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Telescope Scientists (1Dec93)
(from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 36, 1 December 1993)

Each telescope on Kitt Peak has associated with it a staff astronomer
who serves as the "telescope scientist" for that particular facility.
What is the role of a telescope scientist?  Our primary responsibility
is to see that our telescopes can be used as efficiently as possible
for science: we represent the customer, the astronomer. Part of this is
setting scientific priorities for our telescopes; some of this is
proposing improvements to the telescopes that will enhance the science
through-put; some of this is just making sure that visitors know the
tricks of using our telescopes well.

In practice, how do we do this?  Probably each of us has our own answer
to this. On a daily basis we are likely to review what happened at our
telescopes the previous night by reading the on-line "service" log and
the Astronomer-In-Residence report.  Weekly we sit down along with the
support scientists, instrument scientists, engineers, and mountain
representatives and discuss what happened on the mountain this week.
Sometimes common themes will emerge that underscore the need for
certain improvements:  the knowledge that the 2.1-m, 1.3-m, and 0.9-m
telescopes all have  focus drifts that depend primarily on temperature,
say, suggests that thermistors mounted in the telescope tubes would be
a Good Idea. Most of us receive copies of the run evaluation forms you
fill out after your observing run, unless you specifically request that
it be kept confidential. Maybe you've raised an issue that we are
unaware of, and we will e-mail you for more details, or maybe we have a
partial answer for you. When major engineering is required at one of
the telescopes, it is the telescope scientist's responsibility to
assign scientific priorities.

This month many of you will be receiving "fat packages" indicating that
we were able to schedule your observing proposal; in it you will find a
list of "Facilities and Staff Contacts." This list includes the
telescope scientists, instrument scientists, and support personnel for
each telescope and instrument. If your telescope quits tracking at 11
pm, call for a Technical Assistant on the radio. But if you have
questions over issues of flat-fielding, or instrument performance
(perhaps you've noticed that your CCD camera is no longer sufficiently
light-tight to permit darks to be done during the day), or have any
sort of question regarding the efficient collection of high-quality
photons, give one of the people on the list a call (although don't feel
required to wait until 11 pm). Your staff contact, or the person that
came up and got you going, is an excellent place to start, but feel
free to make use of any of the staff contacts listed, including the
telescope scientist. If we can't help you, we can at least direct you
to someone who can.

The current list of telescope scientists is as follows:

            4-m: Phil Massey
            2.1-m: Tod Lauer
            1.3-m: Dick Joyce
            0.9-m: George Jacoby
            Coude Feed: Sam Barden
            Burrell Schmidt: Tom Kinman

Phil Massey

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