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==== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 05/02/2023 ====

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Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Gordon MacDonald (APO), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Eric Bellm (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Adam Kowalski (CU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Ben Williams (UW)

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

  * FGCU - no report
  * NAPG - no report
  * Seattle - Joanne is working with Joe Burchett (NMSU) and Bill (APO) on getting her MOS slits for KOSMOS designed and fabricated. The process is on schedule for her upcoming observing run.
  * BYU - nothing to report
  * Wyoming - no report
  * Oklahoma - email report from Muk: "We had a fantastic class trip (5 undergrads + 1 TA + myself) in mid-April. The weather cooperated most of the time as well. This trip is always the highlight of our Observing Methods course. Thanks to Candace (especially), Russet, and Amanda for all their help."
  * Georgia State - nothing to report
  * UVa - nothing to report
  * Colorado - nothing to report from users. Thanks for discussing financials with CU budget person.
  * JHU - nothing to report
  * NMSU - nothing to report
  * Washington - 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, 4/5/2023 – 5/1/2023 //

1) Overview

APO weather for April was very spring like. Temperatures are increasing and the snow is mostly all melted.  

April was another busy month with one class (CU) on site in the middle of the month and two visiting instrument teams, one at the beginning of the month (LANL) and one at the end of the month (APOLLO).  May will be little quieter with one class (late in the month) and one visiting instrument team (mid-month).  

2) Operations

3.5m Telescope: operating nominally over the past month.
 
0.5m Telescope:  The loaner camera from BYU (BYUCam) was successfully used this past month.
 
KOSMOS saw a failure of its umbilical hose that vents heat and carries power and fiber lines to the instrument. LN2 from the dewar exhaust fell onto the plastic and caused it to shatter. Exhaust was redirected away from the umbilical and the umbilical hose was repaired.
 
The ARCTIC diffuser rotator is planned to be serviced in May. The primary mirror cover baffle for the NA2 port has been installed. This now allows users to take dome flats with ARCTIC without a noticeable gradient across the field. Observing specialists will need to rotate the instrument relative to the telescope elevation for good flats. Users should coordinate with their observing specialist if they want to take dome flats.
 
Agile sync failures are still being investigated and tracked. A control board swap is being planned.
 
DIS scattered light is improving slowly, as expected. However, the blue side is still considered bad and red is considered borderline usable by APO.  
 
Nothing new to note for any of the other instruments.
 
3) Other

Mirror coating system for LDT chamber design was completed.  Material is being procured to build system. 

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=== Additional telescope and instrument discussion === 

The moths are back at APO for the warm weather season :(    The KOSMOS hose was repaired and the ARCTIC diffuser will be serviced soon to troubleshoot the rotation issue. The NA2 baffle fence has been installed and ARCTIC users can now take dome flats. BYUCam is performing nicely.

Plans are proceeding to have M1 realuminized at Lowell Observatory this summer. The design for the mirror support system in the Lowell chamber is finished. Note added in proof: the dates for the summer shutdown have been finalized. ** Shutdown will start on July 26 and the anticipated return to science is August 22 ** (although that could slip by several days if the weather during engineering recovery is poor).

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=== Software update === 

Recall that a couple of months ago we heard an update about pyvista from Jon Holtzman (see notes here: [[uc:uc20230307_march_7_2023|APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 03/07/2023]]). Today Nancy provided a status updated on PyKOSMOS (from Jim Davenport at UW):

The code is functional for most all reduction tasks, and being used by folks for lots of basic reduction. The methods in PyKOSMOS have already helped influence the maturing “specreduce” astropy package, and it is available on GitHub with moderate documentation: [[https://github.com/jradavenport/pykosmos]]. Jim has a student who is working towards making the project “pip installable”, for super easy setup for most python users. There will be some tweaks to the code in the next couple months due to this but hopefully it will be easier to install/use as a result. Next steps in the software development include algorithm improvements (e.g. “optimal” extraction), which probably will be part of astropy instead of PyKOSMOS, as well as a bunch of small APO/KOSMOS specific things (handling the variable biases better, fixing header issues, making a more robust automatic wavelength solution that account for internal sag w/ the rotation, building a library of standard calibration files for easier automated reduction, etc.). Jim currently does not have the bandwidth or personnel to work on these tasks but thinks that improving PyKOSMOS would be an amazing summer project for a grad student, and he would welcome support and/or collaboration from other ARC members.

Adam Kowalski also mentioned that he also has a python module for spectral extraction that he is willing to share.

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=== Instrumentation update === 

The echelle science tiger team met once in April and discussed potential science drivers for the new instrument. Work is proceeding on the conceptual design and trade studies include the use of a dispersion corrector, spectropolarimetry, and options for tip-tilt correction; periodic feedback between the design team and science users is expected.

There have been some discussions about options for multi-band and/or speckle imaging capabilities, and the DSSI team continues to test out their instrument on the 3.5m. If users are interested in learning more about its capabilities they should contact Nancy so she can facilitate that exchange of information.

Joe Burchett (NMSU) was recently awarded a grant that will cover the fabrication costs of slit masks for those who are interested in trying out the MOS capabilities of KOSMOS. **UC reps: please make your users aware of this opportunity.**

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=== Q2 3.5m scheduling ===

There is some unassigned time at end of May: 1 unencumbered dark B half (19 May) and 2 grey A halves (24, 25 May) adjacent to sunset APOLLO observations. And also some time early June: June 1B and June 4B (both unencumbered but bright). Users are encouraged to request this time if they can make use of it (particularly those who have been weathered out recently). As a reminder, users should include Ben, Russet, Amanda, Nancy and their institutional scheduler on all schedule related emails.

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=== Q3 3.5m scheduling ===

Ben will be sending out the institutional allocations later this week. UC reps/institutional schedulers: please notify your users of the summer shutdown dates and remind Q3 proposers that the return to science date is contingent upon having good weather during the recovery period.

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=== Summer 2023 AAS meeting ===

The June 2023 AAS meeting will be held in Albuquerque on June 4-8 and we (APO) will have a booth at this meeting given its proximity to APO. Nancy is giving a talk about APO in a special session about astronomy and astronomy education in New Mexico. UC reps: please remind your department members that if anyone is going to be at the June AAS meeting and presenting APO-related science they should let Nancy know! 

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=== ACTION ITEMS === 

Open action items from previous meetings:

  * Nancy: make sure that the APO web site gets updated to address the issues reported by Eric B. in December. Status: CLOSED. These issues were all 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. //A notice was added to reflect the fact that this search tool will not work from computers outside of the APO VPN.//
     * the ToO policy is not easily found. //this was fixed.//
  * Nancy: get updated on pyKOSMOS and report to UC next month. -> CLOSED.
  * Nancy: track down missing ARCTIC data reduction scripts for wiki. -> OPEN
  * UC reps: notify your KOSMOS users that counts > 150k are not physical. -> CLOSED
  * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q2 schedule and request OPEN/DD time if they can make a good case for it. -> OPEN


New action items from this meeting:
  * UC reps: Notify your users that we have funds to purchase slit masks for MOS runs with KOSMOS
  * UC reps: Notify your users of the summer shutdown dates, and remind them when submitting their Q3 proposals that the return to science date is dependent on good weather during the recovery engineering time.
  * UC reps: Have any department members who are planning to attend the summer AAS meeting and present APO-related science contact Nancy.

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=== All Other Business ===

None

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=== Next meeting ===

The next meeting will be on **Tuesday June 6, 10:30 am MDT.** This will be during the week of AAS but since it appears that relatively few people from this group will be at the meeting, it should not present a major conflict.

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