2024-12-19 Meeting notes

1:05

Words from Jim

Jim

• Support blackout dates

• Firewall Geoblocking

  • Will effect observers using remote observing system

  • Will only capture the laziest of hackers

  • Have this in your pocket in case you see observer connection problems.

1:11

Impressions from Astropy Workshop

All

• Greg: valuable

• Carlos: first day was good, but second half of day 2 was not in depth enough (didn’t have astrometric fitting tools he was interested in)

  • Still learned quite a few things

• Sherry: most useful thing is to know there is a consolidated site for learning astropy

1:23

UNO instrument readiness

Jim

• Instrument checkouts

  • Pre-run

  • Daily (can we automate?)

  • Guiders

• Intermediate release on SIAS

  • Want departure screen to stay red until SA says instrument is ready for science

• LRIS has a checkout script which is run now

• Should day crew do guider checkout for standby instruments?

  • Remove some things from support tech’s plate in order to make it feasible to add more

  • Shui has Magiq status page

  • He has automated checks which are logged. We may be able to use that for guider checks.

• How do we verify instruments are ready for science?

  • Something more than testAll?

• Josh: if SA is doing an active check, we need a commitment to release instrument by a certain time, so we know when we need to be available and can schedule around it.

• For some instruments, we automatically add early release on certain nights. Not consistently applied though.

  • Rosalie adds in manually on KCWI split nights.

• Jim: “Never underestimate the power of a phone call”

1:54

TLT Request on 5-year planning

Carolyn

• Look for input soon (SLT needs to have this done by mid-February).

• Looking to get feedback from staff

• Carolyn: What is your 5 year plan for your instrument?

• Can be specific projects (e.g. paint domes) or studies (energy efficiency, reliability)

• Josh: this vs. CI?

  • These are larger (e.g. >1 FTE and/or >$200k)

• How to provide input?

  • Confluence page

  • Any level from idea to detailed plan is ok

• Put ideas here: https://keckobservatory.atlassian.net/l/cp/hBverHeB

2:12

SA responsibilities after the night

Jim

• Assigned SA to take the lead for all nightlog tickets

  • Try, then follow-up with others as needed

Looking for:

• Build the SA group as a team

  • Un-silo post-Covid

• SA knowledge of all systems needed to observe

• Cross-train on instruments and AO

• Recognize that Kevin and Liz will retire

  • Kevin rotating off SWOC on Feb 2, retiring within next year

  • Maybe similar with Liz?

• See System Responsibilities Matrix for guidance on who to talk to

• Josh: should we have regular group triage meeting?

  • Might be worth trying? Keep it short (30 min)?

• Jim can send out ticket summaries

2:28

SA Job is posted

• some applications coming in

• Trying to have it out in Job Register for AAS

  • Sherry, Percy, John, Rich going

2:30

Next lead: Josh