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--- uc:uc2026 [2026/05/05 17:08] – nchanove
+++ uc:uc2026 [2026/05/06 20:34] (current) – nchanove
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 ===== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 5/05/2026 =====
-Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Cary Smith (APO), Amanda Townsend (APO), Mike Skrutskie (UVa), Denise Stephens (BYU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Michael Hayden (OU), Adam Kowalski (CU), Eric Bellm (UW), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Ben Williams (UW),  Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Amanda Chip Kobulnicky (UWy),
+Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Cary Smith (APO), Amanda Townsend (APO), Mike Skrutskie (UVa), Denise Stephens (BYU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Michael Hayden (OU), Adam Kowalski (CU), Eric Bellm (UW), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Ben Williams (UW), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy)
 === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives ===
-  * Colorado - issue w/KOSMOS data, documented that arc lamps bleed over into overscan but not flat fields, flat field slope is in overscan at level of few hundred counts, take biases close in time to the flats - APO action  - add to web page
+  * Colorado - Adam reported an issue he's seen in his KOSMOS data. It is documented that arc lamps bleed over into the overscan for KOSMOS but the documentation does not mention this for the flat fields. In fact, the flat field slope is seen in the overscan at a level of few hundred counts. This calls into question whether the overscan region is very useful. The recommendation for users is that they take biases close in time to their flats. The APO team took an action to add this to the instrument manual page, and Adam will add it to the users wiki (or will send Nancy the text to be added).
   * Williams - no report
   * Colgate - no report
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   * BYU - nothing to report
   * Wyoming - nothing to report
-  * Georgia State - nothing to report - by email
+  * Georgia State - no report
   * UVa - nothing to report
-  * JHU - user question - feasibility of Falcon 9 in August
+  * JHU - Kevin relayed a user question pertaining to the feasibility of using the 3.5m to observe the predicted impact of a Falcon 9 upper stage on the Moon in early August. Nancy indicated that she is also already thinking about trying to observe this and asked Kevin to put the user in contact with her directly, given her experience with this from observing the LCROSS impact.
   * NMSU - nothing to report
   * Washington - nothing to report
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 === Additional site, telescope and instruments discussion ===
-April - heavily impacted by DNS issues seems to be resolved
+April was heavily impacted by weather. The DNS issues seem to be resolved, resulting in improved computer connectivity. All instrument performance was normal until few days, when two unrelated KOSMOS issues cropped up. First, the KOSMOS guide camera seems to have ice condensing on the CCD, which manifests as artifacts appearing in the images. The guider still guides but this is being evaluated. Second, a user reported artifacts appearing in dark frames; it seems to be suggestive of a light leak that allowed some ambient light in and caused an internal reflection. Amanda took some more test data to try and reproduce it and is Cary working on trying to understand the source. We hope to have more information soon. ARCSAT is still offered in shared risk mode given the recent computer problems.
-instrument performance normal until last week
-KOSMOS guide camera has issues - ice on CCD - artifacts appearing in science images - light leak during cal images - Cary working on trying to see how that happened - more soon. ARCSAT still in shared risk mode. Guider still guides. Still trying to reproduce issue - weird reflection due to
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 === 2026 Q2 3.5m scheduling ===
-The Q2 schedule is posted. There is very little unassigned time because of numerous partial night programs. Both unassigned DD half nights are dark B halves in June. Users can request this time at any point although given that is later in the quarter we likely will not make a decision about it immediately.
+The Q2 schedule is posted. There is very little unassigned time because of numerous partial night programs. Both unassigned DD half nights are dark B halves in June. Users can request this time at any point although given that it is later in the quarter we likely will not make a decision about it immediately.
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 === 2026 Q3 3.5m scheduling ===
-Shutdown is July 20 - August 2. The institutional allocations were sent out yesterday. Proposals due May 26 - day after Memorial Day. xxx
+The 3.5m summer shutdown is scheduled for July 20 - August 2. The institutional allocations for Q3 were sent out yesterday; proposals are due on May 26.
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 === 2026 Q2 0.5 scheduling ===
-The ARCSAT Q2 schedule is posted. One open week at end of June.
+The ARCSAT Q2 schedule is posted. There is one open week at the end of June.
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 === FAWG report ===
-Denise Stephens presented an overview of the report completed by the Future of ARCSAT working Group (FAWG). Survey - 61 responses from all of  ARC - good demand for using ARCSAT but nearly half said it wasn't going meet their future needs. Address telescope needs first, followed by cameras, UI, observing modes.Charge: identify use cases, asses capabilities, explore future options - survey, technical discussions, Not concerned that there is a need for 0.5m, but concern is reliability (not easy to use, not supportable,). One critical failure away from being unusable.
+Denise Stephens presented an overview of the report completed by the Future of ARCSAT Working Group (FAWG), which she chaired. The charge for this group was to identify current use cases for ARCSAT, assess its current capabilities, and explore future options for making it more useful for the ARC user community. The FAWG conducted an ARC-wide survey, for which they received 61 responses. The survey results indicated that there is still a strong demand for an 0.5m telescope for teaching, training, and scientific uses, but nearly half of the respondents said that ARCSAT in its current form would not meet their future needs. The FAWG examined telescope needs first, followed by cameras, user interface, and possible observing modes. The overarching concern is the reliability of the current ARCSAT, noting that it is one critical failure away from being unusable. The FAWG provided a suite of recommendations with different cost points, which the 3.5m leadership team will evaluate in preparation for making a recommendation to the ARC Board. Nancy expressed appreciation for the time and effort that the FAWG members put into this task. She will post the final version of the FAWG report after receiving it.
-,
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 === Reporting metrics ===
-xxx NC update
+Nancy expressed an interest in collecting more information from the users concerning the impact that the 3.5m has had on grants being awarded to researchers at ARC member institutions. She already collects related information from users at two different points in the year: publications resulting from 3.5m/ARCSAT data in June-July, and science highlights for ARC Board meeting in October. She will add the grant information request to one of these calls.
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 Open action items from previous meetings:
-  * UC reps: ask your users to provide instrument usage/data reduction tips and tricks to Jon Holtzman for inclusion on the wiki. Status: OPEN.
+  * UC reps: ask your users to provide instrument usage/data reduction tips and tricks to Jon Holtzman for inclusion on the wiki. No further activity on this topic. Status: CLOSED.
   * APO: check out recently reported ARCSAT issue to see if can reproduce it and/or determine its cause. Status: CLOSED.
   * CU: Adam K. to provide some examples of ghost spectra for KOSMOS documentation, and APO could potentially take some bright object spectra during engineering time to learn more about these effects. Status: CLOSED.
-  * Nancy will ensure that the final report from the Future of ARCSAT Working Group is made available to the Users Committee so that it can be added to the agenda for our next meeting. Status: CLOSED.
+  * Nancy will ensure that the final report from the Future of ARCSAT Working Group is made available to the Users Committee so that it can be added to the agenda for our next meeting. Status: OPEN (pending receipt of final version of report).
 New action items from this meeting:
-  * TBD
+  * APO team: update KOSMOS user manual web page regarding issue of flats bleeding into overscan region.
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