Transcript National Optical Astronomy Observatory Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Status and Plans Alistair Walker Tucson, AZ 12 October, 2004

National
Optical
Astronomy
Observatory
Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
Status and Plans
Alistair Walker
Tucson, AZ 12 October, 2004
Telescope & Instrument Status - I
BLANCO
– M1 aluminized July 2004
– M1 lateral supports repaired, maintenance of M1 active supports
– M1 position adjusted - now (before correction) astigmatism is constant over the sky. This is a
MAJOR advance
– PF corrector overhaul
– Few resources available for any “improvements”, candidates are
• Characterize environmental control system
• Drives servo tuning
• Telescope Control System replacement & other “DECam infrastructure”
SOAR
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Integration & commissioning phase; Optical Imager, OSIRIS, Goodman Sp.
LL CCDs, initial tests show need for O2 soak, another bad foundry run experience
M1 lateral support problem - remake necessary, ongoing new FEA studies
2005A “shared risk” science at 25-40% level, 2005B “regular operations”
SMARTS
– 0.9m, 1.3m, 1.5m in full-time operation
– 1.0m started operations April 2004
– NOAO users get 25 of the time in 2004 A&B (27% in 2005A&B, in exchange for paying FY03
AOSS supplement)
– Near 50% service on 0.9m, 1.0m, 1.5m, 100% queue on 1.3m
Telescope & Instrument Status - II
OTHER COMMUNITY FACILITIES
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GONG
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PROMPT
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UNC, PI Dan Reichart
6 x 0.5m telescopes, GRB rapid-response, triggers ToO at SOAR
Significant education component
Status - MOA signed (5 years); ground-breaking September 2004
SCHMIDT
– NASA debris (geosynchronous orbit) program - Pat Seitzer (U. Mich)
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BOCHUM Hexapod
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FEROS (high-throughput fiber fed Echelle) clone funded
MOA approved by all parties, in signing phase
Ground-breaking in a couple of months?
SMARTS II?
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SWARTHMORE ALL-SKY EMISSION LINE SURVEY
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SITE TESTING FOR THE TMT
Telescope & Instrument Status - III
BLANCO INSTRUMENTS
– MOSAIC II (2004A 30%, 2004B 46% as scheduled)
• Faulty CCD successfully replaced
• SM/Essence programs observe from la Serena, MOSOCS
– ISPI (2004A 34%, 2004B 18% as scheduled)
• Three times as popular in 2004 cf 2003
• Easy to use, last bugs being swatted
– HYDRA (2004A 17%, 2004B 16% as scheduled)
• Not much change in use pattern
– RC SPEC (2004A 12%, 2004B 16% as scheduled)
• Air Schmidt + Loral 3K
• Lower use than in the past
– ECHELLE SPEC (2004A 6%, 2004B 5% as scheduled)
• Long cameras (Tek 2K CCD)
• Steady decline in use
ISPI
Telescope & Instrument Status - IV
SMARTS INSTRUMENTS
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1.5m. Mostly Cass Spectrograph with Loral 1K CCD, but large block of U. Montreal IR Imager CPAPIR
(AMNH) time in 2005A, 2005B. Instrument arrives early January,
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1.3m. ANDICAM (OSU). Dual CCD/IR Imager Q-scheduled. Only 3/4 of the IR array works
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1.0m CCD Imager (OSU). Small 512 CCD, to be replaced with 4K CCD. Schedule for the latter uncertain
(November?), awaiting processing at U of Arizona (Mike Lesser)
– 0.9m
CCD Imager (CTIO). New TCS (March 2005)
– NOAO (and consortium members) get
• Good range of telescopes & instruments
• Service observing option, synoptic-optimized queue on 1.3m
• National Observatory level of support & reliability
– Consortium members additionally get
• Student education (SUNY, GSU, Delaware students doing
observing too)
• Science projects of scale
Resulting in happy customers
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SMARTS SCIENCE -- San Diego AAS,
Thursday January 13
Telescope & Instrument Status - V
OPERATIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
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TELOPS group split between Blanco & SOAR, two members -> SMARTS
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Aging and complex instrumentation
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Blanco down time for all reasons around 4% -- TOO HIGH!! Should be 2.5% The difference is 5.5 nights/year
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Scientific staff multiplexed, effectively 1 FTE Blanco, 0.5 FTE SOAR, 0.l FTE SMALLS
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Need to support multiple new instruments on SOAR for NOAO users (Optical Imager, OSIRIS, Goodman spectrograph,
IFU Spectrograph, Spartan IR camera, Phoenix shared with Gemini). Later, SAM (SOAR AO) and STELES.
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Available US public time in Chile has changed from (2001) 325 4m and 750 small telescope nights per year to (2006)
100 6-8m nights, 435 4m nights and 325 small telescope nights per year (factor 2.2 increase in night x area)
NEAR TERM ACTIONS
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Careful prioritization of tasks
• Aided by tools such as GNATS trouble-reporting database software in-use, utilize to identify
persistent offenders
• Simplify instrument complement to Mosaic, Hydra, ISPI. RC Spec only in 2005A, single blocked
run.
THE FUTURE
BLANCO
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MOSAIC, ISPI, HYDRA
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NEWFIRM (2007->) [7 x area coverage of ISPI]
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DARK ENERGY CAMERA (2009->) (DES 2009-2014)
[A = 38 cf MOSAIC = 4.5, LSST=302]
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Need UC support... Closing the Blanco to pay for high-priority NSF-Astronomy programs is “on
the menu”
SOAR
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First generation instruments enhanced with SOAR Adaptive Optics (SAM) and SOAR Telescope
Echelle Spectrograph (STELES) in 2006
SMARTS II
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SMARTS ends Feb 1 2006.
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Discussions about SMARTS II are beginning (January AAS meeting)
THE FUTURE - 4K x 4K NEWFIRM
– Shared between KPNO and CTIO
– Status: On Mayall for testing late
2005
– Mayall/Blanco sharing TBD.
Strawman would be to come south in
mid 2007 for 9 months?
– UC question: please advise on
Mayall/Blanco scheduling cadence
(discussed in more detail by Richard.
– NEWFIRM clone?
THE FUTURE - 22Kx22K Dark Energy Camera
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Proposal received from Fermilab led consortium (UIUC,
U Chicago, UCB/LBNL) in response to AO
Reviewed by SAGENAP, Temple Review, BIRP
Study Dark Energy using four complementary techniques:
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Cluster counts & clustering
Weak lensing
Galaxy clustering\
SNe Ia distances
Two multiband surveys:
5000 deg2 g, r, i, z
40 deg2 repeat (SNe)
• 3 sq. deg. Field camera
• New corrector
• Data pipelines, archives
• Survey
See “Community Science”; in UC additional papers
WWW site: https://plone3.fnal.gov/DES/Plone/the-project
Dark Energy Camera Community Science - Examples
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SOLAR SYSTEM
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STELLAR SCIENCE
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Proper motion surveys of galactic open clusters
Cool white dwarfs
Globular cluster tidal streams
Variable stars (e.g. CV’s in the galactic plane)
Space astronomy follow-ups
EXTRAGALACTIC SCIENCE
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Kuiper Belt searches
External stellar populations
Microlensing towards the Fornax Dwarf Galaxy
Dwarf galaxy searches in nearby galaxy groups
Intra-cluster light
Photometric surveys of the high redshift universe
DES LEGACY ARCHIVE SCIENCE
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Strong lensing in galaxy clusters
QSO survey to z ~ 6
Dark Energy Camera - this year
Letter of Intent (Feb 15), Proposal (July 15) received by NOAO. Reviewed by Blanco
Instrumentation Review Panel (BIRP), recommendation to proceed. BIRP
recommendations:
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Deliverables are the Camera, Reduction Pipelines, Survey
An external oversight committee should be constituted (AURA,URA)
The F/8 secondary should not be displaced
Daytime filter changing should be possible
NOAO should supplement the filter set
There should be an integrated E/PO plan
There should be adequate NOAO resources to enable community science
There should be a formal acceptance plan, and performance metrics
Dark Energy Camera - this year
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Management Structure in place; Full WBS exists
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Project director - John Peoples (Fermilab)
Instrument manager - Brenna Flaugher (Fermilab)
Data manager - Joe Mohr (UIUC)
Management Committee (one member from each partner)
Reference Instrument Design Prepared to allow schedule & costing
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Optics and CCDs are the most Challenging tasks
CCDs: Preproduction run: FY05, Production run: FY06 and FY07
Optics: Order glass in FY06, Figuring/polishing in FY07
Deliver March 2009
LBNL Physics Review (as received Oct 10)
•DES CCDs are seen as essential in enhancing LNBL CCD expertise
•Valuable production experience relevant to SNAP
•Recommended to proceed, and to increase number of phase B wafers from 2 to 6
Data Mgmt Development Plan
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Close collaboration between
– Univ. of Illinois & NCSA (LEADER: Joe Mohr)
– NOAO Data Products Program
– Fermilab
– Univ. of Chicago
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Solution
– Merge DES needs with NOAO DPP program plans
• Focus DES resources on DES-specific needs
– Produce ONE Archive, ONE Pipeline, ONE data management system overall
• Initial Activities
– WG formation (archives, automatic/grid processing,pipelines)
– LSST synergy, NOAO activities, Essence/DM pipelines etc.
Dark Energy Camera - the next year
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SAGENAP recommended a Dark Energy Roadmap be prepared (DES proposal to NOAO
outlined this)
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DECam appearing on this roadmap will likely gate DOE funding beyond the present R&D
funding lines (Critical Decision 0)
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NSF plead they have no money. ATI grant funding may be restricted to funding some of the
Data Management, this part of the project is at the university partners rather than Fermilab and
is high leveraged
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Attract another partner to close the funding gap. This is being actively pursued
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Continue Design and Development of the Camera, the Data Management, plan Blanco
infrastructure improvements
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Prepare MOU between Fermilab and NOAO
Some specific issues for the UC
1. Time scheduling for the DES
• Time split is 60% NOAO, 30% DES, 10% Chile
• Time split is “nights available for observing”, i.e. after
engineering nights removed.
• A strawman schedule envisages the DES starting in September
and finishing at the end of February. Jan-Feb nights would be
split, with DES first half.
• SM/Essence take 10 nights/month for 3 months for 5 years, by
comparison
• Remember - Archived survey data is community data!
Month/date
September
October
November
December
January
February
Month/date
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3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
D
N
D
D
D D D D D D D D
N D D D D D D D
D D D D D D D D
D N N N N N N N
D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N N N N
D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N N
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N
N
darkest, 0-3
dark, 4-7
grey, 8-11
bright 12-15
closed
N = NOAO + CHILE
D = DES
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2
3
4
5
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
DES
DES/NOAO split nights
NOAO
6
7
8
D
D
N
D
N
N
D D D D D D N N N N N N D D D D D N N
D D N N N N N D D D D D D D N N D D D D
N N D D D D D D D D D D D D D N N N N
D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D D
D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N N N N N D/N
D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N N N N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N D/N
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
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22
10.5
11.5
110
2. Filters
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4 installed at a time, in cartridges
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DES uses SDSS g,r,i,z
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Daytime change operation
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Cost $100,000 each
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Smart cartridge?
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Less use of UBVRI in favor of ugriz?
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Suggest DDO51, [OIII], [SII], Y (1 micron), H set
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Investment of > $500K in filters needed to support community science
3. Impact of no ADC
DES requirement
0.4 arcsec
FWHM
(= D80 of 0.64
arcsec)
g
r
i
z
Survey limit
LMC, SMC limits
4. CCD QE and Read noise
DECam / Mosaic II QE comparison
To get redshifts of ~1 we spend ~50%
of survey time in z-band.
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90
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LBNL CCDs are much more efficient
in the z band than the current devices
in Mosaic II
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QE, LBNL (%)
QE, SITe (%)
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40
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400
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600
700
800
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1000
Read noise for a recently
finished DALSA 2k x 4k
1100
Wavelength (nm)
Noise (electrons)
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300
100
10
250 kHz → 7e1
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1
10
Sample time (ms)
100
5. Memorandum of Understanding
Improvements to Telescope and environment
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New Telescope Control System (Clone of SOAR LabView system?)
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Finish the thermal environmental study, optimize the Environment Control System.
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Study whether other (major) changes in the thermal environment are warranted
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Investigate the drives & servo system, specifically to improve the time to traverse 1-3 degrees.
Instrument Project
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Deliverables, Schedule
Data management Project
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Deliverables Schedule
5. Final thoughts
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A long-term (2014+) role for the Blanco could be as part of a network of telescopes following
up on LSST discoveries (assuming Decadal Survey endorsement). SMARTS-like operation
is envisaged.
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For the years 2009-2014 the DES should produce a compelling science result; provides a
flagship archive for NOAO to curate, and is a stepping stone to LSST technically,
operationally, and scientifically.
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The alternative is not business as usual, but almost certain closure. In the near-term, UC
advice on surveys/non-survey split, run length, instrumentation, operations modes for the
Blanco telescope would be invaluable.
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Over the next five years SOAR must succeed. Success = being thought of as “slightly
stunted member of the 6-8 m club", achieved by demonstrating equivalent performance in
niches like the blue-UV, visible light AO, etc.
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SMARTS has proven very successful, and a model that can be grown (to include larger
telescopes, but preferably not too many more consortium members)
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CTIO is ideally sited for being the operations center for US public-private facilities, and a site
for independent facilities and experiments.