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Attending: Nancy Chanover (NMSU),

Aleksandr Mosenkov (BYU), Bill Ketzeback (APO), Eric Bellm (UW), Anne Verbiscer (UVa), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Moire Prescott (NMSU), Russet McMillan (APO), Misty Bentz (GSU), Kevin Schlaufman (JHU), Zach Berta-Thompson (CU), Joanne Hughes (Seattle U), Ben Williams (UW), Chip Kobulnicky (UWy)

• Seattle - nothing to report
• Washington - nothing to report
• Wyoming - nothing to report
• BYU - nothing to report
• Oklahoma - no report
• JHU - nothing to report
• NMSU - nothing to report
• Georgia State - nothing to report
• Colorado - the ARCTIC diffuser rotator stopped working and users are asking about the timeline for getting it repaired; one user had a weird issue with KOSMOS when it stopped taking exposures
• UVa - nothing to report
• NAPG - no report

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

3.5-m Telescope and Instruments Highlights, 12/03/24 – 01/07/25

1) Overview

Weather wise, we had a very cold January with a mix of clear and cloudy nights. Numerous cold related problems were present in January, detailed in the following report. There were no astronomers, instrument teams or classes that visited APO in the month of January.

2) Operations

The main site generator has been experiencing a few problems since the start of the new year. Fuel contamination is suspected and we obtained some test kits to determine the cause. We are waiting for the results to see if it is bacterial or water in the diesel. A repair of some wiring was also required as the main electrical transfer switch was not sensing enough voltage from the generator to switch over on a drop of utility power. In the meantime the backup generator has been on standby.

An issue with the computer UPS occurred after a planned replacement of three quarters of the backup batteries. Batteries were only charging to a fraction of their full load and runtime was quite short. The problem has been resolved and the unit is now 100% charged with the expected hour of backup runtime should we lose all utility and backup power. This would be enough time to gracefully shutdown servers.

3.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected. Following a planned power outage for line maintenance by the local power company, there was a failure of a circuit breaker to the enclosure motor amplifier cabinet that prevented moving the building one night. Disassembly and cleaning the breaker the next day allowed us operate until a replacement could be obtained and installed.

0.5m Telescope: Telescope is working as expected.

KOSMOS: Experienced multiple failures of the slit viewer shutter when temperatures dipped near and below the -10C rating. We replaced the shutter with a spare. Some adjustment to guide optics was also needed as the image scale was changed during the shutter repair. Additional observing overhead was required in the meantime to center up targets using the science detector in imaging mode. The disperser and mask wheels also have been struggling with colder ambient temperatures during this time, making use of the instrument challenging during part of the colder nights.

ARCTIC: Maintenance on the diffuser mechanism will be scheduled as well given the reports of intermittent behavior at times.

Agile: The camera is back from the repair house for local bench testing with APO software for failure to software select gain settings as well as a demo camera for testing. The earlier problems with the TEC and readout of the CCD have been resolved. We are waiting to hear back from the repair house if they learned enough from the testing we did to try again to repair the camera or if we will reinstall with manual gain settings.

ARCES: One reported failure of the sky/cal mirror was reported. This certainly is another cold temperature related problem as the motor driver is at the limit of its current output. The system is currently usable.

DIS: System is currently up and usable.

NICFPS: System is cooled and usable.

TripleSpec: System is up and usable. There was one report of the main detector reading all zeros. A reset of the camera controller corrected the problem.

APOLLO: Installed a new chiller for the laser. We have ranged a few times since installation without seeing abnormal operating temperatures. The system is in operation.

Nothing to add other than what was in agenda. There is a multi-day weather system coming in tonight, which could include snow. The KOSMOS weirdness that Zach reported above has been resolved. There was an emergency vacuum servicing done for ARCTIC; the ion pump was replaced this past weekend. ARCTIC was used B half last night without issue. Russet suggested that we remove the rotation restriction for ARCTIC. The diffuser rotator repair is still to be scheduled; it was tensioned but the rotation sensor is not working properly. Agile is still at the repair shop. ARCES is back and usable after the issue with daytime metrology data described in the site report above. Russet will check with Amanda about headers not being written properly for KOSMOS; this anomaly affected Zach BT a few weeks ago.

We have some unassigned time in Q1 (mostly B halves). This time is listed as OPEN on the Q1 schedule. 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).

The 2025 Q1 ARCSAT scheduled is posted. We only had 2 requests this quarter (note added in proof: we received a third request, so there are now 3 programs scheduled to use ARCSAT in Q1). We are continuing to struggle with frequent failures in communication with the camera (which manifests as a “support library error”); FlareCam is getting old. The temporary fix is fairly quick so if observers can keep an eye on it and report errors it can be recovered pretty quickly. In early March we will have an onsite class and other stuff going on so ARCSAT is not available during weeks when the schedule is marked BUSY.

There is a plan to run a test tomorrow for converting the site to new servers (but this may be postponed due to illness).

The IT team at APO is still researching applications to improve password handling; all we know right now is that the switching of the TUI password is coming.

We have heard no news from NSF regarding the pre-proposal that was submitted for ASPEN; we hope to hear soon. Sarah reported that since having received the Ocotillo CDR report on December 2 her team has been evaluating the comments and preparing a response. They also applied for some funding and are waiting to hear back. It is clear that the instrument will come together in a phased approach, bringing the three channels online one at a time. They will start with the IFU and follow up with MOS component, which is more costly and mechanically complicated. The hope is that this would enable supported data reduction development along the way and troubleshooting as we go. It also spaces out the cost, which reduces impact on the overall observatory budget. Their goal is to have their response report back to the CDR review panel by the end of the month.

Nancy is working on developing a document that lays out the decommissioning plan for DIS. The instrument has not been serviced and will only be available in Q1 (and Q2) in a shared risk mode.

Open action items from previous meetings:

• Nancy: get ROM costs for new KOSMOS grisms. Sarah reported that she has a finalized quote from one vendor. The grism design turns out to be a little complicated, but also, costs have gone up, so these are more expensive than we expected (ballpark $20k apiece). Therefore, we need to explore potential funding sources. We have reached an impasse in terms of prioritizing the desired grism; Nancy will amass all previous emails with grism requests and send to UC reps to query users about whether there is broad interest in a particular grism. This could help identify funding sources, either individually or collaboratively. STATUS: OPEN. Nancy has started a proposal to the Mt. Cuba Foundation for several grisms and hopes to have it submitted before the next Users Committee meeting.
• Nancy: Ensure that a short description of the impact of satellites be posted on the APO website somewhere and updated every 6 months or so. Nancy received examples of this issue from Anne Verbiscer and will get something added to the current (and new) web site. STATUS: 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: OPEN.

Open action items from this meeting:

• None.

None

The next meeting will be on February 4, 2025 at 10:30 MST.