The MuSCAT3 instrument arrived at Haleakala Observatory last week. The unpacking and assembly of the component parts began today. We anticipate that installation on the telescope can begin this Thursday. As I described in a status report two months ago, the installation of MuSCAT3 will coincide with the removal of the Spectral camera and the suspension of operations with the FLOYDS spectrograph. We expect that FLOYDS will be available again in approximately one week (as soon as MuSCAT3 installation is complete), but only on nights that are not reserved for MuSCAT3 commissioning observations. Details of how we expect the commissioning and science validation of MuSCAT3 to flow are given on our MuSCAT3 transition page.
The Spectral camera on the 2m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory will remain in operation. You may have noticed that all telescopes at our Siding Spring site were offline September 3-10. This was the consequence of a failure of the site's UPS (uninterruptible power supply). A new UPS was ordered, received, installed, tested, and brought into service in one week, and observations resumed on the night of September 11. Unfortunately, the kb28 camera did not survive the interruption; the 0m4a telescope is unavailable until the camera can be fixed or replaced.
At our non-2m sites, here are other operational issues that we're dealing with:
- CTIO is still closed. The three 1m telescopes, NRES spectrograph, and two 0.4m telescopes at that site have not been available since mid-March.
- At SAAO, the power supply on the fa16 Sinistro (on the Dome A telescope) failed on August 18. A new power supply has been sent to South Africa, but it has not yet been received at the observatory.
- Also at SAAO, the NRES spectrograph has been offline since August 8. A new pressure manifold is now at the site, and we expect it to be installed this week.
- After 3 weeks of operation, the telescope in Dome B at McDonald Observatory was taken offline on September 12 because of a power problem on the instrument crates.
- Also at McDonald Observatory, NRES operated September 3-8 before the backend camera warmed-up. The spectrograph will remain offline until a flush of the camera's cryo system is completed.
We, with the assistance of the staff at our network sites, are fixing things as quickly as we can ...
