Differences

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--- uc:uc2026 [2026/02/05 17:45] – nchanove
+++ uc:uc2026 [2026/02/05 17:58] (current) – nchanove
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   * BYU - nothing to report
   * UVa - nothing to report from users; Anne thanked APO for keeping the legacy website up. We discussed the website later in the agenda.
-  * Georgia State - one user responded to Misty's request for feedback regarding having APO data made available in a public archive (after a proprietary period). The user said it would be really helpful for them as they try to locate historical data taken from APO.
+  * Georgia State - one user responded to Misty's request for feedback regarding having APO data made available in a public archive (after a proprietary period). The user said it would be really helpful for them since they are trying to locate historical data taken from APO.
   * Colorado - no report
   * Washington - nothing to report
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 === Additional site, telescope and instruments discussion ===
-The recent winter storm that affected a large swath of the US dumped heavy rain for 6-8 hours, which then froze, followed by about 2 feet of snow. Trees were weighted down by frozen ice/snow, which led to a number of downed limbs, trees, and power poled. The site lost power and was on generator power for about a week. Fortunately, the generator worked as expected the entire week. We are now open and can observe again as of last night (Monday February 2).
+The recent winter storm that affected a large swath of the US dumped heavy rain for 6-8 hours, which then froze, followed by about 2 feet of snow. Trees were weighted down by frozen ice and snow, which led to a number of downed limbs, trees, and power poles. The site lost power and was on generator power for about a week. Fortunately, the generator worked as expected throughout the entire week. We are now open and can observe again as of last night (Monday February 2).
 There was a documentary filmmaker on site for an SDSS planetarium presentation.
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 === 2026 Q2 3.5 scheduling ===
-The allocations to institutional schedulers were sent out last night. Proposals are due on February 24. We are aware of one class group that plans to visit APO during Q2 but if there are others who have not yet notified us please do so ASAP.
+The allocations were sent out to institutional schedulers last night. Proposals are due on February 24. We are aware of one class group that plans to visit APO during Q2 but if there are others who have not yet notified us please do so ASAP.
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 === Wiki discussion ===
-Jon Holtzman led a discussion of the APO wiki (http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/apo-wiki/doku.php?id=start), which he has been cleaning up recently. While the instrument manuals on the APO website are fine for learning basic properties and operational procedures of the instruments, information about "features" or "issues" for each instrument (e.g those related to data processing or tricks/tips for observing in a very specific mode) are not held in a common repository despite the vast experience spread around the ARC user community. This would be particularly useful for new users, students, etc. The user wiki was designed for this, but it has been fairly stagnant lately. Jon is leading an effort to revitalize the wiki and populate it with things that users should be aware of and provide some descriptions of reduction issues and software options. Therefore Jon is trying to collect 1) a list of features/issues for each instrument, provided by users, and 2) a list of the software options for data reduction for each instrument (no judgment here - truly, what are people using?). He needs help populating these two sections for each instrument! If you have and information regarding either of these items, please email it to Jon Holtzman (holtz@nmsu.edu). This will ultimately help all users achieve the pest possible performance from the 3.5m facility instruments for their science.
+Jon Holtzman led a discussion of the APO wiki (http://astronomy.nmsu.edu/apo-wiki/doku.php?id=start), which he has been cleaning up recently. While the instrument manuals on the APO website are fine for learning basic properties and operational procedures of the instruments, information about "features" or "issues" for each instrument (e.g those related to data processing or tricks/tips for observing in a very specific mode) are not held in a common repository despite the vast experience spread around the ARC user community. This would be particularly useful for new users, students, etc. The user wiki was designed for this, but it has been fairly stagnant lately. Jon is leading an effort to revitalize the wiki and populate it with things that users should be aware of and provide some descriptions of reduction issues and software options. Therefore Jon is trying to collect 1) a list of features/issues for each instrument, provided by users, and 2) a list of the software options for data reduction for each instrument (no judgment here - truly, what are people using?). He needs help populating these two sections for each instrument! If you have and information regarding either of these items, please email it to Jon Holtzman (holtz@nmsu.edu) so he can add it to the wiki. This will ultimately help all users achieve the pest possible performance from the 3.5m facility instruments for their science.
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 === Website update ===
-Nancy stated that we'd like to understand what users are not able to find/do on the new website in an effort to encourage users to move to that one. One user suggested getting rid of the drop-down menus on the front page and restoring all the links to the front page. Or at minimum, reducing the number of clicks that it takes to reach specific information. Another user mentioned that there are no Exposure Time Calculators for any of the instruments. Bill stated that we have tried for the last 15 years to get ETCs for all instruments but these have not been completed. Another user mentioned that there is no front page that gives an overview of all the instrument. We concluded that an efficient way to address some of these issues is to schedule a hackathon where users could meet in real time with the web development team to discuss and implement suggestions. Nancy and Ben will discuss this further with the IT staff.
+Nancy stated that we'd like to understand what users are not able to find/do on the new website in an effort to encourage users to move to that one. One user suggested getting rid of the drop-down menus on the front page and restoring all the links to the front page. Or at minimum, reducing the number of clicks that it takes to reach specific information. Another user mentioned that there are no Exposure Time Calculators for any of the instruments. Bill stated that we have tried for the last 15 years to get ETCs for all instruments but these have not been completed. Another user mentioned that there is no front page that gives an overview of all the instrument. We concluded that an efficient way to address //some// of these issues would be to schedule a hackathon where users could meet in real time with the web development team to discuss and implement suggestions. Nancy and Ben will discuss this further with the IT staff.
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 Open action items from previous meetings:
-  * Joanne Hughes: put the KOSMOS MOS data reduction software on the wiki. Joanne is waiting for an update from her colleagues at the College of Idaho. Update: Nancy connected with the folks working on this while at the AAS meeting so we are getting closer to have this software in hand and made available to the
+  * Joanne Hughes: put the KOSMOS MOS data reduction software on the wiki. Joanne is waiting for an update from her colleagues at the College of Idaho. Update: Jon Holtzman put a link to the College of Idaho software on the wiki, and notes that this is a wrapper for lower level reduction stuff in pyVista. Additional descriptive text/examples would still be welcome and good. Status: CLOSED
-user community through the wiki. Status: Holtzman put link to CofI software on the wiki, and notes that this is a wrapper for lower level reduction stuff in pyVista. Additional descriptive text/examples would stil be welcome and good. CLOSED
   * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q1 schedule and request OPEN/DD01 time if they can make a good case for it. Status: OPEN.
-  * UC reps: remind your KOSMOS users to complete this survey no later than Friday January 30 to register their final preferences for which new grism option(s) are most important for their science: https://forms.gle/Fr6LVu9o8Up782hW7 . Status: CLOSED.
 New action items from this meeting:
   * UC reps: ask your users to provide instrument usage/data reduction tips and tricks to Jon Holtzman for inclusion on the wiki.
   * UC reps: ask your users if they have experience using PypeIt with non-APO instruments; if so please contact Jon.
-  * Nancy: ensure that observatory lat/long/elevation gets put back on new APO home page
+  * Nancy: ensure that observatory lat/long/elevation gets put back on new APO home page.
   * Nancy: explore web page hackathon idea with APO webdev team.