apo-wiki

Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU),

Jamey Eriksen (APO), Gordon MacDonald (APO), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Eric Bellm (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Adam Kowalski (CU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Misty Bentz (GSU), Ben Williams (UW)

nothing to report no report

• JHU -
• UVa -
• Georgia State -
• NMSU -
• Seattle -
• FGCU -
• Colorado -
• Oklahoma -
• Washington -
• BYU -
• Wyoming -
• NAPG -

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

3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 5/1/2023 – 6/5/2023

1) Overview

APO weather for May was variable; we had some thunderstorms, and some very nice clear skies.

May was the quiet month before the June rush arrives. In May we had one class visit and one visiting instrument team on site. June will be a very busy month at APO with three different class visits and two visits from instrument teams.

2) Operations

3.5m telescope: operated nominally over the past month.

0.5m telescope: issues with camera control and instrument drivers are being worked on.

KOSMOS upgrades implemented for the umbilical hose to further limit any issues from LN2 vent.

Arctic diffuser is rotator service is had to be postponed, will be rescheduled for a later date.

Agile timing board was swapped, sync issue is still being investigated as board swap did not eliminate the issue.

Echelle interorder light ratios (measure of scattered light in the instrument) are still quite excellent but are declining again in the warmer weather.

DIS scattered light is improving slowly as expected, however blue is still considered bad and Red is considered borderline usable by APO.

3) Other

              Mirror coating system for LDT chamber design is being manufactured at APO.  Planning is continuing for August recoating at Lowell.    
              Repairs and maintenance are ongoing for various site metrology units (dewpoint and dust sensors).
              

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The moths are back at APO for the warm weather season :( The KOSMOS hose was repaired and the ARCTIC diffuser will be serviced soon to troubleshoot the rotation issue. The NA2 baffle fence has been installed and ARCTIC users can now take dome flats. BYUCam is performing nicely.

Plans are proceeding to have M1 realuminized at Lowell Observatory this summer. The design for the mirror support system in the Lowell chamber is finished. Note added in proof: the dates for the summer shutdown have been finalized. Shutdown will start on July 26 and the anticipated return to science is August 22 (although that could slip by several days if the weather during engineering recovery is poor).

There is some unassigned time at end of May: 1 unencumbered dark B half (19 May) and 2 grey A halves (24, 25 May) adjacent to sunset APOLLO observations. And also some time early June: June 1B and June 4B (both unencumbered but bright). Users are encouraged to request this time if they can make use of it (particularly those who have been weathered out recently). As a reminder, users should include Ben, Russet, Amanda, Nancy and their institutional scheduler on all schedule related emails.

Ben will be sending out the institutional allocations later this week. UC reps/institutional schedulers: please notify your users of the summer shutdown dates and remind Q3 proposers that the return to science date is contingent upon having good weather during the recovery period.

There is some unassigned time at end of May: 1 unencumbered dark B half (19 May) and 2 grey A halves (24, 25 May) adjacent to sunset APOLLO observations. And also some time early June: June 1B and June 4B (both unencumbered but bright). Users are encouraged to request this time if they can make use of it (particularly those who have been weathered out recently). As a reminder, users should include Ben, Russet, Amanda, Nancy and their institutional scheduler on all schedule related emails.

Please send Nancy any references for 3.5m-related publications (anything published from Jan 1 2022 to now). The deadline is July 31. 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 2022 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.”

Open action items from previous meetings:

• Nancy: track down missing ARCTIC data reduction scripts for wiki. → 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. → OPEN
• UC reps: Notify your users that we have funds to purchase slit masks for MOS runs with KOSMOS
• UC reps: Notify your users of the summer shutdown dates, and remind them when submitting their Q3 proposals that the return to science date is dependent on good weather during the recovery engineering time.
• UC reps: Have any department members who are planning to attend the summer AAS meeting and present APO-related science contact Nancy.

New action items from this meeting:

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The next meeting will be on Tuesday July 11, 10:30 am MDT. This is one week later than our regular schedule of the first Tuesday of the month to avoid Independence Day. The August meeting, which would be scheduled for August 1, will be canceled.