2025-02-27 Meeting notes

n/a

Words from Jim

• I swear I am not avoiding the group

• Sent Q2 eval sheet. Please treat as a self-eval and/or bring questions for next individual meeting

• SSC/Board meeting this week

1:03

Pier repair

Josh

• Pier repair is coming

  • Are we (K1 inst) ready?

  • Do we have our plans for work?

• Luke indicated that he was not confident about the optics staying clean during pier repair

• Dome will be open at times

• AC may be turned on to mitigate humidity

• OPS rep for pier repair?

  • unknown, Grant could carry message

• PR rehearsal next Wednesday with contractors

• Carlos: we should make sure there are instrument readiness checks before starting

• Put instrument prep tasks on summit schedule?

• On first day: LRIS and ADC will be pulled and secondary removed before HBS is turned off

• K1 instrument SAs should keep talking to Dennis about instruments

• Protecting instruments may happen during pier repair work as it is unlikely dust will immediately be produced and rise to the instruments.

• Grant: idea of “instrument master” hasn’t been appropriately followed in a few cases recently

• Carlos: perhaps we should make sure the table with the instrument leads is printed out in the control rooms and lead office

  • Carolyn will ask OAs to print and put in control rooms

1:35

SA Updates

All

• Goal: More collaboration within the group

  • Each take 1 minute to share a win and a challenge you are currently working on

  • Discuss 1-2 of the challenges for up to 5 minutes

• Josh:

  • Win: KPF detector noise plan approved by CalTech detector group

  • Challenge: getting other teams to respect the instrument scientist (master) role

• Carlos:

  • Win: Have plan and schedule to open NIRC2

  • Challenge: documentation

• Greg:

  • Win: Recovering NIRSPEC after service, initialized all mechanisms

  • Challenge: thermal light leak, present since 2018

• Leo:

  • Win: first two official support runs this month

  • Challenge: CSU has been limitation, also finding information, outdated documentation

• Michael:

  • Win: Script to help plan during stuck dome was used again, generalized it, put it on GitHub

  • Challenge: Slitmask design for LRIS, something in coordinate transformation is not quite right

• Max:

  • Win: Got K2 OCAM2k going, got some sky time due to dome issue

  • Challenge: Dealing with fallout from bumped optics and realignment

• Percy:

  • Win: Found a way to keep track of VNC sessions on NIRES, closing GUIs now works better

  • Challenge: 1) NIRES spectroscopy detector is stuck in CDS. Balance risk with reward given NIRES retirement plans. 2) Got opposite issue with “instrument master” in that he was asked something he didn’t know.

• Sherry:

  • Win: LRIS-II is still alive as of this moment. Planning to test dome flat lamp with more blue flux. May not be a win depending on results of board meeting.

  • Challenge: 1) XLRIS is obsolete, have 2 year old request in to SSG. Jim revisited communication chain between us and SSG. Matt Brown is now revisiting the partially complete GUI. 2) Communication: plan to service OSIRIS cold heads has not been communicated to AO group. Adjusting schedule to accommodate AO engineering in April.

• Discussion:

  • Michael: re communication with SSG, can we understand their priorities?

  • Carlos: Talk to Jeff Mader if you need more than a quick chat with someone in SSG.

  • Josh: there is a weekly SSG meeting with notes (similar to this meeting). For example: https://keckobservatory.atlassian.net/l/cp/HXm50yTn

  • Grant: been working on summit with instrument techs, can be avenue of communications to instrument techs, can carry info on wins (“good job!”). Can also help them learn more about a topic if needed.

1:55

Pier Repair Return to Science

Carolyn

• Think about needs to get back on sky after pier repair

• There will be a group looking at return to science

1:57

K2 Instruments

Leo

• Can I shadow on K2 instruments?

• Yes!

1:58

SA Hire Status?

• Interviews going on, sounds like good candidates.

2:00

Pau!

Next lead: @Michael Lundquist