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==== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 06/03/2025 ====

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Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Eric Bellm (UW), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Adam Kowalski (CU), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Ben Williams (UW), Sarah Tuttle (UW)

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

  * NAPG - no report
  * Seattle - nothing to report
  * BYU - nothing to report
  * Wyoming - no report
  * Oklahoma - no report
  * Georgia State - nothing to report (by email)
  * UVa - nothing to report
  * Colorado - nothing to report
  * JHU - nothing to report
  * NMSU - There was a report from a user regarding the dark correction on KOSMOS data taken pretty recently. The dark level seems to be higher than it was historically, resulting in pixels that don't get corrected properly. The user contacted Russet about this. Nancy said that this will be discussed on our weekly operations call this Thursday and we will report back to Moire and the NMSU user if this issue and/or a mitigation strategy is understood. That said, **if any other users have seen this issue -- particularly for long exposures -- please let Nancy know!** Joanne mentioned that she took 3 x 900 sec darks with KOSMOS last Sunday night and also saw a high level of cosmic rays; she is willing to share the data if anyone wants to use them for comparison.
  * 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, 5/02/25 – 06/02/25 //

1) Overview

May was another month filled with unsettled weather but there were a few excellent nights near the end of the month with good seeing. The nights lost due to weather were mostly a result of cloud cover, high winds, elevated dust and humidity; we had very little precipitation this month. The New Mexico Governor has declared a state of emergency for the entire state due to severe drought conditions and extreme fire risk. A wildfire about 80 miles NNE of the observatory, which grew to larger than 750 acres, had the potential to threaten the observatory with smoke or ash had the winds had been from that direction, but nothing was reported. At the time of this report this fire as well as two smaller fires in the same area are declared 100% contained. There were no visiting classes or instrument teams to the observatory during the month  of May.

As a reminder, summer shutdown is scheduled to start on July 7. 

2) Operations

3.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected. Seasonal motion errors have been infrequent. 

0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected.  ACP Library support errors are still occurring even with the dcam-spare camera swap but with much lower frequency. 

KOSMOS: System is cooled and stable. 

ARCTIC: The diffuser rotation mechanism is still unreliable even after a full servicing. Troubleshooting is continuing. The mechanism that moves the diffuser in and out of the optical path is still functional in the meantime. The rest of the instrument is cooled. The CCD was experiencing a strange bias issue that appears to have gone away when we partially warmed the instrument for an ion pump change. We are continuing to monitor.

Agile: The camera is non-operational; the thermoelectric cooler failed again. The camera is warm and we do not plan further repair work with this camera. The Agile instrument rotator is still not performing nominally and we are troubleshooting it further to prepare for SoonerCam.

ARCES: System is currently up and usable. Work continues on a replacement and modern ICC. 

DIS: System is cooled but in an unknown state for science.

NICFPS: System is cooled and usable.

TripleSpec: System is cooled and usable. 

APOLLO: The system is currently experiencing some technical issues with the laser and thermal control at the time of this report. A portion of the system has been powered down while we wait for replacement parts. It may still be possible to energize just prior to a schedule run and still range.

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

The site has been incredibly dry but we got some much-needed rain last weekend even though we are not yet in the classical monsoon season. We will be keeping an eye out for seasonal telescope motion errors that may increase as the temperature warms; if that happens we may need to adjust the PID settings.

ARCSAT had some issues last night with the camera communicating with the software but it got ironed out. 

We will investigate the KOSMOS issue reported above.

ARCTIC recently dropped a quad, which was recovered. There were also recent issues with the ion pump control; the cause was narrowed down to a bad cable. Once this is repaired we hope these issues will be reduced and we will not have to warm the instrument as much as we have recently.

Agile experienced a failure of the newly replaced TEC, and there are no current plans to repair the instrument further. We are moving ahead with SoonerCam (we now have the new camera in hand)! Auxiliary equipment for SoonerCam has not been ordered yet but that project is ramping up.

We are working on replacements for more modern computer/interface cards for ARCES to get us through the next few years.

There is no new status update for DIS.

NICFPS and TripleSpec are performing fine.

We are currently undergoing some technical issues with the laser on APOLLO that we're working through.

If we do any instrument servicing this summer it will probably take place outside of the summer shutdown window. Most likely it would only be KOSMOS, since ARCES, NICFPS, and TripleSpec don't need vacuum servicing, and KOSMOS generally only requires a 2-3 day turnaround. This could be accomplished during a period when the instrument is not scheduled for science.

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=== 2025 Q2 3.5m scheduling ===

The time in Q2 is fully allocated; no OPEN or DD slots remain. There are a couple of ToO paybacks slots that have not been called in yet.

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=== 2025 Q2 0.5 scheduling ===

The Q2 ARCSAT schedule has one week of OPEN time remaining (June 12-19). The long-standing policy for filter requests and changes is now published on the ARCSAT webpage in an effort to make it more visible. **Users who are asking for filter changes must make the request at least 72 hours prior to the scheduled observing night when the new filters are needed. The APO staff cannot support filter changes on weekends and holidays.**

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=== 2025 Q3 3.5m scheduling ===

The 3.5m summer shutdown is scheduled for 7-17 July, inclusive. We have received all requests for Q3 (thanks to everyone for getting them in on time or close to it!). So far we are not aware of any major conflicts. The schedule is currently being built and we hope to have a version to distribute next week. Once the Q3 schedule for the 3.5m is published we will issue a call for ARCSAT Q3 requests. ARCSAT will have the same shutdown schedule as the 3.5m so there will be less time available in Q3.

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=== Status of new instrument initiatives === 

A replacement high speed imager, SoonerCam, is under development. A survey of all past/present/future users of such an instrument (i.e. current and former Agile users, or those who want to use a modern high speed imager) was distributed. We really need to hear from users concerning anticipated needs for frame rate, binning, etc. as this information will drive some design decisions. We plan to add a focal reducer but the pixels are currently very small. Here is the email sent to 35m-general requesting survey responses:


''Dear APO 3.5m users,

We are purchasing a new qCMOS high-speed camera, **SoonerCam**, to replace the old camera on Agile. This camera provides a read-noise of 0.3 e- in the ultra-quiet scan mode. It's a 4096x2304 pixel camera with 4.5 micron pixels. It can provide up to 25 frames/s in this mode.  Using Agile's current setup, the camera provides **0.05 arcsec per pixel (or a field of view of 115" x 205")**.''

''Before finalizing the design and installation at the telescope, we would love to hear your thoughts or feedback on what would make this new camera suitable for your science needs.''

''If you are interested in using this new capability, can you please provide feedback on:
[[https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJG6zQg7YtGxGhAtaKULHyzZVZe29uHCiegcHdM0edglN1gw/viewform?usp=sharing]]''

''Thank you,''
''On behalf of the SoonerCam team (including the Astro group at OU, Sarah Tuttle, Bill Ketzeback and the APO engineering/software team, and Nancy Chanover),''
''-Muk''

**We really need users to complete this survey by the end of June. If anyone has specific requests or suggestions regarding desired capabilities for SoonerCam, that should be noted in the final question of the survey.**

Work on the new optical echelle spectrograph continues with the goal of completing the Preliminary Design Review this calendar year. Another grant proposal is in the works.

Regarding Ocotillo, we are trying to get final quotes so that we can start purchasing materials and optics to assemble the first channel. Some vendors are slow in responsiveness these days.

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=== Future of ARCSAT Working Group ===

This group is still meeting and exploring various options for the future of ARCSAT.

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=== Annual Request to Update Publication Record ===

Please send Nancy any references for 3.5m-related publications (anything published from Jan 1 2024 to now). The deadline is June 30. Understanding the scientific usage and impact of the telescope is critical for evaluating future projects, initiatives, instrument concepts, etc., thus we need your help in updating our publication record! We are now participating in a cross-observatory analysis of scientific impact of ground-based telescopes, so it is especially important that we capture all publications resulting from APO observations. Any publications resulting from ARCSAT data are also requested. The listing should include refereed publications and student theses and dissertations (not conference abstracts unless they are peer reviewed) that made use of data acquired with the 3.5m and/or ARCSAT, published from 2024 to the present. If a paper has been submitted to a journal but has not yet completely gone through the review process, please include that as well, with the name of the journal and “submitted.”

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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. Nancy and Sarah are awaiting updated quotes from the grism vendor and then the proposal will be submitted.
  * UC reps: ask your users to complete the survey regarding needs/desires for a high speed imaging capability. The link to this survey was sent out to 35m-general on May 6, 2025 by Mukremin Kilic, and is also included above. STATUS: OPEN.

New action items from this meeting:
  * UC reps: ask your users to send Nancy the bibliographic information for any papers published in 2024-2025 that are resulting from 3.5m or ARCSAT data.

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=== All Other Business ===

None.

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=== Next meeting ===

The next meeting will be on July 1, 2025 at 10:30 MDT.

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