ARC 3.5-m Instrument News Page

Apache Point Observatory
New Mexico, USA

ARC 3.5-m Instrument News

Note: Comments in bold are to catch the readers attention as the most relevant for their upcoming science observations

News Worthy Items

ARCES is available. See below for more information.
DIS is available. See below for more information.
AGILE is available. See below for more information.
ARCTIC is available but is experiencing some issues with darks. See below for more information.
NICFPS is available. See below for more information.
Triplespec is available. See below for more information.

Current Status

Instrument issues which our users should be aware of before taking data. For historical information go here. For future instrumentation or planned upgrades go here.

AGILE

2020-06-22: Instrument is operating nominally.
2020-06-20: Instrument is operating nominally.
2020-06-01: Instrument is operating nominally. There was an issue over the shutdown where the camera could not connect. It is not clear is this was a software/driver issue or a hardware issue. Connection was regained and it is working fine now.
2020-04-06: Instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-30: Instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-23: Instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-09: Instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-02: Instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-24: Instrument is operating nominally. PR/1931 is fixed.
2020-02-17: Instrument is operating nominally except for noted PR/1931. I.T. is working to resolve the problem.
2020-02-10: Instrument is operating nominally except for noted PR/1931. IT is working to resolve the problem.
2020-02-03: Instrument is operating nominally except for noted PR/1931. IT is working to resolve the problem.
2020-01-27: Instrument is operating nominally except for noted PR/1931
2020-01-24: PR/1931 analyzed and confirmed. Seems like a software bug as upon initial investigation all the software parts are in place to correctly write the proper IMAGETYP. Turned over to Shane/Conor
2020-01-18: A user noticed that the image headers are always reporting the keyword IMAGETYP as Object no matter what radio button is selected in TUI. A problem report (PR/1931) was filed and we are investigating.
2020-01-13: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-06: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-03: The instrument is operating nominally.
2012-01-24: APO still does not recommend taking dome flats with AGILE. More information can be found here.

ARCES

2020-06-22: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-06-20: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-06-01: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-04-06: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-30: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-23: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-09: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-02: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-24: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-17: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-10: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-03: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-27: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-13: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-06: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-03: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-02: Most recent interorder ratio plot can be found here.

ARCTIC

2020-06-22: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-06-20: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-06-01: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-04-06: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-30: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-23: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-09: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-02: The instrument is operating nominally. We have lowered the operating temperature to 175K to further lower the dark current.
2020-02-24: The instrument is operating nominally. We have lowered the operating temperature initially to 180K and have installed the new temperature controller power amplifier.
2020-02-17: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-10: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-03: The instrument is operating nominally. There was an issue this weekend with the filterwheel but it was quickly resolved. We are still working on a safer way to recover from dropped quadrants so we can lower the operating temperature and reduce dark current.
2020-01-27: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-13: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-06: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-03: The instrument is operating nominally.

DIS

2020-06-22: No change in instrument status.
2020-06-20: No change in instrument status.
2020-06-01: No change in instrument status.
2020-04-06: No change in instrument status.
2020-03-30: No change in instrument status.
2020-03-23: No change in instrument status.
2020-03-02: No change in instrument status.
2020-03-02: No change in instrument status.
2020-02-24: No change in instrument status.
2020-02-17: No change in instrument status.
2020-02-10: No change in instrument status.
2020-02-03: No change in instrument status.
2020-01-27: No change in instrument status.
2020-01-13: No change in instrument status.
2020-01-06: No change in instrument status.
2020-01-03: No change in instrument status.
2019-12-16: No change in instrument status.
2019-12-09: DIS Blue scattered light is rather poor. The blue camera is mostly unusable for most science. Red camera is still usable. The instrument is available for use. There are no current plans to vacuum service either camera.
2019-10-21: DIS Blue scattered light is rather poor. The blue camera is mostly unusable for most science. Red camera is still usable. The instrument is available for use.
2019-10-14: DIS Blue scattered light is rather poor. Red camera is still usable. The instrument is available for use.
2019-09-19: Concluded DIS Blue vacuum servicing. The instrument is available for use. No action was taken with the red camera due to humid weather this past week.
2019-09-15: Started DIS vacuum servicing of the cameras. Currently the blue camera is on the vacuum pump. It is not available for use.
2019-08-26: There have been multiple reports by the observing specialists of banding visiable in the bias frames of the red camera after the instrument sits idle for multiple hours. A reset has been fixing the issue. Please inspect any calibration images for unusual biases. Blue camera scattered light continues to be poor and the red camera scattered light is still slowly degrading but remains quite usable.
2019-07-08: DIS cameras are experiencing increasing scattered light from contamination (likely water vapor) in each of the dewars. Red is still at a low level. Blue is quite bad making this half of the instrument almost unusable for science. In the past we have found that vacuum servicing during this time of year (humid and warm) results in a very short amount of time before the contamination returns to an unacceptable level. Therefore we are not going to do a vacuum servicing this summer and wait until the science programs in Q3 can best benefit for this additional work.
2019-05-15: DIS Blue camera servicing complete. It is available for use.
2019-05-10: DIS Blue camera is being vacuum serviced. It will be available again after May 15.
2019-04-22: DIS Blue camera is again cold and ready for science. It is available for use.
2019-04-16: DIS Blue camera is being vacuum serviced. It will be available again next Monday.
2019-03-25: DIS Blue camera is back and looks to be operating as it was back in October. The spectragraph appears to be back in working order but we will monitor for increasing contamination.
2019-03-07: DIS Blue camera is reassembled and on the vacuum pump. Voltages check out within spec when tested warm and at atmosphere when connected to saddlebag.
2019-03-01: DIS Red is still available. DIS blue is currently unavailable.
2019-02-18: The blue camera has been removed from the instrument and is in the clean room for further evaluation. A counter weight has been installed in its place and the red camera is functional and available.
2019-02-12: The red camera is working again. The blue camera is still not working.
2019-02-04: After troubleshooting the blue clock board. The Red camera is also experiencing strange electical noise and odd behavior. The instrument is not useable while we try to solve what happened.
2019-01-29: The DIS Blue camera is not currently detecting light. It is unavailable while we troubleshoot. The Red camera is working and the the instrument is available for use.
2019-01-28: The DIS Blue camera has excessive noise and is likely dead. We are investigating a torubleshooting scheme and have ordered parts however consider the blue camera unavailable for sometime.
2019-01-14: DIS scheduled servicing run. Instrument is unavailable.
2019-01-02: DIS Blue noise issue likely in the dewar. It will be addressed during the next scheduled servicing run.

NICFPS

2020-06-20: The instrument is operating nominally however the users should be on the lookout for corrupted images. This is still occuring intermittently and not well understood. Report any corrupted images to the observing specialist so they can reset the array electronics.
2020-06-20: Ion pump change out and vacuum servicing complete. The instrument is again available. The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-06-01: The instrument is still warm. Awaiting vacuum servicing parts. It will not be readily available until it can be vacuum pumped on and cooled back down.
2020-03-23: The instrument was warmed as part of the observatory shutdown. It will not be readily available until it can be vacuum pumped on and cooled back down.
2020-03-23: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-09: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-02: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-24: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-17: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-10: No failures seen since we reseated all the electronics readout cards.
2020-02-03: No change in instrument status. We reseated all the electronics readout cards. Waiting to see if this helped with the number of resets required.
2020-01-27: No change in instrument status. Still intermittently producing zero or corrupted images.
2020-01-13: The instrument is producing zeros for array values intermittently after some handling or long instrument rotations. Please inspect your data carefully and inform the observing specialist when seem. A simple reset of the array electronics has been effective to temporarily correcting the problem. Further troubleshooting is in the process.
2020-01-06: The instrument is producing zeros for array values intermittently after some handling or long instrument rotations. Please inspect your data carefully and inform the observing specialist when seem. A simple reset of the array electronics has been effective to temporarily correcting the problem. Further troubleshooting is in the process.
2020-01-03: The instrument is operating nominally.

TRIPLESPEC

2020-06-22: No change in the instrument status
2020-06-20: No change in the instrument status
2020-06-01: No change in the instrument status
2020-04-06: No change in the instrument status
2020-03-30: No change in the instrument status
2020-03-23: No change in the instrument status
2020-03-09: The instrument is operating nominally. The low level pattern noise is still appearing intermittently but is at a much lower level. It appears to have a correlation with instrument rotation. It is recommended that users try to keep the instrument orientation between +/-80 degrees rotator angle. Please report instances where the noise is affecting your data reductions. The observing specialists can give more details.
2020-03-02: The instrument is operating nominally. The low level pattern noise is still appearing intermittently but is at a much lower level. It appears to have a correlation with instrument rotation. It is recommended that users try to keep the instrument orientation between +/-80 degrees rotator angle. Please report instances where the noise is affecting your data reductions. The observing specialists can give more details.
2020-02-24: The instrument is operating nominally. The low level pattern noise is still appearing intermittently but is at a much lower level. It appears to have a correlation with instrument rotation. It is recommended that users try to keep the instrument orientation between +/-80 degrees rotator angle. The observing specialists can give more details.
2020-02-17: The instrument is operating nominally. We swapped electronic readout powersupplies last week. The low level pattern noise is still appearing intermittently but is at a much lower level.
2020-02-17: The instrument is operating nominally. The low level pattern noise is still appearing intermittently.
2020-02-10: The instrument is operating nominally. The low level pattern noise is still appearing intermittently.
2020-02-03: The instrument is operating nominally. The low level pattern noise is still appearing intermittently.
2020-01-27: The instrument is operating nominally. The low level pattern noise is still appearing intermittently.
2020-01-13: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-06: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-03: The instrument is operating nominally.

MISC

NA2 GUIDER

2020-06-22: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-06-20: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-06-01: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-04-06: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-30: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-23: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-09: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-03-02: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-24: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-17: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-10: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-02-03: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-27: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-13: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-06: The instrument is operating nominally.
2020-01-03: The instrument is operating nominally.

Apache Point Observatory New Mexico, USA

ARC 3.5-m Instrument News

News Worthy Items

Current Status

The information on this page is up to date as of June 22, 2020. This page is maintained by the 3.5-m Telescope Engineer .

Apache Point Observatory
New Mexico, USA