 2025 Q1 0.5 scheduling === === 2025 Q1 0.5 scheduling ===
  
-The 2025 Q1 ARCSAT scheduled is posted. There is time available in the last week of December (but with no requests for filter changes).+The 2025 Q1 ARCSAT scheduled is posted. We only had 2 requests this quarter (note added in proof: we received a third request, so there are now 3 programs scheduled to use ARCSAT in Q1). We are continuing to struggle with frequent failures in communication with the camera (which manifests as a "support library error"); FlareCam is getting old. The temporary fix is fairly quick so if observers can keep an eye on it and report errors it can be recovered pretty quickly. In early March we will have an onsite class and other stuff going on so ARCSAT is not available during weeks when the schedule is marked BUSY.
  
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 === Website Modernization Effort === === Website Modernization Effort ===
  
-xxx+There is a plan to run a test tomorrow for converting the site to new servers (but this may be postponed due to illness).
  
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 === IT Security === === IT Security ===
  
-xxx+The IT team at APO is still researching applications to improve password handling; all we know right now is that the switching of the TUI password is coming.
  
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 === Status of new instrument initiatives ===  === Status of new instrument initiatives === 
  
-xxxx UPDATE xxxx Nancy provided some updates on instrumentation. Ocotillo underwent a Critical Design Review in mid-October and the review panel is working on finalizing their report to deliver back to the instrument team. Work is continuing on the new echelle spectrograph (now called ASPEN, short for ARC Spectrograph for Echelle iNvestigations) and some funding requests have been submitted. We will continue to update this group on a regular basis concerning both initiatives.+We have heard no news from NSF regarding the pre-proposal that was submitted for ASPEN; we hope to hear soon. Sarah reported that since having received the Ocotillo CDR report on December 2 her team has been evaluating the comments and preparing a response. They also applied for some funding and are waiting to hear back. It is clear that the instrument will come together in a phased approach, bringing the three channels online one at a time. They will start with the IFU and follow up with MOS component, which is more costly and mechanically complicated. The hope is that this would enable supported data reduction development along the way and troubleshooting as we go. It also spaces out the cost, which reduces impact on the overall observatory budget. Their goal is to have their response report back to the CDR review panel by the end of the month.
  
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 === DIS Decommissioning Plans === === DIS Decommissioning Plans ===
  
-xxx+Nancy is working on developing a document that lays out the decommissioning plan for DIS. The instrument has not been serviced and will only be available in Q1 (and Q2) in a shared risk mode.
  
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 Open action items from previous meetings: Open action items from previous meetings:
-  * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. Sarah reported that she has a finalized quote from one vendor. The grism design turns out to be a little complicated, but also, costs have gone up, so these are more expensive than we expected (ballpark $20k apiece). Therefore, we need to explore potential funding sources. We have reached an impasse in terms of prioritizing the desired grism; Nancy will amass all previous emails with grism requests and send to UC reps to query users about whether there is broad interest in a particular grism. This could help identify funding sources, either individually or collaboratively. STATUS: OPEN.+  * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. Sarah reported that she has a finalized quote from one vendor. The grism design turns out to be a little complicated, but also, costs have gone up, so these are more expensive than we expected (ballpark $20k apiece). Therefore, we need to explore potential funding sources. We have reached an impasse in terms of prioritizing the desired grism; Nancy will amass all previous emails with grism requests and send to UC reps to query users about whether there is broad interest in a particular grism. This could help identify funding sources, either individually or collaboratively. STATUS: OPEN. Nancy has started a proposal to the Mt. Cuba Foundation for several grisms and hopes to have it submitted before the next Users Committee meeting.
   * 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. Nancy received examples of this issue from Anne Verbiscer and will get something added to the current (and new) web site. STATUS: OPEN.   * 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. Nancy received examples of this issue from Anne Verbiscer and will get something added to the current (and new) web site. STATUS: OPEN.
-  * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q4 and Q1 schedules and request OPEN/DD time if they can make a good case for it. STATUS: OPEN. +  * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q1 schedule and request OPEN/DD time if they can make a good case for it. STATUS: OPEN.
-  * UC reps: remind your users that they can propose to use Agile in Q1 2025 (but must include a backup instrument). STATUS: CLOSED.+
  
 Open action items from this meeting:  Open action items from this meeting: 
  
-  * UC reps: poll your Agile users concerning whether or not they adjust the camera gain setting +  * None.
-  * UC reps: alert your users to the fact that plans are being formulated for decommissioning DIS (see below).+
  
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 === All Other Business === === All Other Business ===
  
-xxx+None
  
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uc/uc20250107_january_7_2025.1735928268.txt.gz · Last modified: 2025/01/03 18:17 by nchanove

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