apo-wiki

Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Russet McMillan (APO), Derek Buzasi (FGCU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Jamey Eriksen (APO), Gordon MacDonald (APO), Eric Nielsen (NMSU), Ben Williams (UW), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU),Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Caleb Wang (UW), Adam Kowalski (CU), Anne Verbiscer (UVa)

• NMSU - nothing to report
• Wyoming - nothing to report
• NAPG - no report
• BYU - nothing to report
• JHU - nothing to report
• Washington - Eric recently had a new user asking about our TOO policies and discovered that it is challenging or impossible to find that information on the APO web site - Nancy took the action to make sure that the TOO policy is findable on the web site (also investigate site search issue) and that any links from the APO web site to the TDAWG report point to the new(er) wiki, docu-wiki
• Oklahoma - nothing to report (by email)
• Georgia State - nothing to report
• Colorado - nothing to report
• Seattle - Joanne asked about the turnaround time for the production of slit mask templates to test the MOS capability of KOSMOS. Bill replied that it takes 1-2 weeks for the manufacturing once the mask is designed.
• FGCU - nothing to report
• UVa - nothing to report

The detailed site report is included below, followed by additional information discussed during today's meeting.

3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 11/01/2022 - 12/05/2022

0) Overview

APO is no longer under any staffing or indoor masking restrictions from the State of New Mexico due to COVID. The COVID vaccination policy for ARC/APO was updated following the ARC Board meeting in November.

Weather for November has continued transitioning to fall-like.

November had no classes visiting, but there was one visiting instrument (DSSI from UVa) team and a UW engineer visit.

1) Telescope

The telescope is behaving mostly as expected. As the nighttime temperatures continue to drop we expect to see the seasonal issues with motion errors pop up. A failure of the altitude drive system was fixed with a new memory/program card in the drive. The telescope has been behaving as expected since the repair.

2) Instruments

KOSMOS: An issue with bias noise variation is being investigated.

DIS: Scattered light is very bad in blue and red after the recent servicing. Evolution of the peak/wings is progressing more slowly than was hoped.

TripleSpec: Cold, operational and performing nominally.

Agile: Cold, operational and performing nominally. There is a known issue with missing observatory and WCS cards from the headers that we are trying to track down. This problem seemed to originate about the time we converted and moved the hub35m to a new server.

Echelle: Echelle inter-order light ratios are excellent.

NICFPS: The instrument is performing nominally with the occasional need to reset the controller due to corrupted images, and previous cautions about rotator angle.

ARCTIC: Cold, operational and performing nominally.

3) ARCSAT: Flarecam is in use and performing nominally.

ARC's COVID policy has changed slightly. Boosters beyond first set of shots are no longer required; this is in line with the NMSU COVID policy, which in turn is aligned with the policies of the State of New Mexico. The current ARC policy is posted on the APO web site; any changes will be announced to the Users Committee as well as through other channels.

The telescope is performing better; Bill recently found a fix for a perplexing altitude issue, and they are testing spares for that fix today. KOSMOS has been behaving oddly (more below); Sarah will be traveling to APO in January to investigate a bias issue. Gordon just finished testing new Mac, Windows, and Linux versions of TUI for python 3.1. The TUI downloads page has not yet been updated to reflect these most recent versions but we will do that later this week.

We recently discovered an issue with the bias levels on KOSMOS. In a small number of images, there is a change of bias level during readout of an image. This occurs in both amplifiers and there are bias variations by row, but not always all the way across a given row, i.e. not always into the overscan. We are currently investigating how often it occurs, and for what percentage of those times it is not possible to fix the problem with the overscan. There may be a pattern where it occurs early in night but not clear yet. Looking at some approaches. Ultimately will need to adjust voltages. Right now trying to asses. Users should check images, take multiple spectra per target if possible.

Have 2 open dates coming soon Dec 13B (brightish) and Dec 16B (grey), also Dec 17B - requested, and then some dark slots (short, but still 4 hrs since long nights) on 27-29, 31 Dec (5 slots total, 2 requests received so far). No schedule update until finish Q1 (maybe Dec 9 or 10)

Regarding the remainder of the OPEN/DD time in Q4, Nov 15B will be assigned to Jeff Bary (NAPG). The rest of the available time is in December, and there is a lot of it. Interested users are reminded to look for OPEN and DD01 blocks listed in the Q4 schedule and request it if desired, especially if they can make use of small blocks of time, especially with ARCES or Agile (for which no instrument change would be required).

Schedule is in progress; error checking drafts. Rather challenging with classes and visiting instruments and collisions on dates - Amanda doing the bulk of the work, great job so far. Training dates pieced in at the end. Have a lot of quarter night requests. Unassigned time is currently mostly half nights.

All unassigned after Dec 15.

The ARC Board of Governors meeting is on Monday November 7. Thank you to everyone who contributed science highlights; Nancy sent requests to a few individuals and it looks like we will have a packet containing representation from all ARC institutions and lease partners.

xxx

The January 2023 AAS meeting will be 8-12 January in Seattle. It would be good to have a mix of APO staff and users at the booth through the meeting. Nancy will order stickers to give to people for their badges to indicate that they are presenting results from APO observations. Also, we will make a digital image “sticker” available for download so users can add it to their iPoster if they made use of APO data. Nancy will also create a spreadsheet where people can indicate when their talk or poster is, as well as their availability to help out at the booth. Note added in proof: the spreadsheet is here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F_oM3sqCz51Ynb1HvPftlr9RB5zvBFUjJN5yOq5Bu1s/edit?usp=sharing .

We will discuss this further at our December UC meeting.

Open action items from previous meetings:

• Nancy: start investigations re: short wavelength throughput (climate data, other facilities). Status: OPEN. No news. Old news: Nancy reached out to some colleagues at other observatories to ask about short wavelength performance degradation of their optical coatings. She got some names from Bill and will contact those individuals next. The ongoing discussions about new coatings for the primary also relate to this issue so we will determine our coatings first before continuing to pursue this line of investigation.

New action items from this meeting:

• xxx

None.

The next meeting will be on xxx Jan 3 or Feb 7? xxx Tuesday December 6, 10:30 am MST.