Magellan Telescopes Observatory Report

Magellan Telescopes Observatory Report

• Personnel

• Accomplishments

• Observing Statistics

• Common Problems

• Current Software Projects

• Seeing from Guide Cameras

• MASS/DIMM

Personnel

• A sixth Telescope Operator (TO), Sergio Vera, was hired and began training in late-August. Sergio has an undergraduate degree in Astronomy from the Universidad Católica, and had been working at Las Campanas in the GMT site testing program.

• The TO’s have been organized into two shifts with three TO’s each. Hernán Nuñez, Felipe Sanchez, & Victor Meriño form one shift; the other consists of Geraldo Valladares, Hugo Rivera, & Sergio Vera

Personnel (cont.)

• The third TO on each shift (when not substituting for one of the other TO’s when they are on vacation or sick) will work from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m.

• In the afternoon, they will perform the start-up of the telescopes. In addition, when feasible, they will assist the instrument specialist to gain familiarity with the setup and operation of the instruments.

• In the evening, the third TO will be able to cover for both of the TO’s during their lunch breaks

Personnel (cont.)

• Finalists for the Magellan Telescopes Engineer position have been interviewed. An offer is likely to be made within the next week or so.

Accomplishments

• ADC corrector installed on Baade telescope (May). [Good images obtained over entire f/2 field of IMACS. Full commissioning of the ADC part has been postponed due to higher priority tasks. Software control of the hardware has been implemented and initial tests performed.]

• Baade telescope M1 & M3 washed (May). [Frank will report on results]

• Full collimation procedure performed for Baade, including characterization of M3 displacement as function of elevation (May).

Accomplishments (cont.)

• Instrument performance reports presented at SPIE meeting (Jun). [Papers given on PANIC (Martini), IMACS IFU (Schmoll), and Magellan Instrumentation (Osip)]

• Continued commissioning of IMACS (Jun, Jul, Sep) [Hartmann mask tests, further commissioning of IFU, testing of GMAP functions, instrument and component optical alignment, etc.]

• Testing and implementation of rotator guiding (May, Jun, Jul, Sep)

Accomplishments (cont.)• Guide camera software additions (Jun) [Guiding on star in slit; ability to switch between on-chip amplifiers]

• Continued commissioning of MIKE Fibers (Jul)

• Campaign begun to seal M1 actuator cylinders (Jul) [Will take ~1 year to complete job on both telescopes]

• Visit by Harvard-CfA-SAO F/5 group (Aug). [Measurements made for wide-field corrector installation.]

• Clay M1 & M3 aluminization (Aug). [Frank will report on results]

Accomplishments (cont.)

• Development and testing of new, web-based laser mask submission software (Aug) [Ready from prime time once new web server installed.]

• Installation of new Galil PWM amplifiers on 1) Cass rotator of Clay (Jul), and 2) West NIR of Baade telescope (Sep). [So far, all are working fine.]

• Final software & hardware commissioning of detent system for Cass rotator on Clay telescope.

• Completion of seeing tower and installation of MASS/DIMM (Sep) [see end of this report for early results]

6.5-m Baade Telescope Instrumentation Usage:

6 Nov 2003-

11 Apr 2004

12 Apr 2004-

20 Sep 2004

IMACS 58% 71%

PANIC 42% 29%

Observing Statistics

6.5-m Clay Telescope Instrumentation Usage:

6 Nov 2003-

11 Apr 2004

12 Apr 2004-

20 Sep 2004

MIKE 60% 61%

MagIC 17% 16%

B&C 11% 19%

LDSS-2 12% 4%

Observing Statistics

Baade + Clay Telescopes Instrumentation Usage:

6 Nov 2003-

11 Apr 2004

12 Apr 2004-

20 Sep 2004

IMACS 29% 36%

MIKE 30% 30%

PANIC 21% 15%

B&C 6% 9%

MagIC 8% 8%

LDSS-2 6% 2%

Observing Statistics

May 2001 through Apr 2004

Long-Term Trends: Instrument Usage

May 01-Oct 01

Nov 01- Apr 02

May 02-Oct 02

Nov 02-Apr 03

May 03-Oct 03

Nov 03-Apr 04

Apr 04-Sep 04

MagIC+CCD 20% 31% 13% 18% 15% 8% 8%

B&C 44% 17% 34% 18% 20% 6% 9%

LDSS-2 28% 40% 31% 19% 10% 6% 2%

MIRAC 8% 3% 13% 4% -- -- --

Classic Cam -- 9% 9% 8% -- -- --

MIKE -- -- -- 31% 34% 30% 30%

PANIC -- -- -- 2% 17% 21% 15%

IMACS -- -- -- 4% 29% 36%

12 Apr 2004-20 Sep 2004:

Observing Statistics

Baade Clay

% Open 69.9 69.8

% Lost to Weather 27.4 26.9

% Lost to Telescope 1.8 2.8

% Lost to Instrument 1.0 0.1

% Lost to Computer 0.0 0.4

% Total Downtime 2.8 3.3

Instrument Downtime:

6 Nov 2003-

11 Apr 2004

12 Apr 2004-

20 Sep 2004

MIKE 0.7% 0.0%

MagIC 1.5% 0.5%

LDSS-2 1.6% 0.0%

B&C 0.0% 0.0%

IMACS 2.3% 1.3%

PANIC 0.4% 0.2%

Observing Statistics

May 2001 through Apr 2004

Long-Term Trends: Baade

May 01-Oct 01

Nov 01- Apr 02

May 02-Oct 02

Nov 02-Apr 03

May 03-Oct 03

Nov 03-Apr 04

Apr 04-Sep 04

% Open 74.8 85.6 67.1 94.4 71.4 92.7 69.9

% Lost to Weather 20.6 9.7 31.1 3.1 23.7 4.3 27.4

% Lost to Telescope 1.3 3.6 1.1 1.4 2.7 1.4 1.8

% Lost to Instrument 2.5 1.0 0.7 0.6 2.1 1.5 1.0

% Lost to Computer 0.4 0.2 0.1 0.5 0.1 0.2 0.0

% Total Downtime 4.2 4.8 1.9 2.5 4.9 3.1 2.8

May 2001 through Apr 2004

Long-Term Trends: Clay

May 01-Oct 01

Nov 01- Apr 02

May 02-Oct 02

Nov 02-Apr 03

May 03-Oct 03

Nov 03-Apr 04

Apr 04-Sep 04

% Open -- -- 76.6 89.2 81.3 93.1 69.8

% Lost to Weather -- -- 13.6 4.3 16.1 4.3 26.9

% Lost to Telescope -- -- 7.5 4.4 2.1 1.6 2.8

% Lost to Instrument -- -- 1.5 1.9 0.4 0.8 0.1

% Lost to Computer -- -- 0.9 0.2 0.1 0.1 0.4

% Total Downtime -- -- 9.9 6.5 2.6 2.5 3.3

Most Common Problems: Telescopes

• Primary mirror support (mirror panics, faulty actuators) [Campaign underway to seal air cylinders in actuators; redesign of actuator electronics cards in progress; ~50% of all time lost on both telescopes is due to these problems!]

• Guiders [air cylinder issues associated with cold weather]

• Rotators [Remaining reliability and tracking issues]

• Azimuth drive bearings of Clay telescope [found to be rusted due to lack of lubrication!]

Most Common Problems: Instruments

• IMACS [f/2 filter server, disperser server, guiders]

• MagIC [video boards, bad image header, LOIS freezes]

• PANIC [stuck filter wheel]

Current Software Projects

• M3 turret ADC control for Baade telescope [good progress made; waiting for telescope testing]

• Rotator guiding [excellent progress made, but more tests needed]

• M3 turret control for Clay telescope [reprogramming required for automatic tip-tilt of M3]

• Guide probe control (non-Sidereal tracking, MIRAC guiding) [on hold, awaiting new, modified guider]

• Dome control software [conversion from fortran to C++, automation of moon roof and windscreen control]

• Guide Camera images taken through red (RG610) filter

• Approximately corrected for measured image quality limit of guider optics of ~0.32 arcsec FWHM by subtracting this number in quadrature

• Corrected to an airmass of 1 and a wavelength of 500 nm

• 415 nights of data

• Median seeing = 0.66 arcsec

Image Quality

MASS/DIMM

A Good Night…

A Poor Night…