General     Proposal Format & Cover Sheets     TAC criteria     Travel Support     Forms for Downloading     Important dates

COO Instrument Availability Information, 2008A

• Palomar http://www.astro.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/TAC/palcover.cgi for the Palomar cover sheet.
• Keck http://www2.keck.hawaii.edu/inst/siastng/release/web/CoverSheet/proposalCoverSheet.php updated Keck coversheet.

Keck Instrument status.     Keck Instrument availability.

Available Observing Time in 2008A

                      Science      
	Total    Bright	Grey   Dark
Keck I	  58	   19	 18	21
Keck II	  57	   17	 20	20

P200-CIT  80       25    25     30
JPL       60       18    19     23
Cornell   21        6     7      8

PALOMAR.
Palomar 200-inch Instrument status and availability     P200 instrument, m1, weather & seeing statistics

• AO will be unavailable from 1 December 2007 through to the end of March 2008 for upgrades to the AO-bench optics, and to prepare for the arrival of the SWIFT IF Spectrograph. All NGS and LGS-AO observing will occur in April-July this semester.
• NGS-AO has improved significantly and will be fully available after1 April 2008
• Palomar LGS-AO is available for shared-risk (and shared-work) collaboration with the PIs during 2008A after 1 April 2008. As LGS is still being commissioned, its performance continues to rapidly evolve. Web pages describing and updating the Pal-LGSAO performance are provided at http://www.astro.caltech.edu/oir/lgs
• COO will support up to 16 LGS-AO shared-risk science nights for all partners at Palomar in 2008A. The proposed split is 8 (Caltech), 6 (JPL) and 2 (Cornell), assuming each partner uses their full allocation. There is no limit on NGS nights. There is no Prime Focus instrument during LGS, so each LGS proposal should incorporate an NGS, PHARO or East-Arm-Echelle backup program. To this end, LGS proposals are allowed one extra page in addition to the usual 2 pages (text, table, references) and 1 page of figures.
• What does shared-risk mean? Current shared-risk performance guidelines
  Performance has improved in terms of both acquisition speed and delivered strehl, but users should continue to bear in mind that this is a developing system. Overhead is expected to be about 45min at the start of the night, 10 minutes per target for acquisition and optimization, and performance is by no means guaranteed. The AO lead may preempt or delay science as needed for trouble-shooting, and all data taken during the shared-risk phase should be made available to the engineering team (for performance characterization only.)
  Finally, please note that all LGS targets must be submitted for approval by US Strategic Command at least 72 hr prior to observation. We are preparing a facility to enable targets to be submitted along with observing specifications, for scheduled observing runs.
• Please contact Rich Dekany (rgd@astro.caltech.edu) and AO-lead Antonin Bouchez (abouchez@astro) to discuss LGS proposals prior to submission. Proposals that conform to current capabilities and can lead to useful system improvements are particularly desirable.
• The East-Arm Echelle (EAE) has been commissioned. Resolution R>=30,000 is available over the full spectral range from 380-900nm. Total throughput from sky to detector is in the range 2-3%, with S/N~30 in the continuum possible for m=11 in about 600 sec, m=13 in 1 hour, and m=15 in 6-7 hours (estimate), with results somewhat dependent on seeing. The guiding system can see down to 17m or fainter, and guide down to m=15. EAE operates with an ArcView GUI from any observing computer. Note EAE is ALWAYS available (if requested in advance) by inserting the tertiary flat. Changes from/to Cass or Prime take about 25 minutes. EAE is a backup to LGS-AO and can be an additional backup to any Prime or Cassegrain instrument.
• TripleSpec commissioning is scheduled for early October 2007. Given the uncertainties at proposal time, PIs can propose it as a backup to another project. TripleSpec (at Cassegrain) can be a backup to a Prime Focus instrument (WIRC or LFC), or East Arm Echelle. It will provide R~2700 (100 km/s) resolution through a single long 1 arcsec slit projecting to 2.7 pixels/arcsec. It provides cross dispersed spectra simultaneously in 6 orders from 0.8-2.3 microns on a 1024x2048 HgCdTe detector, with expected continuum sensitivity (S/N~5) of 19.7, 18.8 and 17.7 mag in J, H, K respectively in 600 sec, or 1 mag fainter in each band in 1 hour. It also provides 4x4 arcmin Ks slit viewing and guiding.
• DBSP is operating with the new E2V Blue Camera and ArcView control of red & blue sides.
  All slits have been realuminized for better guiding, and a new 1.5-arcsec slit installed.
• The P200 primary was successully aluminized in October 2006 (plus dome rail repair work). The #3 and #4 (East Arm pickoff mirrors) were aluminized in July 2005. The secondaries were aluminized in Jan/Feb 2007, along with focus maintenance.

QUEST pipeline distribution and CCD performance update

General     Proposal Format & Cover Sheets     TAC criteria     Travel Support     Forms for Downloading     Important dates