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==== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 10/03/2023 ====

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


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

  * NAPG - no report
  * UVa - nothing to report; we circulated requests for users to provide science highlights
  * NMSU - nothing to report
  * BYU - nothing to report
  * Seattle - thanks for help with recent site visit; we are still working out bugs related to aligning slit masks
  * Washington - nothing to report
  * Georgia State - nothing to report
  * Colorado - nothing to report
  * Oklahoma - nothing to report
  * Wyoming - nothing to report
  * JHU - nothing to report
  * FGCU - nothing to report other than having had bad weather for recent observing run

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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, 9/05/2023 – 10/02/2023 //

1) Overview

September was a welcome quieter month at APO. The telescope has continued to work well after the shutdown.  Weather has been very nice as well. Humidity/storms are starting to pickup and temps are starting to drop.  

Late September a visiting group of SDSS5 programmers descended upon APO for a software coding workshop hosted at APO/Sunspot. October will have two visiting classes: one from NMSU and one from UVa. Both are large classes and will fill up APO housing.

2) Operations

3.5m Telescope: 

- M3 rotation was repaired with a replacement high resolution encoder. A plan is also being developed for an upgrade path for the M3 rotation system.

- Telescope balance continues to be refined after the removal of the LANL instrument. There is an occasional motion error during slews. So far no reports have been received about motion errors while tracking. 
 
0.5m Telescope:  Filter wheel was replaced with a 7 position version that was donated by Oliver Fraser at UW. Many thanks for that! The telescope is working with a reduced filter set.  

Instruments: 

KOSMOS is experiencing random failures during diffuser wheel motion. Investigation is ongoing.
 
ARCTIC diffuser’s rotator service had to be postponed, and will be rescheduled for a later date.
 
Agile's TEC controls failed. Attempted repairs have so far been unsuccessful.    
 
The ARCES interorder light ratios (measure of scattered light in the instrument) are still excellent.
 
DIS scattered light on the red camera is considered to be very good. The blue camera has been improving with the warmer weather; as temperatures cool, we expect the improvement to level off for the winter.

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=== Additional telescope and instrument discussion === 

We have had reasonable weather, although it has been very variable lately. In October into November we will be busy with class visits (NMSU followed by UVa followed by BYU). The M3 rotation issue was fixed. Efforts are still underway to improve the telescope balance and motion errors; next month we will tune the position integral derivatives (PID) parameters. We did restore the slew velocity settings and that seems to have improved things.

We have a used 7-position filter wheel that was donated by Oliver Fraser at UW to replace the broken one on the 0.5m. It is now installed and working, and we thank UW for the donation!

The instruments are generally behaving. The KOSMOS disperser wheel recently had an issue where the command will sometimes time out when moving from red to blue. We have a plan for fixing it when it gets stuck, and have strategies laid out for how to deal with it if the problem recurs. If it happens the Observing Specialist will suggest that long slit users should rotate the slit by 180 degrees, and MOS users should rotate to a different empty position.

Regarding our recent cybersecurity efforts, we have been forced to clamp down on the outward facing computers. This has had no affect on operations (so far). We are looking at using Bit Defender, an enterprise-level service to lock down servers and prevent viruses. If anyone has an experience with using Bit Defender, please let Jamey know. Muk asked how frequently the site servers are backed up, noting that it was thanks to the daily backups that Gemini was able to recover from their cyberattack as quickly as they did. Jamey replied that our machines are backed up daily, and we have several levels of backups using a combination of on-site virtual machines and a cloud-based backup.

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=== Feedback request re: high cadence imaging === 

Nancy had sent the Users Committee members an email on 9/28/23 with several questions to discuss with their departmental users, particularly those who used Agile and/or use ARCTIC for high cadence imaging. **Feedback and inputs are requested by October 18:**

  * what is your desired time resolution for imaging?
  * how bright are your typical observing targets?
  * what is your desired imaging field of view? (ARCTIC max is ~ 7.8’, Agile was 2.2’)
  * do you anticipate your needs for high cadence imaging to change or increase in light of upcoming discoveries (e.g. with LSST)?

Muk reported that he regularly used Agile and will have to see how ARCTIC works for him to determine whether it will meet his scientific needs. The larger FOV of ARCTIC will help, and the detector is more sensitive so he could go to shorter exposures. He asked if ARCTIC's timing is sync'ed to a GPS; the answer is no and it would not be straightforward to implement that. So the absolute timing for ARCTIC will not be what it was with Agile.

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=== Slides Request for ARC BoG Meeting === 

Nancy issued her annual request for science highlights (at least one from every ARC member institution and leasing partner!) for the ARC Board Meeting on November 4. Any file format is fine, but please make sure that each slide contains: researcher’s name and institution, a few bullets describing the science result and instrument used, and a graphic to complement the text. Users can send Nancy the slide directly or (preferably) UC reps can collect them and send them to her in a single packet. **The deadline for submitting slides is Monday October 23.** These are important for conveying to the Board members that their institution's investment in ARC and the 3.5m is worthwhile!

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=== Q4 3.5m scheduling ===

We have a moderate amount of unassigned time (OPEN or DD02) starting in early November. A lot of it is bright and or shorter than a full half-night. Users are reminded to check the schedule for their assigned time; if a program is allocated half-nights that are truncated due to sharing with a short monitoring program, they may have been scheduled for more half nights than they were expecting.

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=== Q4 0.5m scheduling ===

The schedule is almost ready to be published, with four different programs that requested time. As a reminder, the 7-position filter wheel is now available.

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=== Future Meetings ===

APO will once again have a booth at the January AAS meeting; in 2024 the meeting will be in New Orleans. We hope that many 3.5m users will present results enabled by observations made at APO, and that we can get some help staffing the booth. More details to come next month.

Nancy reminded everyone that 2024 will mark the 30th anniversary of operations at APO and the 3.5m. In 2014 there was a big bash at the Visitors Center, which included science talks and many of the founding members coming back to visit. In 2019 we held a strategic planning meeting, in conjunction with a 25th anniversary celebration dinner. //Do we want to do anything for the 30th anniversary?// The ARC Board Chair requested that Nancy poll the Users Committee. Joanne reported that her Dean came with her for the 20th anniversary event and it was very successful, enabling her to become a leasing partner. Misty attended both of last two celebrations and thought it would be fun to do more of a party (like in 2014). It would be a great opportunity to show off the facilities, particularly if we could get administrators from the ARC institutions to attend. Derek agreed. Kevin didn't think that JHU would attend such an event. Chip shared UWY's experience of the WIRO 30th anniversary celebration; he thought it was a good celebration event and it helped administrators to see facility. He made a video that he continues to show as needed; Russet thought this would be a good opportunity to update our out-of-date videos.

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=== ACTION ITEMS === 

Open action items from previous meetings: None

New action items from this meeting:
  * UC reps: solicit input from users re: high time resolution imaging needs; feedback due to Nancy on 10/18
  * UC reps: collect science highlight slides from users; send to Nancy by 10/23


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=== All Other Business ===

None.

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=== Next meeting ===

The next meeting will be on November 7 at 10:30 MST.

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