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 not 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.

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.

• 2019-09-09: The instrument is operating nominally.
• 2019-08-26: The instrument is operating nominally.
• 2019-08-12: The instrument is operating nominally.
• 2019-08-05: The instrument is operating nominally.
• 2019-07-08: The instrument is operating nominally.
• 2019-01-02: The instrument is operating nominally.
• 2012-01-24: APO still does not recommend taking dome flats with AGILE. More information can be found here.

• 2019-09-09: The instrument is operating nominally. The interorder light is leveling off with cooler ambient temperatures.
• 2019-08-26: The instrument is operating nominally although the interorder light has been slowly degrading with time. .
• 2019-08-12: The instrument is operating nominally.
• 2019-08-05: The instrument is operating nominally.
• 2019-07-11: Subframes for the echelle guider should be restored and working. Have asked the observing specialists to please test.
• 2019-07-08: The instrument has been operating nominally
• 2019-05-16: Installed a new guide camera that is more sensitive. Currently subframes / windowing of guide frames is not working. A problem report ticket was filed. Consult with the observing specialists in the event you have questions.
• 2019-05-16: The instrument has been operating nominally
• 2019-03-07: Could not find a mechanical problem with shutter. Bench tested fine. Not dirty. Action is good. Will test on the instrument over night.
• 2019-03-06: Removed spectagraph shutter for cleaning and bench testing.
• 2019-03-01: The science shutter is sticking on occasion. Please check your calibrations and science frames to verify your data is good. The problem manifests itself as vertical streaks in your spectra from bright lines.
• 2019-02-18: The observing specialists have been reporting a sticky shutter for the main instrument. Please inspect your data carefully until we can confirm.
• 2019-01-02: The instrument is operating nominally.
• 2019-01-02: Most recent interorder ratio plot can be found here.

• 2019-09-09: The instrument has been operating nominally, but we lowered the CCD temperature setpoint a few degrees to 182K. This has improved biases and darks somewhat. Please take new calibrations and do not rely on archived cals.
• 2019-08-26: The instrument has been operating nominally
• 2019-08-20: The instrument underwent vacuum servicing. It is cold again.
• 2019-08-16: The instrument has been warmed for vacuum servicing.
• 2019-08-12: The instrument has been operating nominally
• 2019-08-05: The instrument has been operating nominally
• 2019-07-08: The instrument has been operating nominally
• 2019-05-16: The instrument has been operating nominally
• 2019-01-02: The instrument has been operating nominally

• 2019-05-15: 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.

• 2019-09-09: The instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-08-26: The instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-08-12: The instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-08-05: The instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-07-08: The instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-05-16: The instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-03-07: The ICC is back up and the instrument is available again. Power supply installed and things appear nominal. We believe we understand the problem with the spare ICC and it should be working now but we will test it.
• 2019-03-01: Failure of the computer power supply. Replacement is on order. We were unable to get the space computer up and running.
• 2019-01-02: The instrument is operating nominally

• 2019-09-09: Instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-08-26: Instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-08-12: Instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-08-05: Instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-07-08: Instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-05-16: Instrument is operating nominally
• 2019-01-02: Instrument is operating nominally

• 2019-09-09: Operating nominally.
• 2019-08-26: Operating nominally.
• 2019-08-12: Operating nominally.
• 2019-08-05: Operating nominally.
• 2019-07-08: Operating nominally.
• 2019-01-02: Operating nominally.

The information on this page is up to date as of September 09, 2019. This page is maintained by the 3.5-m Telescope Engineer .