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==== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 02/07/2023 ====

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Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Derek Buzasi (FGCU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Adam Kowalski (CU), Russet McMillan (APO), Mukremin Kilic (OU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Eric Bellm (UW), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Ben Williams (UW), Caleb Wang (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa)
 

=== User feedback and comments from institutional representatives ===

  * JHU - a user reported that the scattered light they were seeing in KOSMOS data taken during twilight was worse than what they saw with DIS. After some speculation of what could be causing this (e.g. scattering off the edges of the window?) we agreed that we need to get an example of what the user is seeing. **Nancy or Russet will contact the user and get example data files to try to diagnose this problem.**
  * UVa - nothing to report
  * FGCU - nothing to report
  * NAPG - no report
  * NMSU - no report
  * Seattle - nothing to report other than Joanne is intending to bring a class to APO towards the end of Q2
  * Colorado - a user contacted Adam to express interest in getting an update on the echelle upgrade. They are curious about the process of information gathering for the design and asked whether large changes are still possible (e.g. the inclusion of spectropolarimetry, wavelength range, etc.). Nancy said that she is in the process of formulating a small tiger team to look at some of these issues from the science perspective. ** Nancy will develop a communications plan about instrumentation upgrades to share with the UC next month.** 
  * Wyoming - nothing to report
  * Oklahoma - a user asked about the availability of quicklook reduction software for use with KOSMOS. ** Nancy will find out when pyKOSMOS is expected to be broadly available.**
  * Washington - nothing to report
  * Georgia State - nothing to report

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=== Telescope and Instruments Report === 

The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.

//3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 12/5/2022 – 2/5/2023 //

1) Overview

Happy New Year! APO is weathering the winter storms - it seems like there has been more snow this year compared to the previous couple of years.  The site has experienced cold temperatures and snow sticking around for a significant number of days.   

December and January were quiet in terms of class or instrument teams visiting the observatory.  February will see the planning finalized for the UVa (DSSI team) and CU class (France), which are both scheduled to come in March with some slight overlap. We are also looking forward to a rescheduled UW visit for KOSMOS servicing, which we hope will happen in February.

2) Operations

The 3.5m telescope as well as the 0.5m ARCSAT telescope have both performed as expected over the past two months.  Of note for the 0.5m telescope: it will soon have a loaner FLI camera installed as a replacement for SurveyCam. The goal is to have it installed by the beginning of Q2. The FLI camera was provided by BYU for use at APO - thank you BYU!

TUI 3.1.0 is available for most common OS versions (MacOS, Windows, Linux).
 
The KOSMOS instrument is slated for servicing, with UW visiting APO for the work. A good news item related to KOSMOS is that the upgraded slit viewer shutters have not had any issues with cold temperature operations this winter.
 
DIS scattered light is improving slowly, as expected. However, the blue channel is still considered bad and the red channel is considered borderline usable by APO.  

There is nothing new to note for any of the other instruments.
 
3) Other

Efforts are continuing for the design of a system that will allow the 3.5m mirror to be coated in the LDT chamber. 

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=== Additional telescope and instrument discussion === 

Jamey indicated that he is open to suggestions for new formats or content on his monthly site report; if people have requests please let him or your UC rep know. The observatory is currently experiencing horizontal snow (!). There was a major rockslide (more like rock-fall) on HW 82 coming up from Alamogordo, just before the tunnel. This closed the road for 4 days while NMDOT worked to clear the road (which including pushing some rocks over the edge into the canyon). This meant that it took an extra 1.5 hrs to get to APO from Alamogordo. Fortunately we did not have any LN2 deliveries scheduled during the closure. Here are some pictures: {{:uc:49d598be-0896-4941-9785-c3b2469fabe5.png?linkonly|Pic1}} {{ :uc:586b8535-be95-499a-ad45-55f4ae039510.png?linkonly|Pic2}} {{ :uc:259759d5-906a-4d4e-9221-2b96ce8a84bd.png?linkonly |Pic3}}.

The DSSI group is coming in early March, and a CU class is arriving right after that. We are trying to schedule a KOSMOS servicing visit from Sarah Tuttle to address the CTE issue and cleanup of readouts.

DIS measurements made on sky last night showed that the peak brightness is 10% of what it was last year. In the red one can sum pixels; the net effect is like being out of focus. With 1x2 binning, we are seeing a peak ~ 40% of where it was a year ago. Adam asked if the DIS contamination will be better by the time of the CU class visit, since Kevin France (class instructor) is a DIS user. Russet replied that the red will be noticeably better since this issue is temperature dependent  and it evolves more quickly in warmer weather. The blue side is coming up to point where it will turn around and start improving, but we probably won't see much change in the next month; we do expect to see continued improvement through May.

The TUI upgrade to python3 is available for user download and is probably most important for Linux users (of which there are quite a few at OU, JHU, and UWy). Users should install and use the new software and let us know if they have any problems with it.

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=== KOSMOS update === 

Nothing to report beyond what is stated above.

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=== Q1 3.5m scheduling ===

There are several unassigned dates remaining in the Q1 schedule: Feb 9 (short half, in bright time), Feb 20B (dark, unencumbered), and Mar 27B. [Note added in proof; only Mar 27B remains.]

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=== Q2 3.5m scheduling ===

All schedulers have received their allocations for Q2; requests are due 2/24. Schedulers: please include Amanda when sending in your requests. We blocked out several nights in early April for a visiting instrument; during that period only the middle 6 hours of the night will be available. We will try to schedule Agile or ARCES during that time to avoid instrument changes. Joanne stated that she plans to request 2 nights in late May or June that are scheduled close together so that she can bring class up to observe with KOSMOS and ARCTIC. She needs to know personnel limits for the site (she anticipates bringing 5-7 students and several helpers). **Nancy will confirm the numbers with the operations crew offline and will report back to Joanne.**

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=== Q1 ARCSAT scheduling ===

There is some open time available in March. The Observing Specialists are getting trained on the Shelyak so that it can eventually be made available to the broader user community. We received a long-term loan of an FLI imaging camera (to replace SurveyCam) from BYU and we hope to have it available and ready for use in Q2.

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=== AAS 241 Meeting Recap ===

Nancy provided a brief summary of how things went at the APO booth we had at the AAS 241 meeting in Seattle. As a reminder, the goals of having a booth were to raise the visibility of the facility, talk to others in the industry, showcase the science results enabled by observations at APO, provide a center for ARC members to connect with each other, and promote the open positions at the observatory since we are currently hiring.

The general feeling was that it was a very successful meeting, and we achieved most of the aforementioned goals. Bill made some important face-to-face connections with people at other observatories as well as vendors from PlaneWave and FingerLakes, and Jamey highlighted the importance of the booth for talking to students (which could help with recruitment for the graduate programs of the ARC institutions). A number of students inquired about internship possibilities and short-term positions (e.g. during a gap year), so we ought to think more about whether that is something we would want to implement. Several UC reps said that their students were excited about the booth and that it was useful for raising visibility of the facility.

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=== ACTION ITEMS === 

Open action items from previous meetings:

  * Nancy: start investigations re: short wavelength throughput (climate data, other facilities). No news. Going forward we are tabling this action item and will not be reporting on it since we are in the process of sorting out the realuminization plans for M1, which takes priority. Status: TABLED.
  * Nancy: make sure that the APO web site gets updated to address the issues reported by Eric B. in December. Status: OPEN. There were several issue that needed to be addressed:
     * the wiki link on the 3.5m page still pointed to the old wiki - //this was fixed.//
     * the Search Site function on the APO home page does not work. //Testing is ongoing to solve this;// it appears to be a VPN issue for the site web server (i.e., it works for people at APO but does not work for people accessing the web pages from off-site locations).
     * the ToO policy is not easily found. //We are working on a document// that we can post on the scheduling page to make this information more easy to locate.
  * UC reps: distribute information about the AAS meeting and our request for participation/help at the booth. Status: CLOSED.
  * Nancy: send out a new calendar invitation with the UC meeting dates for 2023. Status: CLOSED.

New action items from this meeting:

  * Nancy or Russet: get sample KOSMOS data from JHU user who reported scattered light issue
  * Nancy: share communications plan re: new instrumentation with UC at next meeting
  * Nancy: get updated on pyKOSMOS and report to UC next month
  * Nancy: notify Joanne of site restrictions regarding maximum number of people in visiting group

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=== All Other Business ===

None.

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=== Next meeting ===

The next meeting will be on **Tuesday March 7, 10:30 am MST.**

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