Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Russet McMillan (APO), Gordon MacDonald (APO), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Eric Bellm (UW), Ben Williams (UW), Michael Hayden (OU)
The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.
3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 11/05/2024 – 12/02/2024
1) Overview
November has seen wintery weather with two snow storms, each with enough snow to impact operations. During the month of November we had one astronomer group visit, one visiting instrument team on site, and no class visits.
The October water leak was repaired successfully and hasn’t shown any issues since the repair. The phone line that was damaged was eventually repaired and now all the services affected by the leak are back to normal operational state.
2) Operations
3.5m Telescope: Telescope is moving as expected.
0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working well.
KOSMOS: nothing to report.
ARCTIC: had an emergency vacuum service performed due to the vacuum softening. Instrument was returned to service without any missed observing time. Instrument seems to be experiencing an increased rate of the one quadrant dropping. Investigations to determine the cause of this trend are ongoing.
Agile: Once we received the repaired camera back on site, in-lab testing revealed an issue that necessitated that we return the camera to the repair vendor to investigate the hardware that was changed. The camera control software was not able to configure the camera as expected and was reporting issues with the gain parameter setting.
ARCES: Instrument is performing nominally. IOL measurements have held steady and are still very good. Recently, the quartz flat lamp bulb housing and/or wiring was worked on to due to the lamp not turning on. A temporary repair is in place while parts are on order. Instrument flats are working with the temporary fix.
DIS: Instrument is currently up and usable. Vacuum servicing is not planned for Q4.
NICFPS: Instrument is performing nominally.
TripleSpec: Instrument is performing nominally.
APOLLO: system suffered a chiller failure due to leaks. The leaks were repaired and the system has successfully ranged to the moon after the repair. The chiller that had the issue is a “spare” chiller being used because the in-service chiller had failed. A replacement chiller is on order and will be integrated into the system when it arrives at APO.
There was an emergency vacuum service performed on ARCTIC during November 11-12. The echelle lamp bulb holder was fixed this morning. December is looking wintery with a storm predicted for this weekend. Agile was sent back to the repair vendors to see if they could solve the gain issue. We are awaiting its return. It will likely be usable going forward, but possibly with a fixed gain setting rather than one that can be modified by users. If there are any Agile users who typically adjust the gain setting during their observations please let Nancy know so we can understand the impact of this possible solution.
We have some unassigned time in Q4 (5 B-half dates in late December, one of which was already requested). Users should look at the schedule and follow the usual channels for requesting this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter). Users can request time listed as OPEN or DD.
The Q1 2025 schedule is being worked on as we speak. We anticipate having it out by December 10. Note added in proof: there is some open time available in early January (B halves on Jan 08, 09, 12). Please encourage your users to request it through the same channels described above.
The Q4 ARCSAT scheduled is posted. There is time available in the last week of December (but with no requests for filter changes). The Q1 2025 call for proposals will be issued once the Q1 schedule for the 3.5m is posted.
We are now planning to move forward with two parallel efforts, One is some work on the back end of things to stand up a dummy server to practice the changeover from our old website to a new one. The other is to engage with a wider set of stakeholders to obtain feedback on the website design. This activity will ramp back up after the new year.
We are increasingly concerned about potential IT security threats to our system. One possible change that will be made in the coming months is to change (and more regularly update) the TUI password. We will continue to provide details to our users as these plans develop.
Nancy presented a summary of the 3.5m-related activities for 2024 (including science highlights from each ARC member institution) at the ARC Board of Governors meeting on Friday November 8, 2024. The Board was positive about our reports and approved our budget request for 2025.
Nancy provided some updates on instrumentation. Ocotillo underwent a Critical Design Review in mid-October and the review panel is working on finalizing their report to deliver back to the instrument team. Work is continuing on the new echelle spectrograph (now called ASPEN, short for ARC Spectrograph for Echelle iNvestigations) and some funding requests have been submitted. We will continue to update this group on a regular basis concerning both initiatives.
Open action items from previous meetings:
Open action items from this meeting:
Nancy raised the topic of decommissioning DIS. It is no longer performing in an optimal fashion and was not serviced in Q4 due to the fact that there was no demand for the instrument. Notably, 2024 was the first year that KOSMOS was the most frequently used instrument on the 3.5m, with ARCES as the second-most requested instrument. Nancy and Bill are developing a decommissioning plan and will provide more updates in Q1 2025. Meanwhile, UC reps: please alert your users to our plans for DIS and let us know if there is any feedback from the users.
The next meeting will be on January 7, 2025 at 10:30 MST.
Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Michael Hayden (OU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Eric Bellm (UW), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Ben Williams (UW)
The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.
3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 10/02/2024 – 11/04/2024
1) Overview
The winter weather pattern started to appear in late October, with the first temperatures below freezing occurring in the last few days of October. The first snow of the season is forecast to start during the day on November 3 and continue through midday on November 4. During the month of October we had one astronomer group visit and no class visits.
On October 28 a large water leak on the main water line was discovered. After a few hours of digging, the leak was repaired and water was restored to the site. However, during the digging process the phone/T1 cable was damaged (all the utility lines run in the same trench, water, phone lines, air lines and in the area of the water leak sewer as well). The damaged cable is awaiting repair by Lumen. Without the T1 line, APO is solely reliant on the radio link for communications to site. Thus if the radio link goes down, TUI would not be usable for communications to site, and instead all communications would have to be done via text/cell phone. We are pushing every day on Lumen to get the repair done as soon as possible.
There was an issue with restoring computer backups on October 1 - Nancy sent an email about this on October 15.
2) Operations
3.5m Telescope: Telescope position errors in azimuth direction reversals were reduced/eliminated by expanding the error range allowed for motion. Errors are being monitored, telescope is moving well (and as expected).
0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working well.
KOSMOS: nothing to report.
ARCTIC: nothing to report
Agile: The camera failure has been fixed and it was returned to APO. Installation and testing will take place in the next few weeks.
ARCES: Instrument is performing nominally. IOL measurements have held steady and are still very good.
DIS: Instrument is currently up and usable. Vacuum servicing is not planned for Q4.
NICFPS: Instrument is performing nominally.
TripleSpec: Instrument is performing nominally.
APOLLO: instrument computer (houston) was replaced with a spare (which had to be reconfigured, as it wasn’t an exact match spare) after experiencing a cooling failure, which caused the loss of the motherboard. The failed computer has had some components replaced and is now ready to be tested to see if it is a viable spare. We have had three successful ranging runs since the system was restored to operations.
APO received a few inches of snow in the last couple of days and they are expecting another storm at the end of this week. There was a water line leak last week and the T1 cable was damaged during the digging process in repairing the water leak. The T1 connectivity has been restored as of yesterday. The telescope is working well.
We did not receive any user feedback concerning the recent computer issue. Anyone with questions or concerns is encouraged to contact Nancy.
UC reps were asked to remind their users that Agile is expected to be available for Q1 but anyone who proposes to use it must also request a backup instrument.
We have some unassigned time in Q4 (Nov 23B and 28B (short), and a fair bit in December). Users should look at the schedule and follow the usual channels for requesting this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter).
UC reps: Please remind your users to respond to their set-up emails at least 24 hrs in advance of their scheduled observing time.
The Q1 allocations going out this afternoon and proposals will be due on November 25. Agile will be back in Q1 and people can request it (but see above re: needing a backup instrument). DIS will be offered in shared-risk mode only during Q1 as there are no plans to service it in Q4. UC reps: please notify your users that we are beginning to plan for the decommissioning of DIS. Anyone with questions or concerns should notify their Users Committee representative as we will be discussing this at future UC meetings.
The Q4 ARCSAT scheduled is posted. There is time available in the last week of December (but with no requests for filter changes).
Comments are coming in and the team continues to address the issues that users have brought up. We are working on a test server to do a simulation of flipping the switch to the new site.
The ARC Board of Governors meeting is in several days. Thanks to those who have provided science highlights; Nancy can still accept them through the end of the day.
Open action items from previous meetings:
Open action items from this meeting:
None.
The next meeting will be on December 3 at 10:30 MST.
Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Michael Hayden (OU), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Sarah Tuttle, (UW), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Ben Williams (UW), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Eric Bellm (UW)
The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.
3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 9/03/2024 – 10/01/2024
1) Overview
Weather wise, September has started to improve from the monsoonal pattern. Operations have returned relatively smoothly from the August shutdown. During the month of September we had one small class visit (UW at the end of the month); another class that had been scheduled for earlier in the month was switched to remote training. We also had the DSSI team on site for observing.
2) Operations
3.5m Telescope: The tertiary rotation system was repaired by replacing a power supply, a voltage regulator on a board, and a high resolution encoder. The telescope is experiencing position errors in azimuth direction reversals that is currently not well understood. Pointing performance is affected slightly by this error, and investigations are underway.
0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working well.
KOSMOS: nothing to report.
ARCTIC: nothing to report
Agile: The camera failure was diagnosed to be a failed TEC. A purchase order for the repair was issued, and we are now awaiting completion of the repairs so the camera can be returned.
Echelle: the instrument control computer hard drives were repaired/replaced. A power supply was also replaced with a new one of the correct size. The system is up, stable and usable. IOL measurements appear nominal and are still very good.
DIS: System is currently up and usable. Vacuum servicing may occur in Q4 but has not been scheduled yet.
NICFPS: System is cooled and usable.
TripleSpec: System is up and usable.
APOLLO: The instrument control computer had a failure of a computer motherboard/CPU/power supply. We are waiting on replacement parts to arrive as well as the spare ICC to be shipped from NASA. The system is down until the ICC is repaired.
Bill provided some additional information about the telescope error described above. The telescope control system is throwing an error as it is slewing in the azimuth direction when it crosses the next magna sensor. It is unclear whether something has gradually changed over the years such that we need to open up the limit for that error (currently it is deemed to be too large, which is causing the issue), or whether there is some kind of hardware problem. This is still under investigation. It happens when the telescope is tracking or slewing, but only in the azimuth direction. The resulting pointing error is arcseconds in size.
After the Agile TEC was replaced there was still a problem with the detector when it was cooled and tested. The repair folks are still diagnosing this.
The APOLLO spare computer booted up yesterday, so we are hopeful that APOLLO observations will resume as scheduled next week.
In response to a question Nancy reviewed the procedure for getting a postdoc or PhD-level researcher trained on the 3.5m.
We have some unassigned time in Q4 (Oct 26B, Nov 23B and 28B (short), and several in December). Users should look at the schedule and follow the usual channels for requesting this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter).
UC reps: Please remind your users to respond to their set-up emails at least 24 hrs in advance of their scheduled observing time.
The Q4 ARCSAT scheduled is posted. There was a lot of demand for it this quarter but it seems that everyone got (pretty much) what they wanted.
Ben reported that he started using the new website as the default so that he can identify broken links or missing content. The more people that make this change and start using the new website (https://newapo.apo.nmsu.edu) as the default, the better! As a reminder, please report any issues or bugs with the new web site on this form: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XTGF1ekWatAW-T2xl71rIZgVlEBhtLVWJrkX8cSh8Nw/edit?usp=sharing.
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 8. 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 Friday October 25. These are important for conveying to the Board members that their institution's investment in ARC and the 3.5m is worthwhile!
Open action items from previous meetings:
Open action items from this meeting:
None.
The next meeting will be on November 5 at 10:30 MST.
Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Michael Hayden (OU), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Russet McMillan (APO), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Adam Kowalski (CU), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Shane Thomas (APO), Sarah Tuttle (UW), Derek Buzasi (FGCU)
The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.
3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 8/06/2024 – 9/02/2024
1) Overview
In terms of weather, August has continued to be monsoonal. The 3.5m summer telescope shutdown also took place in August, successfully, with a return to science on 8/27. There were no visiting classes or instrument teams on site during the month of August.
2) Operations
3.5m Telescope: Telescope has returned from shutdown. Last night an issue occured with the tertiary tip/tilt mechanism. The tip/tilt system has been power cycled and testing is underway to remap and check for problems.
0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working well. The FlareCam cooling fans were replaced and the instrument is back on the telescope.
KOSMOS: nothing to report.
ARCTIC: was vacuum cycled over shutdown, available for use.
Agile: the camera failure has been diagnosed to a failed TEC. A purchase order is being worked on for the repair.
ARCES: The echelle control computer suffered a disk drive failure recently. The failed drive was replaced as was the other drive in the array; the raid was rebuilt and appears to be stable. The computer has also been intermittently experiencing an issue, which we currently believe to be the power supply. Testing is underway with a spare power supply; so far this has worked at keeping the system up, stable and usable. IOL measurements appear nominal and are still very good.
DIS: The red camera experienced an intermittent electronics issue that is still not well understood. The camera was recovered and both the red and blue cameras are working. Vacuum servicing may occur in Q4 but has not been scheduled yet.
NICFPS: was vacuum cycled over shutdown, and the system is cooled and back in operations.
TripleSpec: Both Tcam and Tspec icc computers have had drives swapped in the raid arrays to replace failing drives. The system is up and ready.
The weather pattern continued to be monsoonal throughout August. The 3.5m returned to science nicely on 8/27/24 after the summer shutdown. The shutdown provided lots of training opportunities for our newest 3.5m staff members (Cary Smith and Torrie Sutherland). We are currently experiencing an issue with the tip-tilt mechanism on the tertiary mirror. This seems to happen yearly (perhaps due to noise on the lines?). The system was power cycled and rehomed twice in the past week and we are continuing to monitor it. Nancy asked what this issue would look like from an observer's perspective. The tertiary error message would come through on the TUI logs and should be spotted by the obs-spec on duty. An observer might notice pointing or focus issues, especially after changing ports from NA2 to the echelle. If the recovery process is straightforward it takes 15-30 minutes.
For ARCSAT the FlareCam cooling fans were replaced and the instrument is now back on the telescope.
KOSMOS is behaving as expected.
ARCTIC was vacuum cycled.
The Agile failure has been diagnosed as a failure of the thermoelectric cooler (TEC), and an outside vendor is working on the repair now. We currently have no estimate for its return date yet.
ARCES was problematic last month. There was a disk drive failure of the software RAID array on 2 disks. We haven't seen any disk errors since a new one was installed. This would manifest as slowing down of instrument operations; lots of instrument-specific info is constantly scrolling by in the TUI log window and the instrument log would start filling up. ARCES also has exhibited intermittent failures due to a failing power supply in the computer. We are currently using a temporary desktop one for a stop-gap solution and there is a new drop-in power supply on order. The echelle's inter-order light is nominal.
The DIS red channel experienced an electronics issue right before shutdown. In this failure mode it has constant pixel values. Bill rebooted it and the issue went away. Vacuum servicing of DIS is likely to happen in Q4.
NICFPS was vacuum cycled over shutdown.
For TripleSpec, both Tcam and Tspec are operational.
Nancy expressed her sincere thanks to the 3.5m staff for doing such a great job with the summer shutdown and the training activities for the newer staff members.
We have one remaining unassigned half night in Q3 (Sep 14B). Users should look at the schedule and follow the usual channels for requesting this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter). [Note added in proof: there is no more unassigned time remaining in Q3.]
The Q4 schedule is being assembled now; it should be out early next week. October A halves are extremely oversubscribed; some programs may not get exactly what they asked for. There will be lots of partial night (monitoring) programs in Q4, so the scheduling team will be looking for flexible programs to fit in after or before them during a half-night.
The Q3 ARCSAT scheduled is posted; there is no open time available. The call for Q4 proposals will be issued after the Q4 3.5m schedule is finished. We anticipate that there may be some requests for coordinated programs between the 3.5m and ARCSAT in Q4.
Starting with the good news: All of the content that is regularly used and is relatively static has been ported to the new web site (https://newapo.apo.nmsu.edu). We might have missed some, so users should definitely let us know if we missing anything. Please provide this feedback to Shane Thomas, Ben Williams or Nancy Chanover and send us the link of the old information that did not get copied over. The next step is for Shane to stand up a development web server to stage the deployment and test how renaming the site will affect its performance. This development server will allow him to test how the new website will work once the old website is taken down (especially links that go from the new site to content on the old site) and check for broken links. The timescale for implementing the development server depends on how many other telescope issues come up in the meantime (for example, the echelle problems took quite of bit of time away from this effort during summer shutdown).
Nancy collected input from the UC members about their departments' interest levels in having the 3.5m host a robotic spectrograph for rapid classification of newly discovered transients. She will assemble the information into a single summary document then respond to the instrument PI with a decision. Thank you to all users who provided feedback.
Open action items from previous meetings:
Open action items from this meeting:
None.
None.
The next meeting will be on October 1 at 10:30 MDT.
Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Derek Buzasi (FGCU), Adam Kowalski (CU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Russet McMillan (APO), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Sarah Tuttle (UW), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Eric Bellm (UW), Ben Williams (UW), Shane Thomas (APO)
The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.
3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 7/02/2024 – 8/05/2024
1) Overview
July has transitioned to a monsoon pattern with a few nights lost to smoke from the huge fires in the West/Pacific Northwest and Canada. The telescope has continued to work well.
July started out with a group of REU students from GSU visiting, then immediately afterwards we hosted a group from University of Wyoming.
The 2.5m shutdown began on July 10th and we have had a couple visiting instrument folks to work with the APO staff on those shutdown activities. Shutdown for the 2.5m ended on 7/31.
2) Operations
3.5m Telescope: Telescope is working well, motion errors seem to be of the seasonal type.
0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working well. FlareCam is having a cooling fan issue; it will be repaired and returned to the telescope as soon as possible.
3.5m Instruments:
KOSMOS: The new 1.25” slits have been released for use by observers.
ARCTIC: working well.
TripleSpec: working well.
Agile: The camera was sent out for evaluation and hopefully repair. The manufacturer confirmed that the problem is inside the camera head; they are proceeding with opening the camera vacuum to evaluate the issue further.
Echelle: The inter-order light has stabilized in both the blue and red; the instrument is still considered excellent for use. An inadvertent partial warmup happened when a sensor failed in the autofill system. The system is cold again, and no adverse effects resulted from the partial warmup.
DIS: the instrument is still functioning, and contamination is slightly improved on both cameras.
NICFPS: had an ion pump/vacuum issue and is being warmed for service.
There was a fire approximately 2 miles from the observatory yesterday (to the north, right before the Cathey Canyon parking lot). The fire was spotted by one of the APO staff members as they were driving to work, and it was put out by the Sunspot Volunteer Fire Department. It was likely caused by lightning.
The telescope is behaving nominally. There are several items of note pertaining to the instruments:
As for ARCSAT, the primary mirror was recently washed. FlareCam had a failure of most of its cooling fans; replacements have been ordered and we are waiting for the parts. Otherwise things on ARCSAT are working nominally.
Russet announced that her team has started training our newest observing specialist, Victoria (“Torrie”) Sutherland (they/them), who was hired recently and started working at APO at the end of July. The target is for Torrie to start solo operations at the end of September. We are delighted to have Torrie on board and users should be on the lookout for them and welcome them when you have the chance!
Jamey recently hosted a Dark Skies group at the observatory and gave a tour to a number of business leaders from the Permian Basin (their activities contribute to some of the light pollution we experience at APO). They loved the tour.
As a final reminder, summer shutdown is scheduled for August 12-26, with a return to science on Aug 27A.
We have a some unassigned OPEN and DD time remaining in Q3 (Aug 27B, several in September). Users should look at the schedule and follow the usual channels for requesting any of this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter).
The Q4 allocation emails went out at the end of last week, and all Q4 proposals are due by Aug 26.
The Q3 ARCSAT scheduled is posted; there is no open time available. The shutdown dates for ARCSAT will be same as for the 3.5m, i.e. August 12-26.
A lot of work is going on behind the scenes to develop a new APO web site. All users are encouraged to review the new web site and confirm that the information you frequently wish to access is there and easily findable for you. The current version of the new site is considered to be in the “alpha state” so it is still fairly preliminary. Once we receive and address the first round of feedback then we will go to a beta version and then deploy it, likely in a tiered fashion. The new web site is going to be mobile friendly, though it may not work well on all pages yet. UC reps: ask your users to review the new web site (https://newapo.apo.nmsu.edu/) and provide any feedback on this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XTGF1ekWatAW-T2xl71rIZgVlEBhtLVWJrkX8cSh8Nw/edit?usp=sharing. Shane will use the summer shutdown for testing out various bits of work that have to be done on the back end before making the switch to the new site, and we hope to deploy the new site at the end of (or shortly after) summer shutdown.
Nancy, Sarah, Ben and Eric Bellm recently had a discussion with Shri Kulkarni about the possibility of putting a robotic spectrograph for fast transient classification on the 3.5m. The first version of this instrument, developed for ZTF as an R ~ 100 spectrograph for supernova classification spectroscopy, has been on the 60“ telescope at Palomar and it is the leading classifier of transients. In addition to being an IFU spectrograph there is an EMCCD that can used in imaging mode or photon-counting mode (but it has a small FOV and an occultation in the center of the frame due to a pickoff mirror). It has been used for stellar science, AGN, and other science, but transient classification is really its main goal. We want to understand from the 3.5m user community whether there is an appetite for devoting some telescope time to this kind of science. This topic raised some great questions and comments:
Nancy will draft a synopsis of this discussion and send it to the Users Committee reps. The reps will then send it to their users and solicit their feedback in time for the next meeting. Meanwhile, Nancy will continue to discuss the technical aspects with the observatory staff to determine whether this is a viable option.
Open action items from previous meetings:
Open action items from this meeting:
None.
The next meeting will be on September 3 at 10:30 MDT.
Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Adam Kowalski (CU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Sarah Tuttle (UW), Mukremin Kilic (OU), Shane Thomas (APO), Misty Bentz (GSU), Ben Williams (UW), Gordon MacDonald (APO)
The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.
3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 6/05/2024 – 7/01/2024
1) Overview
June has seen generally improving type weather at APO, transitioning to a monsoon pattern. The telescope has continued to work well also.
June started out with a class visit from a CU group, and mid-month we had a visit from a small team from UW.
Two brush/forest fire started the morning of 6/17 near Ruidoso, which is approximately 40 miles as the crow flies from APO. Smoke has stayed away, and the fires are over 50% contained now. Over 25,000 acres burned very quickly, and 1400+ structures were damaged/destroyed in the Village of Ruidoso and the surrounding towns.
2) Operations
3.5m Telescope: The telescope is working well, with motion errors that seem to be primarily of the seasonal type.
0.5m Telescope: The telescope and cameras are working well other than some minor hiccups. The telescope went through engineering/shutdown during the last week of June, during which the primary mirror was cleaned.
KOSMOS: A new set of 1.25” slits from UW were evaluated on an engineering night. The instrument also had a vacuum service performed as well as the getter baked out to recharge it.
Agile: The instrument TEC controls failed. A repair place has been identified and the camera will be sent out for evaluation.
ARCES: The inter-order light had stabilized in the blue but has recently started to get a little worse; the red continues to be stable. The instrument is still considered excellent for use, with scattered light not being a major issue.
DIS is still functioning, and the contamination is slightly improved on both cameras.
All other instruments are performing nominally.
Misty suggested that a short description of the impact of satellites be posted on the webpage somewhere and updated every 6 months or so. This is useful information that should be made available to the entire user community, and it might evolve with time. Nancy will discuss this with Shane to make this happen.
We have a some unassigned short slots OPEN time remaining in July. Users should follow the usual channels for requesting any of this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter).
The Q3 ARCSAT scheduled is posted; there is no open time available. The shutdown dates for ARCSAT will be same as for the 3.5m, i.e. August 12-26.
Please send Nancy any references for 3.5m-related publications (anything published from Jan 1 2023 to now). The deadline was June 30 but Nancy can still take submissions. 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 2023 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.”
A lot of work is going on behind the scenes to develop a new APO web site. All users are encouraged to review the new web site and confirm that the information you frequently wish to access is there and easily findable for you. We are not seeking comments on the look-and-feel or style (yet). The current version is considered to be in the “alpha state” so it is still fairly preliminary. Once we receive and address the first round of feedback then we will go to a beta version and then deploy it, likely in a tiered fashion. The new web site is going to be mobile friendly, though it may not work well on all pages yet. UC reps: ask your users to review the new web site (https://newapo.apo.nmsu.edu/) and provide any feedback on this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XTGF1ekWatAW-T2xl71rIZgVlEBhtLVWJrkX8cSh8Nw/edit?usp=sharing. —- === ACTION ITEMS === Open action items from previous meetings: * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. STATUS: OPEN. * 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: CLOSED. * UC reps: remind your users to send Nancy references for all 3.5m- and 0.5m-related publications from Jan. 1 2023 to present by the deadline of June 30. STATUS: CLOSED. Open action items from this meeting: * UC reps: ask your users to review the alpha version of the new web site to determine whether the content they are used to finding on the web site is still there and easy to find. All feedback should be provided through the Google sheet given above. * 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. —- === All Other Business === None. —- === Next meeting === The next meeting will be on August 6 at 10:30 MDT. —- ===== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 6/04/2024 ===== —- Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Yuta Notsu (CU), Eric Nielsen (NMSU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Sarah Tuttle (UW), Mukremin Kilic (OU), Eric Bellm (UW), Shane Thomas (APO), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Misty Bentz (GSU), Ben Williams (UW), Gordon MacDonald (APO) === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives === * NMSU - nothing to report * UVa - nothing to report * JHU - nothing to report * Washington - nothing to report * Georgia State - nothing to report * Wyoming - nothing to report * Oklahoma - nothing to report * Colorado - nothing to report * BYU - nothing to report * NAPG - no report * FGCU - no report * Seattle - nothing to report other than Joanne would like to discuss KOSMOS grisms and slit masks (covered in more detail below) —- === 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, 5/07/2024 – 6/04/2024 1) Overview We had improved weather at APO during the month of May. Although we have not seen much in the way of monsoonal weather patterns yet, we have had a few nights when observing was impacted by high winds and dust. The telescope has continued to work well even as nighttime temperatures have increased. In May we hosted a team from UVa with the DSSI visiting instrument, but there were no class visits. The brush/forest fire near Timberon that we reported on last month was contained and put out relatively quickly. Recently, there was also a brush/forest fire 4 miles east of Cloudcroft that was quickly contained with no impact to APO. Lastly, there is a much larger fire near Ruidoso (~45 miles as the crow flies from APO) that is currently 7500 acres in size and producing lots of smoke; it is 5% contained. If the winds shift so that they are coming from the north/northeast that could cause the smoke to impact observing at APO. 2) Operations 3.5m Telescope: The telescope is working well, with motion errors that seem to be primarily of the seasonal type. There was one recently that was attributed to an instrument mounting error. 0.5m Telescope: The telescope and cameras are working well. KOSMOS: A new set of 1.25” slits arrived from UW and were tested on an engineering night. The preliminary reports suggest that they are acceptable; the new mounting/flattening screws are near the edge of the field of view. ARCTIC: The diffuser rotator was serviced and the rotation mechanism has been used for one set of science observations so far. There are some software bugs in the reporting status of the rotator mechanism that still need to be addressed. Agile: The instrument TEC controls failed. Further investigations are currently underway by Cary and Bill. ARCES: The inter-order light has continued to exhibit a slow decline in the blue though the red is holding steady. The instrument is still considered excellent for use, with scattered light not being a major issue. All other instruments are performing nominally. —- === Additional site, telescope and instrument discussion === The weather improved during May (although thunderstorms are in the forecast for later this week!). Dust and wind have been the main weather issues of late. Despite the seasonal increase in temperature the telescope is performing well. The DSSI guest instrument team was on site in May, but no class groups. The fire near Timberon that was reported on last month has been put out/contained. A subsequent fire near Cloudcroft broke out but was handled quickly. The biggest fire we are currently watching is in Ruidoso; it has increased in size to about 8000 acres and is at the ~50% containment level. There is a huge smoke plume associated with this fire but currently it is moving in a direction away from APO. As for other site happenings, Jamey has continued to offer science talks given by visiting astronomers for the day staff; this helps them understand what the 3.5m telescope is being used for and allows the staff to put a face with a name. We encourage visiting scientists to give science talk when coming to site so please consider this when you plan your next trip to APO. We gave a tour to a group from the Air Force Reliability Lab. Also, the site had some spectacular views of the northern lights last month with the all-sky camera. As for operations updates, the telescope is working well. The new 1.25” slits arrived from UW and engineering tests revealed that their performance is good. The ARCTIC diffuser rotation mechanism is fixed. UC reps: please notify your ARCTIC users that the diffuser rotation capability is available once again. Agile is currently being investigated by Cary and Bill and we expect to have an update next month if not sooner. Everything else is behaving as expected. Joanne has been in touch with Bill about the turnaround time for new slit masks for KOSMOS; the bare minimum is 2 weeks but ideally people should allow longer. She may ask for some more masks to be made this week in preparation of her summer observing runs (on June 28 and in Q3). —- === 2024 Q2 3.5m scheduling === We have a some unassigned OPEN time remaining in Q2, specifically June 13A, June 15B, 16B, 18B and 23B. Some of the available slots are short, while others are complete half-nights. Users should follow the usual channels for requesting any of this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter). —- === 2024 Q3 3.5m scheduling === Amanda is working on the Q3 schedule; we hope to have it finalized and published by the end of this week or early next week. —- === 2024 Q2 0.5 scheduling === All of the Q2 time on ARCSAT is spoken for (the last week of June is reserved for engineering). The call for Q3 requests will go out after the 3.5m Q3 schedule is published, and proposals will likely be due in the last week of June (with the Q3 schedule starting in early July). The shutdown dates for ARCSAT will be same as for the 3.5m, i.e. August 12-26. —- === Annual Request to Update Publication Record === Please send Nancy any references for 3.5m-related publications (anything published from Jan 1 2023 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 2023 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.” —- === Website Modernization Effort === A lot of work has been done behind the scenes to develop a new APO web site. Shane Thomas has created a whole separate web site with a more modern front end and database-driven apps on the back end. It has been time consuming to port all of the existing web site content over, which was the first step, and recently we have been evaluating how to improve the user experience and remove redundant or unnecessary information. We are now at the point of being ready to solicit feedback on the content of the new web site. All users are encouraged to review the new web site and confirm that the information you frequently wish to access is there and easily findable for you. We are not seeking comments on the look-and-feel or style (yet). The current version is considered to be in the “alpha state” so it is still fairly preliminary. Once we receive and address the first round of feedback then we will go to a beta version and then deploy it, likely in a tiered fashion. The new web site is going to be mobile friendly, though it may not work well on all pages yet. UC reps: ask your users to review the new web site (https://newapo.apo.nmsu.edu/) and provide any feedback on this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XTGF1ekWatAW-T2xl71rIZgVlEBhtLVWJrkX8cSh8Nw/edit?usp=sharing.
The deadline for providing feedback on the alpha version of the new web site is Tuesday July 2 at 10:00 am MDT. —- === ACTION ITEMS === Open action items from previous meetings: * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. Sarah Tuttle provided an update on this at today's meeting. She is working on getting quotes from 4 different vendors, two of which have been responsive. There are some glass supply chain issues, which is making it more challenging to get a solid quote. The approximate cost per grism will be ~ $20k-$30k; if we bundle an order of several grisms together we may get a slight discount but probably not a substantial one. When KPNO purchased additional grisms they bought them piecemeal and then assembled them in-house; we would prefer not to do that. Once Sarah receives some final quotes she will discuss them with Nancy and then we will check in with the Users Committee again to identify final priorities. STATUS: OPEN. * 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. * UC reps: remind your users to send Nancy references for all 3.5m- and 0.5m-related publications from Jan. 1 2023 to present by the deadline of June 30. STATUS: OPEN. Open action items from this meeting: * UC reps: please notify your ARCTIC users that the diffuser rotation capability is available once again. * UC reps: ask your users to review the alpha version of the new web site to determine whether the content they are used to finding on the web site is still there and easy to find. All feedback should be provided through the Google sheet given above. The deadline for user feedback on the web site content is July 2. —- === All Other Business === None. —- === Next meeting === The next meeting will be on July 2 at 10:30 MDT. —- ===== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 5/07/2024 ===== —- Attending: Cary Smith (APO), Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Eric Bellm (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Ben Williams (UW), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Mukremin Kilic (OU) === Introduction of new 3.5m Observatory Instrument Specialist === Cary Smith, the new 3.5m Observatory Instrument Specialist, started his new position at APO on April 29. Cary has extensive observatory experience, having worked previously at McDonald Observatory and Las Cumbres Observatory (which included a number of different facilities). He has a degree in Physics and has worked in astronomical observatories ever since getting his degree. Welcome, Cary! We're delighted to have you on board and we look forward to working with you. === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives === * UVa - nothing to report * NMSU - nothing to report * BYU - nothing to report * FGCU - no report * Wyoming - nothing to report * Washington - nothing to report * Colorado - no report * JHU - nothing to report (sent by email) * Seattle - nothing to report * Oklahoma - In April OU had a nice class trip to APO with 13 people. They appreciate the help from the APO staff and the excellent training. Nancy will send Muk the feedback form to distribute to the students. * Georgia State - nothing to report * NAPG - no report —- === 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, 4/03/2024 – 5/06/2024 1) Overview April has seen generally improving weather at APO. The telescope also has continued to work well. April began with a student group visit from OU. We also hosted a visiting team for APOLLO work at the end of April/beginning of May. A brush/forest fire started around noon MDT on May 3. It is located in Timberon, approximately 12.7 miles South East of APO. It was estimated at 100 acres in size late on May 3. APO will continue to monitor the situation until the fire is contained/out. Smoke and ash may impact observing over the next few days at APO. 2) Operations 3.5m Telescope: Telescope is working well, motion errors seem to be of the seasonal type. 0.5m Telescope: Telescope and cameras are working well except for some minor hiccups. KOSMOS: the new slit set of 1.25” is due to arrive in early May. ARCTIC diffuser’s rotator service is being planned for Q2/Q3 when time permits between observing runs. Agile Instrument TEC controls failed. Attempted repairs have so far been unsuccessful. Echelle IOL has continued to exhibit a slow decline in blue, red is stable. Still considered excellent currently for use. TripleSpec is operating with no issues. DIS is functioning with nothing to report. 3) Other —- === Additional telescope and instrument discussion === The recent fire in Timberon was contained quickly and little smoke came towards APO so we were not affected. We've had good weather at the site recently. The OU class visit went well, The APOLLO team was on site in late April for some engineering work. The new 1.25“ slits for KOSMOS arrived from UW today; they will be inspected and then installed into KOSMOS. There was an all-hands 3.5m observing specialist training on APOLLO operations on April 22. It went well, and Russet is doing an outstanding job of documenting and distilling the operational instructions for this very complex and idiosyncratic system. —- === Summer shutdown schedule === Summer shutdown is scheduled for August 12-26, inclusive. There will be some instrument servicing done throughout the summer but several of the instruments are used so frequently that they will be handled during the shutdown. The observatory staff will also do the routine and critical maintenance items, such as those to eliminate moth problems, and then turn the telescope back over to the users. We will not be taking the telescope apart this year given that we had the primary mirror realuminized last summer. We plan to give the observing specialists some more training time coming out of shutdown so that they can gain more experience with the shutdown recovery process. We will not be recoating the second or tertiary mirrors this summer but are considering that for next summer. —- === 2024 Q2 3.5m scheduling === We have a some unassigned time (OPEN or DD01) remaining in Q2, most notably a dark night on June 5. Some of the available slots are short, while others are complete half-nights. Users should follow the usual channels for requesting any of this time (i.e. email Russet, Amanda, Ben, Nancy and their institutional scheduler when submitting requests, and provide a proposal cover page if you don't already have a program scheduled for the current quarter). —- === 2024 Q3 3.5m scheduling === The allocation emails went out late last week, and all Q3 requests are due by May 24. We are aiming to have the Q3 schedule posted around June 10. As a reminder, please notify the scheduling team early (before the proposal deadline if possible) if you are planning to bring a group of trainees to the site in Q3. Nancy will contact NAPG to ask about their summer visit plans. —- === 2024 Q2 0.5 scheduling === There is some open ARCSAT time on May 11-16 and more in early June. Please email the scheduling team if you wish to request it. —- === Annual Request to Update Publication Record === Please send Nancy any references for 3.5m-related publications (anything published from Jan 1 2023 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 2023 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.” —- === ACTION ITEMS === Open action items from previous meetings: * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. UPDATE: We are in the process of putting together some quotes and working with vendors, and will make decisions from there. We will use examples that had been requested by users previously in order to get quotes so we have some idea of what will be possible. STATUS: OPEN. * UC reps: remind your users that observers must respond to reminder emails at least 24 hours in advance. STATUS: CLOSED. Open action items from this meeting: * Nancy: send Muk the feedback form to distribute to the students. (done!) * Nancy: contact NAPG to ask about their summer visit plans. (done!) * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q2 schedule and request OPEN/DD time if they can make a good case for it. —- === All Other Business === Ben Williams provided an update regarding work being done to develop a new APO web site. Shane has created a whole separate web site with a more modern front end and database-driven apps on the back end. It has been time consuming to port all of the existing web site content over, which was the first step, and then evaluating how to improve the user experience and remove redundant or unnecessary information. We are getting close to the point where we will be ready to seek broader feedback on the new web site from the user community; we are aiming to provide the link to new site at the next Users Committee meeting so people can check it out and provide feedback. —- === Next meeting === The next meeting will be on June 4 at 10:30 MDT. —- ===== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 4/02/2024 ===== —- Attending: Jamey Eriksen (APO), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Mukremin Kilic, (OU), Ben Williams (UW), Adam Kowalski (CU), Eric Bellm (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Derek Buzasi (FGCU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Russet McMillan (APO) === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives === * BYU - nothing to report * Colorado - nothing to report * Wyoming - nothing to report * Washington - nothing to report * FGCU - nothing to report * Georgia State - nothing to report * UVa - nothing to report * Seattle - nothing report (sent by email) * JHU - nothing to report * NAPG - no report * Oklahoma - having a good visit with the class so far! * NMSU - nothing to report —- === 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, 3/04/2024 – 4/02/2024 1) Overview March has seen ping-pong type of weather at APO, ranging from snow to nice to high winds to dust. The month started out with a visit from a group of undergraduate and graduate students from CU, also a visiting team for APOLLO work at the end of the month. 2) Operations 3.5m Telescope: The telescope is working well; motion errors seem to be of the seasonal type. 0.5m Telescope: Improvements were done to some cables (took old ones out and replaced with new ones). BYUCam was tested and appears to be working better with the new cables. KOSMOS: new slits are undergoing more tests and the new set of 1.25” slits is due to arrive from UW in mid-April ARCTIC: the diffuser’s rotator mechanism servicing is being planned for Q2 when time permits between ARCTIC usage. Agile: The instrument TEC controls failed. Attempted repairs have so far been unsuccessful. Echelle: ARCES was partially warmed to try to improve the inter-order light (IOL). After cool down, the IOL is currently considered excellent. There is a slight slope indicating that the IOL is trending toward worse values, however, it is a small slope and we hope that it levels off soon. DIS: functioning nominally, nothing to report. —- === Additional telescope and instrument discussion === No questions regarding the site report. —- === Current instrumentation update === The recent echelle warmup was successful and seems to have mitigated the inter-order light issue. We'd like to schedule the servicing of the ARCTIC diffuser rotation mechanism soon. DIS is operating nominally, with a slight improvement in the blue. Moire asked about the current status of using dome flats with ARCTIC. Russet replied that we now have the fence in place so dome flats should be reliable, but there may be additional considerations depending on rotation. —- === 2024 Q2 3.5m scheduling === There is no open time available for the next several weeks. UC reps: please remind your users that the observatory needs to receive observers' responses to reminder emails at least 24 hours in advance! In addition to helping reduce no-shows, these are especially important for KOSMOS slit and filter requests, both of which take a lot of time. This will help avoid middle of the night changes, which have greater risk and could result in delays to observing time. —- === 2024 Q2 0.5 scheduling === No comments or questions. —- === ACTION ITEMS === Open action items from previous meetings: * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. STATUS: OPEN Open action items from this meeting: * UC reps: remind your users that observers must respond to reminder emails at least 24 hours in advance. —- === All Other Business === None. —- === Next meeting === The next meeting will be on May 7 at 10:30 MDT. —- ===== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 3/05/2024 ===== —- Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Mukremin Kilic, (OU), Ben Williams (UW), Adam Kowalski (CU), Eric Bellm (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Derek Buzasi (FGCU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Sarah Tuttle (UW) === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives === * Wyoming - no report * Washington - nothing to report * UVa - nothing to report except feedback on DIS/KOSMOS issue * Seattle - nothing to report * Oklahoma - nothing to report * NMSU - nothing to report * NAPG - no report * JHU - nothing to report * Georgia State - nothing to report * FGCU - nothing to report * Colorado - nothing to report except feedback on DIS/KOSMOS issue * BYU - nothing to report —- === 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, 2/07/2024 – 3/04/2024 1) Overview February has seen improving weather at APO except for a recent snow storm at the end of month. The telescope has continued to work well. Weather has been turning from the continual winter storm cycle to a more moderate pattern. We had the DSSI team at APO for observing in February, but otherwise things were quiet at the site. March is going to start off with a class from CU during the first full week of the month. 2) Operations 3.5m Telescope: Telescope is working well; motion errors seem to be of the seasonal type. 0.5m Telescope: Nothing to report KOSMOS new slits (high/center/low for both 1.25 and 20 arcsecond widths) have arrived and are being further tested/modified (captive screws, covers, dowel pins). ARCTIC diffuser’s rotator service is being planned for later in the spring. Agile Instrument TEC controls failed. Attempted repairs have so far been unsuccessful so far. ARCES fill system is repaired and the instrument was cooled down. The inter-order light has been degrading steadily since it was returned to service. DIS red camera readout failure was fixed and the camera was returned to service. —- === Additional telescope and instrument discussion === Kevin France's CU class is on site right now. The weather is improving but a storm is coming this weekend. We have seen seasonal motion errors with the telescope but nothing out of ordinary. KOSMOS has been vacuum pumped and is now working normally. The 1.25 and 20” slits are being worked on/tested. DIS red camera has been recovered. The echelle was taken out of service for a partial warm-up to warm up detector and keep the inter-order light from getting too bad. It was subsequently returned to service. Someone asked whether the warm-up of the echelle is related to the previous issue it had? Bill replied yes. There is some water vapor condensing on some surface that the CCD is seeing. In the past we have seen this after a pumping cycle and cool down, but it doesn't happen every time. This time, the contamination grew rapidly after the last pumping cycle and subsequent cool-down. In the past we have had success with just warming the inner dewar that contains the CCD while keeping other one cold; we think this forces the condensate to migrate to the coldest thing in the vacuum vessel. We will do this for about a week and then cool it back down, hoping to have better success. One observing program that had the echelle as their primary instrument was affected but KOSMOS was used as a backup instrument instead. Someone asked how the DIS red channel was brought back to life given that the prognosis sounded pretty bad last month. Bill replied that finding the right order of restarting the software and hardware was the solution. The new 20“ KOSMOS slits have been added to the suite of slits and returned to service. The 1.25” slits had some machining issues and are being shipped back to UW to be remade; we hope that they will be available soon. The 2.1“ is still most popular width. —- === Future instrumentation update === Sarah Tuttle gave an update on the current status of Ocotillo. They have all 3 channels designed and are working through the refinement/definition stage before presenting everything in a Critical Design Review (CDR). The in-lab efforts include completing a first pass of a design of the fiber bundles and the interface with the observatory infrastructure. They will do the CDR with the observatory before getting everything off the ground. They have an optical test bench with the first camera up and running; this is an off the shelf camera that can be used for any of 3 channels (Andor had one built and available so we jumped on it). This means that we can build and bring online a single channel without being held up by camera purchases. The current plan is for a staged deployment; they are spec'ing robots for a robotic option (as opposed to a fully packed IFU bundle). The CDR will take place in the spring. Sarah is on sabbatical starting in September (but is not scheduled to teach this summer). Once the pace picks up she will provide regular updates to the Users Committee. Another effort underway is that we are working to support the finalization of a data reduction package for KOSMOS. Adam asked what the timeline is for the instrument to reach first light? Sarah replied that she expects at least for the IFU channel it should be within 18 months. She is aiming to have 1-2 channels on sky and in place by the time her sabbatical is over. Next up is to get quotes on optics. —- === 2024 Q1 3.5m scheduling === There was some remaining OPEN time in Q1, but it has since been assigned. At the time of this writing there is no more available time in Q1. —- === 2024 Q2 3.5m scheduling === The Q2 schedule is in the works. Note added in proof: the Q2 schedule is now posted. —- === 2024 Q1 0.5m scheduling === The Q2 call for proposals will be issued in mid-March. Note added in proof: the call for Q2 ARCSAT proposals has been distributed. —- === ACTION ITEMS === Open action items from previous meetings: * UC reps: ask your users what capabilities KOSMOS lacks that makes some people still want to use DIS. * Colorado report: they did not have any users who would be upset if DIS were no longer available. One user said that the capability they really need is full spectral cover with a lower resolution prism. Another user said they needed higher resolution for planetary nebula projects. A third user said they could use both or either of those options, but they really emphasized the need for good sensitivity in the blue. * UW report: their users require blue sensitivity, high spectral resolution, and Halpha coverage. * NMSU report: their users need high resolution for line profile analysis, and could also make use of having a lower res mode that provided full spectral coverage in one go. * OU report: their users find it frustrating that in the current KOSMOS configuration if you include Halpha then you don't get all of the blue. * UVa report: they have one user who wants to continue using DIS. * Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. STATUS: OPEN * UC reps: remind your users to review the Q1 schedule and request OPEN/DD time if they can make a good case for it. STATUS: CLOSED Open action items from this meeting: None. —- === All Other Business === None. —- === Next meeting === The next meeting will be on April 2 at 10:30 MDT. —- ===== APO 3.5-m Users Committee Meeting, 2/06/2024 ===== —- Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Russet McMillan (APO), Mark Croom (APO), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Gordon MacDonald (APO), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Mukremin Kilic, (OU), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Adam Kowalski (CU), Ben Williams (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Derek Buzasi (FGCU) === Introductions === We started by introducing Mark Croom, our new part-time Observing Specialist. Mark is an upper level Astronomy graduate student at NMSU and spent the majority of his career as an aerospace engineer at NASA Langley Research Center before pursuing his passion for astronomy. Although he has been a long-time user of the 3.5m at APO, he began his training as a 3.5m obs-spec in January 2024. We look forward to working with him! === User feedback and comments from institutional representatives === * NMSU - nothing to report * Colorado - nothing to report * Wyoming - no report * BYU - nothing to report * Washington - Eric sent a report by email with user concerns about time lost due to weather and snow on roof. This will be discussed further - see below. * Seattle - nothing to report * NAPG - no report * JHU - nothing to report, KS has to leave at noon * UVa - nothing to report, AV has to leave at noon * Georgia State - nothing to report * FGCU - nothing to report * Oklahoma - Muk had questions about mitigation of snow on the roof since some OU users lost clear nights due to this issue. This will be discussed further - see below. —- === 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, 12/05/2023 – 2/06/2024 1) Overview December and January have been wintery at APO. Telescope has continued to work well. Weather has been challenging for observing. A consistent number of snow storms causing lost time for high humidity and snow on the enclosure roof have impacted multiple programs. Planning is under way for an upcoming visiting instrument team in mid February, and a large class in early March. 2) Operations 3.5m Telescope: Telescope is working well, motion errors seem to be of the seasonal type. 0.5m Telescope: Nothing to report KOSMOS new slits (high/center/low for both 1.25 and 20 arc-second widths) have arrived and after an initial issue with non captive screws, are ready to use. Vacuum is softening slightly in KOSMOS and it will need a warm up/pump/cool down cycle as soon as the schedule allows it. ARCTIC diffuser’s rotator service is being planned for later in the spring. Agile Instrument TEC controls failed. Attempted repairs have been unsuccessful so far. ARCES had a failure in the fill system which has caused the instrument to start to warm up. Fill system is being repaired and the echelle will be fully warmed, vacuum pumped and cooled as quickly as it can be. DIS red camera has experienced a failure that is causing all frames to be all the same DN value. Failure is being investigated. —- === Additional telescope and instrument discussion === General updates: Jamey thanked to Kevin and other APO users for stopping by the APO booth at the January 2024 AAS meeting; it was nice to meet folks in person after only knowing them through Zoom. The weather at APO has been terrible in December-January. The DSSI team will be here this month, and we are looking ahead to a class visit from CU next month (thanks for CU and OU for being proactive and doing the early planning for their class visits in March and April, respectively). We have been seeing some seasonal motion errors on the 3.5m. The 0.5m has an issue with syncing the time; we are still working on it. The new slits for KOSMOS arrived; after making some small adjustments they are now mounted and available for use. Snow on the roof issue: The recent winter weather has impacted our ability to open, even during clear nights, due to the accumulation of snow on the enclosure roof. [If we open the enclosure when there is snow on the roof, it will fall down onto the telescope.] There are heaters on the edges of the dome building (not across the top), which we use to help melt the snow. However, the main mechanism for snow removal is sunshine; if it's not sunny – which has been the case after the recent snow storms – the snow on the roof won't melt. Previously we have had staff members go onto the roof while wearing safety harnesses to shovel it off. This raised safety concerns from NMSU's Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) office during their annual safety training. An EHS representative is coming to site soon (their visit last week was postponed due to inclement weather) to inspect and discuss the situation; we may need to modify the hook points used for attaching the people wearing harnesses. We are looking at other options as well, e.g. using long poles to reach the snow, or possibly adding more heaters (but we need to be careful about ruining dome seeing). We recently put in cameras so we can see the snow on the roof and know how much there is. The heaters don't work well at temperatures below -2 C. If we operate them when the temperatures are near freezing then we run the risk of building up ice from the snow melt. This makes it less likely to have snow blowing onto the telescope but more likely to cause damage if that ice falls. This is also why we sometimes have wintertime opening restrictions where the wind speeds must be low. If the winds are below our normal limit but still above that special wintertime/snow limit then we must stay closed, which we recognize is frustrating for users. One person asked if it would be possible to add some sort of structure with sloped sides onto the existing roof? Jamey replied that this would require not only changing the roof but also the doors (to accommodate the additional weight), so it would likely be cost prohibitive. The bottom line is that we recognize that these closures are frustrating for our users, and we are committed to identifying a strategy that can help us remove the snow fairly soon after it falls while ensuring the continued safety of our staff and telescope. ARCES issue: ARCES had a failure in its autofill system that caused it to warm up, taking it out of service for several weeks. We are pumping it down right now and then will cool it. The earliest possible date that it will return to service is likely around February 16, but it could extend beyond that. The dewar is a big volume to pump down and the cooling will be rather delicate. It has been at least a decade since we have done this in wintertime. We have all of the replacement parts for fill system in hand and they are ready to be installed. DIS issue: The DIS red channel has had an electronics failure, with all pixels reading the same value. There are no immediate plans to repair it; we have tried every intervention we can do from the outside of the instrument to recover the red camera and not met with any success. We currently don't have the in-house expertise to do an internal repair. This raises the broader issue of when (not if) to decommission DIS. As the oldest instrument on the 3.5m, it continues to show its age and perform sub-optimally. Recall that the acquisition of KOSMOS was intended as a stop-gap measure that would provide continued capability for long-slit optical spectroscopy while Ocotillo is being developed and built. Nearly all former DIS users have migrated to KOSMOS, but there remain a few DIS holdouts. UC reps: please tell your users that we need to understand what capabilities KOSMOS lacks that makes some people still want to use DIS. If it is a resolution issue (either the desire for higher or lower resolution than what is offered by KOSMOS), we still have several slots remaining in the wheel that holds the grisms for KOSMOS. If people want/need different resolution, in principle we could fulfill this need with the addition of one low-res grating that would get the entire spectrum in one shot, and two higher-res gratings. Russet noted that we do now have a complete set of 1.25” and 20“ slits (low, center, and high position) which are better matched to the site seeing, so users can now optimally sample the site seeing. Nancy will follow up with Sarah to get some ROM estimates of costs for additional grisms.**
There have been some updates to the Q1 schedule based largely on having to reshuffle time that was scheduled to use ARCES. There is a short OPEN slot available on Feb 18B and a slightly longer one (bright time) on Feb 22A. At this point we cannot guarantee that ARCES will be back in service by that time so we're not sure if we can use those OPEN slots to repay any displaced ARCES users, but anyone who lost time due to weather, telescope or instrument issues is free to request Feb 18B or 22A. There is some additional OPEN and DD time available in March so people can also request some of that.
The Q2 allocation emails were sent to the institutional schedulers, with requests due by February 23. We are expecting that ARCES will be back in operation by Q2, and that DIS red will remain inoperable.
The Q1 schedule for ARCSAT is basically full. There is one week that is listed as unavailable when we will have classes on site. The Q2 call for proposals will be issued in mid-March.
Open action items from previous meetings:
Open action items from this meeting:
None.
The next meeting will be on March 5 at 10:30 MST.