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Apr 14, 2004, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM PDT
Contents
Start time: 10:45 AM, after the OCIW staff meeting (add on to the phonecon; LCO on video)
Attending: Alan Uomoto (Pasadena), Frank Perez, Mark Phillips, David Osip, and Alan Dressler (LCO), Miguel Roth (Santiago)
The first part of the meeting (LCO, Santiago, Pasadena) was a discusion of Magellan staffing requirements. There will be a discussion about Magellan staffing requirements at the next SAC meeting (Apr 21-22, 2004) with a recommendation to the Magellan Council. This meeting was held to agree on the type and number of new staff required at Magellan.
Frank Perez reviewed his memo of Mar 31, 2004 on "Magellan staffing for operations." The relevant content from the Council standpoint is the request to hire a new Instrument Specialist/Electronics Engineer. This person would have combined skills similar to Marc LeRoy. David Osip suggested this person would have a schedule that is out of sync with the regular turno schedule, allowing him or her to pay more attention to specific chronic problems rather than problems arising.
The discussion next went to the table on the last page of Dressler's SAC report to the Council. It was noted that this was similar to Frank's memo and that everyone agreed on the scale and type of new staffing desired. Changes discussed included moving the computer administrator into 2004 and adding another telescope operator to help with workload problems and to allow some day work for operators. Items in 2006 and beyond were not discussed.
It was mentioned that Nidia Morrell provides valuable high-level support services at Magellan that do not explicitly show up in in these presentations. This work might be done by an instrument scientist (and is often done by Mark or David) but Nidia's contribution never explicitly displayed.
Here's an updated version of the table:
| Date | Job | Comments |
| 2004 | Telescope engineer/scientist | Backup Frank Perez. Need management support and telescope/instrument expertise when Frank is off or traveling. Higher staffing level will need more management. Immediate need. Advertising now. |
| " | Electronics engineer/Instrument specialist | Construction and controls troubleshooting to make progress on chronic problems. Immedate need. Changed description to include Instrument specialist tasks. |
| " | Computer admin (1/2 fte) | Networking, web pages, etc. Current 0.1 fte insufficient. Immediate need. Moved up from 2005. |
| 2005 | Instrument scientist | Backup David Osip when he's off the mountain. Instrument count becomes too large for one instrument scientist. Immedate need. |
| " | Telescope operator | Winter work durations can exceed reasonable levels. To provide support through the night double shifts might be needed. It has also been suggested that some day shift work by telescope operators would be welcome. |
| 2006 | Engineer/technician | Troubleshooting new instruments and controls, computer hw support. |
| " | Instrument specialist/scientist | F/5 preparation, more new instruments. Two instrument specialists are expected to be overwhelmed by the number of instruments at this time. May be delayed depending on instrument schedules. |
| 2007-2008 | Instrument scientist | New instruments keep arriving; prep for F/5 installation. |
| " | Engineer/technician | F/5 controls, instrument support. |
Additional staff at SBS:
| Date | Job | Comments |
| 2004 | Electronics engineer | Done for FY04/05 |
| 2005 | Mechanical designer/engineer | 0.5 FTE to start; New instrumentation needs observatory-level support; continuing work on chronic problems. |
Start time: 11:45 AM PDT
Attending: Alan Uomoto (Pasadena), Mark Phillips, David Osip, Frank Perez (LCO), Paul Schecter, Jim Elliot, and Amanda Gulbis (Cambridge)
Agenda
1) Communications section of support agreement (Paul) 2) Comments on the draft support agreement -- draft for SAC? (all) 3) LOIS upgrades, MagIC testbed (Amanda,Jim) 4) Status of MagIC engineering CCD (Ed?, Dave? Jim) 5) Reschedule MagIC engineering run (June->August?, all) 6) Update on SPIE paper (Dave) 7) MagIC filter measurements (Dave) 8) Cryotiger strain relief (Dave)
Folks:
Below are the minutes from yesterday's tele-video conference.
Jim & Amanda
Notes from MagIC telecon, 2004 April 14, 2:45 PM EDT: (participants: Alan Uomoto (moderator), Dave Osip, Mark Phillips, Frank Perez, Paul Schechter (for item #1 only), Amanda Gulbis, Jim Elliot)
There was some discussion concerning the meaning of the "ultimate authority". The primary point of contact is the first contact with an issue or problem, the secondary is the next contact if the primary is unavailable, and the "ultimate" should just always be kept in the loop and will step in if the first two are not available. This means that the "ultimate" should be specifically copied on all email concerning issues and problems (unless the message is sent to the contact person as well as the entire mailing list on which the "ultimate" already resides). These contacts are -- primary contacts: Jim Elliot (MIT) David Osip (LCO), secondary contacts: Mark Phillips (LCO), Amanda Gulbis (MIT), ultimate contacts: Alan Uomoto (LCO), Paul Schechter (MIT).
[Following our conference, it seems to us that "ultimate contact" better captures the spirit of a communications protocol than "ultimate authority," so this terminology has been put into the draft support agreement -- see below]
2) Comments on the draft support agreement -- draft for SAC? (all)
The detailed mailing list should be removed from the document. Alan is looking into a web-based mailing program which will allow everyone to see who is on the mailing list, edit the list, and view the mail history (the timescale for this software upgrade is a few months). The question marks in the "Handling and Storage Fixtures" section of the support agreement should be written at LCO. [In the conference previous to the one described by these minutes, we decided that procedures for specific tasks, such as pumping down and baking the dewar, will be posted on the MagIC website. This should also be written by LCO.] Commissioning is a separate issue from the support agreement. The support agreement is a commitment between the instrument group and LCO while the commissioning document deals with delivered and required spec. Alan is working on a list of deliverables for MagIC to be commissioned, while the support agreement continues in its current form. A draft of the support agreement will be made available at the SAC meeting next week. Mark will mention that he has it while summarizing the current state of the instruments and that the final form will be presented at the fall SAC meeting.
3) LOIS upgrades, MagIC testbed (Amanda,Jim)
At MIT, there is an Ultra 10 running with Solaris 9, LOIS 3.5.0.beta, and connected to Leach electronics. Alan has provided the chip pinout and a CCD headboard for whenever the chip is obtained. Software is being installed on a recently purchased Blade 150 (to be used at Wallace Obs. with the engineering chip). The goal is to get an upgraded system (Solaris 9, newer version of LOIS) to MagIC. Suggestions include (1) purchasing a new computer, setting it up and shipping it to LCO, (2) shipping the Ultra 10 from MIT, testing, and swapping with the Ultra 10 currently running MagIC, and (3) copying MIT's Ultra 10 onto an external, SCSI drive, shipping the drive to LCO, and booting the MagIC computer from the external drive. MIT is investigating these options, and plans to have something shipped to LCO prior to the 23 May MIT Clay observing run and subsequent 03 June engineering run.
Dave Osip asked if the new version of LOIS allows aborting scripts. [Yes, Dave Brian Taylor says that the new version of LOIS does allow aborting of scripts.]
4) Status of MagIC engineering CCD (Ed?, Dave? Jim)
No news. The next time anyone is in Hawaii, grab it!
5) Reschedule MagIC engineering run (June->August?, all)
The June run is the best time to work on MagIC, since the time has been allocated for MagIC to come off the telescope for testing, abuts nicely with an earlier MIT run, and works well for Dave's schedule: Dave will be on the mountain from 30 May through 05 June. Hence MIT will try to use the June engineering time. Definite word will come within a few days.
6) Update on SPIE paper (Dave)
Dave is working on the paper, which deals with all generation I instruments. He has MagIC calibration data which will supercede the older results (from June 2001). MIT is planning to take the lead on a separate MagIC paper (for PASP?) and will coordinate with Dave to obtain the new data and achieve consistency.
7) MagIC filter measurements (Dave)
Still in line, no rush.
8) Cryotiger strain relief (Dave)
IMACS strain relief clone manufactured and installed on MagIC. Some sort of extended strain relief (which could be made into a cable wrap farther out) is still necessary.
add the communications section to the support agreement, edit any other changes (i.e mailing list), and distribute a draft which Mark or Paul will make available at the SAC meeting next week (MIT)
make a deliverables list for commissioning (Alan)
coordinate some type of upgraded computer system to send to LCO prior to the May run (MIT)
AU notes: David Osip reminded us that the ability to abort MagIC observing scripts was important for intervention observations.
Start time: 12:45 PM PDT
Attending: Alan Uomoto (Pasadena), David Osip, Mark Phillips, Frank Perez (LCO).
The tertiary mirror on Baade is not pointing correctly, possibly because of a calibration error or other problem when using the new controller chassis. Replacing the system with the old one fixed the problem. Wiring has been checked for correctness. A second swap-in swap-out test was done this morning although results are not yet in.
The tertiary mirror on Baade is known to move with telescope elevation. The amount and effect of this motion has not been computed but IMACS observations suggest it's enough to put a detectable tilt into the IMACS focal plane. After aligning the secondary at the Cass port and applying tilt corrections for that mirror, tilt corrections for the tertiary will be measured at both Naysmith ports.
2004-04-14 <au AT ociw DOT edu>
