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uc:uc20260113_january_13_2026 [2026/01/13 14:45]
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uc:uc20260113_january_13_2026 [2026/01/13 21:17] (current)
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| Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), | Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Kristian Finlator (NMSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Michael Hayden (OU), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Ben Williams (UW), Misty Bentz (GSU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Amanda Townsend (APO), Adam Kowalski (CU), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Sarah Tuttle (UW), Shane Thomas (APO) |
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| Sarah Tuttle (UW), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Michael Hayden (OU), Eric Bellm (UW), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Ben Williams (UW), Misty Bentz (GSU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa) | |
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| === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives === | === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives === |
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| * Wyoming - no report | * Wyoming - nothing to report |
| * Williams - nothing to report (by email) | * Williams - nothing to report (by email) |
| * Washington - nothing to report other than users are eager to hear about KOSMOS updates | * Washington - nothing to report (by email) |
| * UVa - nothing to report | * UVa - Anne is currently unable access the observing schedule on the new website and does not see a way to access the old website as was promised last month (this was discussed later in the meeting) |
| * Oklahoma - nothing to report other than users are eager about KOSMOS updates | * Oklahoma - nothing to report |
| * NMSU - nothing to report other than users are eager to hear about KOSMOS updates | * NMSU - nothing to report |
| * JHU - nothing to report | * JHU - nothing to report |
| * Georgia State - nothing to report | * Georgia State - nothing to report |
| * Colorado - no report | * Colorado - nothing to report |
| * Colgate - no report | * Colgate - no report |
| * BYU - nothing to report | * BYU - Aleksandr reported that a user who tried to sign up for an account on the new website discovered that BYU was not listed as an institution option (this was discussed later in the meeting) |
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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. |
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| // 3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 10/08/25 – 12/02/25 // | // 3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 12/02/25 – 01/13/26 // |
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| 1) Overview | 1) Overview |
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| This report spans two months, as the November meeting was cancelled due to its conflict with the ARC Board of Governors meeting. | The past month was a mix of excellent skies and very unsettled weather. About a third of the time was lost due to clouds, wind, and a few days when we could not open the enclosure due to an ice and snow storm. |
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| The first half of October experienced very unsettled weather, while the second half of the month through the middle of November had beautifully clear skies. The latter part of November again was nearly weathered out, and we saw our first light snowfalls of the season. | We had one student training visit during this time period. |
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| We had three class visits during this time period: (NMSU) mid-October, (UVa) end of October, and (Colgate) mid-November. Russet McMillan and Amanda Townsend are currently sharing training responsibilities. We had a visiting PI Instrument observing run early in November. | |
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| 2) Operations | 2) Operations |
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| 3.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected. Seasonal motion errors continue to occur infrequently. We anticipate that some tuning of the axis drives will be necessary soon with the cooling weather. The failures have not increased as expected so far. There was an instance of a motor amplifier fault on the tertiary mirror actuator in mid-October. It was corrected by homing the mirror and restarting the mirror controller software. | 3.5m Telescope: The telescope is working quite well. We experienced one instance of collimation failure when one of the actuators for the secondary mirror did not reach or fail to move to the commanded position. The problem was corrected by homing the mirror. A moderate correction to collimation was applied during engineering last week. |
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| 0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected. Dcam-spare and UVAcam are both available options for users. Additional testing of BYUcam was performed during some available engineering time. The water spots were cleaned from Dcam-spare, and the chamber repressurized with gaseous nitrogen. | 0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected. Dcam-spare was having issues with the CCD chamber frosting up. Even after multiple attempts, it could not be cleaned or made reliable. We pulled Dcam off of DIS and put it into service. Dcam and UVAcam are both available options for users. |
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| KOSMOS: System is cold and stable. Repaired the cold strapping and reassembled the cryostat near the end of October. A month later, we experienced dewing on the cryostat window, which was dried and waterspots cleaned using purge air. | KOSMOS: System is cold and stable. The instrument dispenser wheel had one instance of not moving when commanded. It was corrected by manually repositioning it. There was one night when the camera focus was not properly set, and some confusion resulted when the telescope focus seemed to be running low. It was corrected the next night. Some of the silicon wafers manufactured with slits have been damaged in their holders. They appear to have developed stress cracks from the differential thermal expansion of the aluminum holders. We are currently seeking companies that may be able to manufacture spares. |
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| ARCTIC: The diffuser rotation mechanism is still unreliable even after a full servicing. The mechanism that moves the diffuser in and out of the optical path is still functional in the meantime. There was an instance where the controller locked up, making exposures impossible. Resetting led to a quadrant drop. Recovery was not as smooth as expected, and the cryostat was put on a vacuum pump for a day to allow the ion pump to latch. There was one instance where the filter wheel controller required a restart because it was unable to receive commands. The restart occurred during afternoon checkout, and no time was lost. | ARCTIC: The diffuser rotation mechanism is still unreliable even after a full servicing. The mechanism that moves the diffuser in and out of the optical path is still functional in the meantime. There was another instance this month of the filter wheel controller losing connection and requiring a reset. On another night, the instrument refused to take an exposure because another one was in progress that would not clear. An init resulted in a dropped upper left quad. The observer got back on the sky, using single amplifier mode. During the holiday break, a failure of the ion pump resulted in a loss of vacuum. The repair required a swap of the ion pump, putting the instrument back on a vacuum pump, a different ion pump controller, and a cable. Special thanks to Cary Smith, who came in over his time off to restore the instrument. |
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| Agile / SoonerCam: The Agile camera is non-operational due to a failed thermoelectric cooler. The camera and ICC are currently powered down. The camera is warm and no further repair work is scheduled because we plan to decommission the camera. The Agile instrument rotator is still not performing nominally, and we will be troubleshooting it further to prepare for SoonerCam. SoonerCam parts are on hand, and assembly and software development will begin after the first of the new year. | SoonerCam: The agile instrument rotator is still not performing nominally, and we will be troubleshooting it further to prepare for SoonerCam. SoonerCam parts are on hand, assembled, and software development has begun. The first biases using low-level commands were taken this past week. |
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| ARCES: As reminder to all ARCES users, we discovered that the FITS header keyword for DATE-OBS was incorrect by approximately 45 minutes, indicating a future time when an image was written. The problem began on or after August 27, 2024. If time stamps are important for your echelle observations, please take note. | ARCES: There was an intermittent failure of the thorium argon lamp power supply, resulting in lamp dropouts or weak lines. Cleaning the rheostat that controls the adjustment of amperage was a temporary fix until we can possibly repair it with a new part. |
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| DIS: System is powered down and warm. Decommissioning plans have begun. | DIS: System is powered down and warm. Decommissioning plans have begun. The instrument has been decabled, and we will be lowering it off the observing floor soon. |
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| NICFPS: System is cooled and usable. | NICFPS: System is cooled and usable. |
| TripleSpec: System is cooled and usable. | TripleSpec: System is cooled and usable. |
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| APOLLO: The instrument is usable for laser ranging. The observing team hit 6 reflectors on two different observational nights — well done! The instrument had been experiencing some issues with its cooling water flow. Kinked water lines to the laser were identified and repaired. | APOLLO: The instrument is usable for laser ranging. The team has experienced a streak of poor weather and software connection issues over the past month. |
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| === Additional site, telescope and instruments discussion === | === Additional site, telescope and instruments discussion === |
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| We held a public Open House at APO on October 11, during which we welcomed roughly 200 visitors to APO for tours, talks and interactive exhibits. Thanks to the nearly 30 volunteers from APO, Sunspot Solar Observatory, and the NMSU Astronomy Department who helped to make this event a tremendous success. | There was one student group that visited last month. We've had some winter weather and were closed for two nights due to ice on the enclosure and lightning arrestors. |
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| There were three class visits in Oct-Nov and another one coming up at the end of this week. Currently most of the training responsibilities have been transferred over to Russet and Amanda. | As for instruments, both KOSMOS and ARCTIC each had some problems last month. There was an instance when the KOSMOS disperser wheel was commanded and then got stuck; this was remedied by the operator going up to the observing level and moving it by hand. We had one instance where the camera focus wasn't set properly and caused confusion regarding the telescope focus; this was corrected. We've seen some stress cracks in the UW-manufactured silicon wafer slits, likely due to differential expansion of the aluminum holders. We are working to identify a manufacturer for new spares/replacements. |
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| The 3.5m telescope has been working fairy well. We still have occasional (seasonal) motion errors, but we haven't seen them increase so we haven't further tuned the axis drives. There was a motor amplifier fault with the tertiary mirror, which was corrected by homing the mirror. These events happen pretty infrequently but their root cause is difficult to track down. | ARCTIC had a failure of the filter wheel; this was discovered by an observing specialist in the afternoon and fixed by the engineering staff that same day so it did not impact observing. We had another instance where the instrument exposure was stuck and could not be commanded to take another. An init was done, which caused a dropped quad, and the user elected to observe in the single amplifier mode for the rest of night. We had a more serious issue with an ion pump that resulted in loss of vacuum to the instrument. This was due to a failure of a high voltage cable that became welded to the pump; both needed to be replaced. Special thanks for Cary Smith who came in during his time off during the winter break to restore the instrument. |
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| On ARCSAT, the Dcam-spare camera was cleaned to remove water spots but without much success. We are likely going to replace it with the primary DIS slitviewer. **Note added in proof: this swap was made -- Dcam-spare was replaced with Dcam.** UVa-cam is still available. We have not had much luck testing BYUCam so we may send it back to FingerLakes for repair/evaluation. | First biases were achieved with the new SoonerCam setup. We are starting to develop the new ICC software and trying to learn the lower level commands for triggering the camera. |
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| For KOSMOS, we repaired the cold strapping in a temporary sense, meaning the constrained wired cold straps were put back in place because we were unable to get braided copper straps to properly silver solder to the cold head. During engineering time last night we did some additional dark testing to verify that it's still holding up as a fix and it looks to be holding. There is some dew on the cryostat window due to a lack of purge air turned on when the instrument was put back together; the spots seem to be dried up now. During Q1 we will warm the instrument and pull the cryostat to clean the window. The spots should flat-field out in the mean time and are barely noticeable. The plan is to remake some of the parts for the cryostat separately so that the servicing time is minimized. | We've seen an intermittent failure of the ARCES ThAr lamp power supply, We cleaned the connectors and this seemed to help but the issue still sporadically appears.** Users should check their ThAr exposures to make sure they have enough lines with appropriate S/N levels.** |
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| ARCTIC had some problems with the vacuum / cryostat ion pump and one instance where the filter wheel was unable to be commanded. We restarted the hardware controller in November. | DIS decommissioning continues; the instrument is decabled but still on the observing floor for now. |
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| Agile has not yet been taken apart but we have received all of the parts for SoonerCam and we will start assembling it and working on software development in January. | There have been no issues with TripleSpec or NICFPS, and APOLLO has been working well. |
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| As a reminder, the ARCES FITS headers had a DATE-OBS keyword that was incorrect for some period of time starting on August 27, 2024. The reported value is about 45 minutes ahead of the true value. Users who require precise timing information should contact the observing staff for more details. Last week we had some intermittent ThAr lamp behavior where it was not being energized. Recent ARCES should look at their calibration files to confirm that they are not blank. We do not think it's a bulb problem; it is probably a cabling or power supply issue but we are still investigating this. | We have completed hiring process for a new Support Astronomer (observing specialist). Harrison (Harry) Abbot will begin his work and training in a few days. |
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| APOLLO had two sessions in last two months where we hit all 6 retroreflectors, which is a major accomplishment. We also tracked down some water line problems and repaired the damage. | There will be a site infrastructure review held at APO next month. The goal is to review overall site and telescope infrastructure items (excluding instruments) in order to develop priorities for resource allocation in order to ensure that we maintain a highly functioning observatory. |
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| Question from UC member: is the ARCES time offset value constant or does it depend on when data were taken? Bill thinks it's constant. | |
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| === 2025 Q4 3.5m scheduling === | |
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| The Q4 schedule is posted. There is some OPEN time available on Dec 23A (short slot) and on New Year's Eve (note added in proof: the 12/31 time is now spoken for). Users interested in the Dec 23A time should send a request to Ben, Nancy, Russet, Amanda, and their institutional schedulers. | |
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| === 2026 Q1 3.5m scheduling === | === 2026 Q1 3.5m scheduling === |
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| All requests are in and the Q1 schedule is in the works, we should have the schedule published around 12/10. The ARCSAT call should come out late next week. Note added in proof: the Q1 2026 schedule is now published and the ARCSAT call for proposals for Q1 was sent out on Dec 15; proposals are due by Dec 22. | The Q1 schedule is posted. There is some OPEN time available on Jan 18A and also in February and March. Users interested in requesting any of that time should send the request (including a program ID if the project already has been assigned time this quarter, otherwise a short proposal) to Ben, Nancy, Russet, Amanda, and their institutional schedulers. |
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| === 2025 Q4 0.5 scheduling === | === 2026 Q1 0.5 scheduling === |
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| The ARCSAT Q4 schedule is posted. There are two unscheduled weeks at the end of December. | The ARCSAT Q1 schedule is posted; there is one open week remaining at the end of the quarter. |
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| === Status of new instrument initiatives === | === Status of new instrument initiatives === |
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| * SoonerCam: Nearly all of the parts we are expecting have come in. We will begin working on this in January. | * SoonerCam: See above site report and subsequent discussion. |
| * KOSMOS grisms (no change from last month): we are still awaiting a decision on the proposal we submitted for funds to support the purchase of three new grisms for KOSMOS. | * KOSMOS grisms: our proposal requesting funds to support the purchase of three new grisms for KOSMOS was not selected. We will move forward with the purchase of one or two grisms using ARC funds. If users have an opinion about this they should complete the following form **no later than Friday January 30**: https://forms.gle/Fr6LVu9o8Up782hW7 |
| * ASPEN: Work on the design of the new optical echelle spectrograph continues with the goal of completing the Preliminary Design Review in spring 2026. We hosted a productive ASPEN team meeting at APO and NMSU in October. We submitted another NSF proposal in mid-November. | * ASPEN: we have an NSF proposal pending but learned that we did receive some funds from the State of New Mexico to further advance the design. We will move forward with building the atmospheric dispersion corrector first since it can be used with ARCES. We presented a poster about ASPEN at the Jan. 2026 AAS meeting and received some positive feedback, and we submitted several papers about the instrument for the SPIE conference this summer. We still plan to hold the Preliminary Design Review in the first half of 2026, likely now in Q2. |
| * Ocotillo: The TEG team is working on optics mounting. We have the disperser for the red channel in hand and mounts are being fabricated in the shop. We are working to characterize and provide software for the camera. Fiber assembly will begin in early 2026. | * Ocotillo: Things are progressing; we have the camera in hand and someone is working on camera characterization and software. We have the grating, some optics, and the fiber in hand. The TEG will be hiring an engineer/technician at the BS/MS level very soon; interested parties should look for the job ad on the UW hiring site shortly. |
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| === Website update === | === Website update === |
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| We are tentatively planning to launch the new website on January 13, 2026. We are currently working on updating the procedure for staff access for the portion of the website that will be behind a login. The old website will still be accessible, at least for some TBD time period, but the goal is for all users to migrate to the new site and let us know if there is critical information that they can no longer find. | We flipped the switch this morning so that https://mainapo.apo.nmsu.edu became https://www.apo.nmsu.edu. This resulted in some preliminary problems as some certificates needed to be updated in order to preserve the old web site (which will be located at legacy.apo.nmsu.edu). We hope to have these sorted out by the end of the day. The links to the observing schedules are currently not working, but one can still access the Q1 schedule using this direct link: http://35m-schedule.apo.nmsu.edu/2026Q1.shtml. Shane will fix Aleksandr's reported issue ASAP. If users have difficulties finding what they need on the new site please let us know ASAP! |
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| === Recap from ARC Board of Governors meeting === | === AAS Meeting Recap === |
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| Nancy presented a subset of slides from her presentations to the ARC Board of Governors meeting in early November to provide the UC reps with a summary of the 2025 operations, science achievements, and plans for next year. | We had a booth alongside SDSS and SciServer so there was a strong APO presence at the Jan. 2026 AAS meeting in Phoenix. We were well positioned in the exhibit hall and received a lot of foot traffic; we gave away a lot of swag. |
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| === Plans for Jan. 2026 AAS meeting === | |
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| We will have a joint APO-SDSS-SciServer booth at the January 2026 AAS meeting in Phoenix. We'd love to connect with faculty, staff, postdoc and student users of APO while at the meeting. Please stop by the booth, and please let us know if any of your department members are planning to present results derived from APO data so we can showcase them! | |
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| === Data archiving discussion === | |
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| Nancy discussed the fact that we are exploring the possibility of working with an existing data archive to enable us to archive APO 3.5m data. In polling the UC reps, it seemed that there is broad support for this initiative. People agreed that this would enhance the scientific impact of APO over time, and no one seemed alarmed that the data would become public (after some proprietary period), particularly if there were a way for a user to opt-out. Nancy will provide more updates as they become available. | |
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| Open action items from previous meetings: | Open action items from previous meetings: |
| * Nancy/Sarah: follow up with Jim Davenport about the status of PyKOSMOS and report back. The update is that PyKOSMOS is openly available on GitHub and is being used by some groups. The tutorials have not yet been fully vetted but Sarah's class just used it and will be providing suggestions for improvements. The software is not locked down so if users wish to edit it in order to address a specific issue they are welcome to do so. Status: CLOSED. | * 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 user community through the wiki. Status: OPEN. |
| * 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. Status: OPEN. | * UC reps: please discuss the idea of archiving our 3.5m data with your users and report back with any reactions, either positive (e.g., advantages that they see to having a data archive) or negative (e.g., potential issues or concerns). No UC reps reported any feedback from users so we will be moving forward with piloting this as a next step. Status: CLOSED. |
| * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q4 schedule and request OPEN/DD01 time if they can make a good case for it. Status: OPEN. | |
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| New action items from this meeting: | New action items from this meeting: |
| * UC reps: alert your users that if they plan to attend the Jan. 2026 AAS meeting and present results derived from APO data they should notify Nancy. | * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q1 schedule and request OPEN/DD01 time if they can make a good case for it. |
| * UC reps: please discuss the idea of archiving our 3.5m data with your users and report back with any reactions, either positive (e.g., advantages that they see to having a data archive) or negative (e.g., potential issues or concerns). | |
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| === Proposed meeting schedule for 2026 === | === Next Meeting === |
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| There was no objection to maintaining the same meeting schedule in 2026, i.e. the first Tuesday of the month at 10:30 am MT. The only exception will be in January, since the first Tuesday conflicts with the AAS meeting so we moved it one week later. Therefore, the 2026 meeting dates will be on Jan 13, Feb 03, Mar 03, Apr 07, May 05, Jun 02, Jul 07, Aug 04, Sep 01, Oct 06, Nov 03, Dec 01. Nancy will send around an updated Zoom meeting invitation. | The next Users Committee meeting will be on Tuesday February 03 at 10:30 MST. |
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