UCO on-line Newsletter 3: Nov 2006

This is a short summary of UCO news of interest to the broad UC astronomy community for the period June 2006 - Oct 2006.

Regards, Mike Bolte, Director, UCO

• Some comments on the Keck TAC process

  Twice per year we get around 80 proposals requesting Keck time. Jacky Leighton in the Director's office sorts them by instrument, records in spreadsheets the PIs, proposal numbers and nights requested and then sends via Fed-Ex copies of every proposal to each of 10 TAC members. Each TAC member reads, grades and makes recommendations for number of telescope nights for every proposal. The TAC meets for one (typically very long) day during which every proposal is discussed and there is an opportunity to regrade after discussion. I'll take this opportunity to thank the members of our community who are willing to be members of the TAC. This is a time consuming job.

  With the results of the TAC meeting in hand, Jason X. Prochaska uses the time-of-year and moon phase requirements from the coversheets and attempts to schedule the proposals starting at the top of the ranking from the TAC. The provisional UC schedule goes out to Barbara Schaefer who then undertakes the large task of merging schedules from UC, Caltech, NASA, engineering requirements and TSIP. Although the goal is to have the final schedule reflect as closely as possible the rankings of the TAC, there is a certain amount of noise introduced by the realities of scheduling.

  In the last two years we have had ~65 different UC PIs on proposals. In a typical semester the total oversubscription for the two telescopes is around 60%, with more pressure on Keck 2 (bright and dark time) than Keck 1 by a significant amount.

  In addition to the obvious tips for writing strong proposals (outstanding and timely science goals) I've noticed two areas where proposals often run into problems. First, it is important to justify sample sizes. It is surprisingly common to get a request for time sufficient to build a sample of a certain size with no discussion of the basis of the sample size requirement. This always puts the TAC in a bad mood. The second area that gets a high level of scrutiny is the progress made on and impact of previous observations. If a request is being made to continue a program, having up-to-date results from any previous observations is quite important.

  For March 2007 and the 2007B proposals, we will move to a WWW-based proposal submission. Proposals will be uploaded in PDF form, linked to the Keck coversheets and be made available to the TAC.

• Mt Hamilton News

  • Personnel: There are some new activities underway at Mt Hamilton. Burt Jones, who has been 20% time as Associate Director of UCO in charge of Mt Hamilton, has agreed to double his committment through at least June 2007. Starting in November 2006 we will also have a Santa Cruz-based engineer, Vern Wallace, spending 40% of his time on Mt Hamilton projects. This level of attention will aid the efforts on a number of fronts including upgrades to the Kast and Hamilton spectrometers, improvements to the Nickel 1m top end and thermal environment and improving 3m pointing and image quality.

  • VILLAGES: Don Gavel, Director of the Laboratory for Adaptive Optics, is leading an effort to built a TMT pathfinder AO system at the Nickel 1m telescope. VILLAGES is a project to build the first MEMS-based AO system in use at a telescope. This will also demonstrate the concept of "open-loop" AO correction. AO systems with MEMS deformable mirrors have the potential to dramatically reduce the size and costs of large telescope AO systems. This project is funded by UCO, LAO, a generous gift from the estate of Gary Sommargren and a grant from the NSF.

  • APF: The Automatic Planet Finder dome is complete. The primary mirror polishing continues to be the pacing item for the project. However, the telescope structure (currently in Tucson) has been run through a number of tests and has so far been in spec. The Steve Vogt spectrometer design is complete and the drawings have been released to the shops for fabrication.

    A Laurie Hatch photo of the APF dome (and 3m with laser running) from July 2006.

  • Mt Hamilton Exhibits: Geoff Marcy is PI on a successful NASA proposal for funding to make a major update of the visitor-oriented exhibits in the main building. We are also working up plans for a remodel of the 3m library and kitchen. When completed, this will be a space appropriate for activities ranging from cloudy night workspace for astronomers to hosting the VIP visitors at the Lick Concert Series.

• Keck Observatory News

  • The Earthquake of 2006

    The big recent news at Keck Observatory is unfortunately that there is a significant disruption of observing due to damage at headquarters and at the summit as a result of the 6.7 magnitude earthquake centered just south of Puako on the Kohala coast. The main earthquake hit at 7:10am October 15 followed by a 6.0 aftershock.

    

    It was quickly established that there were no injuries to Keck employees (and as it turned out to anyone in Hawaii). Plans were rapidly developed for systematically inspecting and testing telescopes and instruments and the Observatory staff moved into high gear with multiple shifts per day working at the summit and headquarters. Although initial evaluations showed that catastropic damage was avoided, there was significant damage to both telescopes. The cleanup, evaluations, fixes and recalibrations are continuing as I write this message on November 8. Instruments and the AO systems came through remarkably unscathed. K1 had its first shared-risk science observations Oct 27 and has continued carrying out scheduled science with some restrictions in azimuth travel. K2 had first post-earthquake light on Nov 6.

    The Keck staff and leadership deserve a tremendous "mahalo" from all of us for the huge effort of the last three weeks. There are members of the staff who have spent up to the 14-hour/day limit at the summit almost every day since the earthquake. The broad competence and deep knowledge of the facility they have demonstrated is greatly appreciated as is the absolute dedication shown to getting the telescopes back on line for science. There are updates posted at the WWW site below along with some images from headquarters and the summit. CARA Earthquake photos and news

  • Next Generation AO: The SSC devoted an additional 1/2 day at their June 2006 meeting to review the materials developed and presented by the Keck Adaptive Optics Working Group defining the Next Generation AO (NGAO) system for the Keck Observatory. The concepts were enthusiastically adopted and an Executive Committee of Peter Wizinowich (Keck Obs), Rich Dekany (Caltech), Don Gavel (UC Santa Cruz) and Claire Max (UC Santa Cruz) was put together to generate a detailed work plan for the next 18 months of effort leading to a Preliminary Design.

    Consistent with the Strategic Plan developed and maintained by the SSC, NGAO will be the major initiative of the next five years for the Keck Observatory.

    The NGAO concept and science reach documents are available by request to me (bolte@ucolick.org) or Claire Max (max@ucolick.org).

  • LRIS ADC:

    

    Hats off to the team led by Joe Miller and Drew Phillips that successfully coated the ADC prisms with MgF+saphire+Solgel. These are among the best quality, broad-band anti-reflection coatings ever applied to large optics. The ADC has been completed and was shipped out to Hawaii just in time for the earthquake. It is now at the summit awaiting installation, alignment and testing. These activities have been delayed by the earthquake recovery work and first ADC-modified light is probably going to be mid January of 2007.

• Thirty-Meter Telescope

  • Cost Review: The Project devoted much of the June through Sept period developing a very detailed cost estimate for the TMT as defined by the Science Requirements Document. The process was of much value in identifying quite completely the tasks ahead during design, construction and initial operations. A rigorous review was held over four days at the end of September during which the cost estimate methodology, completeness and results were scrutinized by an outside panel. This was another very successful review and the Project was given excellent marks for the entire costing exercise and the cost total and level of contingency were judged to be well-founded.

    The total cost for the "SRD" telescope came in around 20% higher than the TMT Board-approved target. The Project is now involved in a "recosting" exercise. The goal of reducing the cost estimate by 20% without introducing significant additional risk or reducing scope (e.g. reducing the diameter of the primary mirror) is a challenging one, but it may be possible through relaxation of some requirements, optimizing some designs with respect to cost, and eliminating or reducing some support facilities.

  • Partnership: The NSF Astronomy Division Senior Review report has been completed and there are some recommendations relevant to the TMT and our partnership with AURA and NOAO. If accepted by the NSF, the recommendations in the report may remove direct involvement of AURA/NOAO in TMT, but the NSF would continue to support development efforts for Extremely Large Telescopes. The three partners, UC, Caltech and ACURA of Canada, are resolved to press forward and not lose momentum or the significant lead the TMT has on other ELT projects around the world.

• Previous Newsletters

  June 06 UCO Newsletter

  Jan 06 UCO Newsletter