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==== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 04/01/2025 ====

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Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Ben Williams (UW), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU),  Michael Hayden (OU), Eric Bellm (UW), Ben Williams (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Moire Prescott (NMSU)

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

  * Washington - nothing to report
  * BYU - nothing to report
  * UVa - nothing to report
  * Colorado - nothing to report (by email)
  * Seattle - Joanne observed last night so sent an email report: Amanda was very helpful with aligning the slit masks for MOS observations with KOSMOS; Joanne has also gotten better at making them.
  * Georgia State - no report
  * Oklahoma - nothing to report
  * JHU - nothing to report (by email)
  * NMSU - nothing to report
  * NAPG - no report
  * Wyoming - no 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, 3/04/25 – 03/31/25 //

1) Overview

March was a bit unsettled weather wise with higher spring winds and elevated dust levels for a good portion of the month. Light snow flurries, with little accumulation, on two nights was the majority of the moisture we received in March. The second half of the student group from CU and one instrument team visited APO this month. A small number of high school and college spring break tours of the site and telescope were also given mid-March. 

2) Operations

3.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected. 

0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected.  ACP Library support errors are still occurring even with the dcam-spare camera swap. USB communications dropouts are now the most likely cause of the error. Discussions on how to proceed from here will be on going. 

KOSMOS: There was some troubleshooting required following an inadvertent power down of part of the instrument. Documentation and the addition of extra labeling hopefully will correct this from happening in the future. 

ARCTIC: Maintenance on the diffuser mechanism was performed however we believe there was a failure of part of the electronics that controls rotation. Troubleshooting is continuing. Diffuser rotation has been disabled while we attempt to repair. The mechanism that moves the diffuser in and out of the optical path is still functional in the meantime. 

Agile: The camera was returned to the repair facility for additional troubleshooting. They transplanted our detector to a spare set of electronics boards, vacuum pumped and tested. We have it back now and are reinstalling at the writing of this report. I will give a further update during the meeting. 

ARCES: System is currently up and usable. There was a recent report that flat fields are shifting. The effect is mentioned in the user manual however may be of larger magnitude than has been seen in the past. The orders appear to shift a few rows from image to image. The cause is unknown at this time especially since the instrument had been so stable for years. It is advised not to use super flats in your reductions unless you carefully compare individual raw images you are combining. No further update on this problem from last month. 

DIS: System is cooled and usable.

NICFPS: System is cooled and usable.

TripleSpec: System is cooled and usable. 

APOLLO: The system is operational. The team was able to successfully receive returns off of the Next Generation Lunar Retroreflector (NGLR-1) on the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Lander. This is a major accomplishment for the team and lunar ranging operations at APO.

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=== Additional site, telescope and instrument discussion === 

The site has seen an increase in number of tour requests from various groups (school groups, amateur astronomer organizations, etc.). We've been working with an NMSU graduate student to help lead those tours, which has been an immense help. We want to be able to welcome the public to the observatory and adding this additional tour-giving capacity enables us to keep doing that.

The 3.5m telescope is functioning normally. The ARCSAT library support problems persist, even with the spare dcam in use (a new, basically out of the box camera). This could be due to the challenge associated with USB communication over such a long distance. We are currently unsure how to move forward because although there are some options, they are pricey. See below for further discussion of ARCSAT.

The ARCTIC diffuser rotator is still not working reliably. The staff continues to troubleshoot this, and in the meantime has disabled the rotation capability. The diffuser can still be used in the non-rotating mode. We are hoping to resolve this soon.

ARCES is still experiencing shifts in flat fields. We are unsure of the cause of it at this time, so we advise users not to use super-flats in their reductions until we can further understand the problem. We are hopeful that some of the ongoing PypeIt work for ARCES may provide some diagnostic information that can help us address this.

Agile is back from the repair shop but currently has two problems. (1) Something has happened with the software control of the camera readout rate. We can verify that the camera health is as expected but the current ICC is unable to change the readout speed from slow to fast, which means that the minimum exposure times are much longer than some programs would like. (2) The instrument rotator motor is not receiving power from the control cabinet. We verified that the amplifier is not putting out any current even though it does power up. We have a few spares, so are now looking into how those are programmed to see if a spare could be reprogrammed.

There was a KOSMOS problem reported earlier this month but it turned out to be a user error.

The APOLLO team is pleased to report that we got returns from the Next Generation Lunar Retroreflectors that were placed on the lunar surface by Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost 1 mission. Congratulations to all on this tremendous achievement!

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=== 2025 Q2 3.5m scheduling ===

The Q2 3.5m schedule is out; it started today. There is no DD time this quarter, and very little OPEN time due to the scheduling inefficiencies associated with several programs that required short time slots. There are a few bright B half slots in April starting on April 17, along with a few ToO payback slots towards end of quarter that will be rescheduled if the ToOs don't get called in. Users are encouraged to review the schedule and request any OPEN time that they can use.

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=== 2025 Q2 0.5 scheduling ===

The Q2 ARCSAT schedule just came out last week and it is relatively full.

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=== Status of new instrument initiatives === 

Early discussions regarding the development of a replacement high speed imager, SoonerCam, are ongoing. We expect to be able to share an information/specification sheet or white paper about the instrument fairly soon.

Our preliminary proposal to the NSF for a replacement echelle was not invited for a full proposal. Work on the instrument continues with the goal of completing the Preliminary Design Review this calendar year, and additional sources of funds are being investigated.

We have no updates concerning Ocotillo.


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=== DIS Decommissioning Plans ===

The plan just needs to be finalized and then put into execution. We hope to have more information to share next month.

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=== Future of ARCSAT Working Group ===

A new working group was recently formed: the Future of ARCSAT Working Group (FAWG, or "fog") was established to review the needs/desires of the ARC community regarding past, present and future uses of ARCSAT. We expect that they will want to issue a survey of the broad ARC community concerning ARCSAT usage and desired capabilities, so the UC will be asked to help the FAWG get responses. Stay tuned!

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=== Impact of Satellite Constellations on 3.5m Observing ===

A new page has been added to the 3.5m wiki to demonstrate the effects of satellite streaks on ARCTIC imaging. This page will be updated as more information is provided to us. If users report instances of satellite contamination we would like to know! Please have them notify Nancy. The new page is here: [[:satellites|]] We will also add a link to this wiki from the new web site once an appropriate place is identified.

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=== ACTION ITEMS === 

Open action items from previous meetings:
  * Nancy: get Mt. Cuba Foundation proposal for new KOSMOS grisms submitted. STATUS: OPEN. The proposal is done; Nancy needs to confirm with NMSU's Office of Grants and Contracts whether they need to be involved in the submission since it's a small proposal. She plans to submit it before the next Users Committee meeting.
  * Nancy: Ensure that a short description of the impact of satellites be posted on the APO website somewhere and updated every 6 months or so. Nancy received examples of this issue from Anne Verbiscer and will get something added to the current (and new) web site. STATUS: 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. STATUS: OPEN.

New action items from this meeting: None

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=== All Other Business ===

None

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=== Next meeting ===

The next meeting will be on May 6, 2025 at 10:30 MDT.

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