The WIYN Queue observing experiment is in the midst of its fifth semester of operation. The NOAO share of science programs on the WIYN telescope has been scheduled almost exclusively within the queue program since the 2nd semester of 1996. Since the expansion of the queue program to encompass nearly the entire NOAO time allocation, 164 nights have been given to queue observing. During the past two completed semesters (102 nights), 35 of 42 "long" observing programs (programs requiring more than 2 hours to complete) were serviced and 16 of these were completed. For the same period, 21 of 24 2hr queue programs were activated, with 13 being completed. After gaining this amount of experience in managing an observing queue for an oversubscribed facility, it is time for a careful review of the current queue process and development of a strategy for the future progress of this experiment.
The NOAO Director's Office has electronically sent a questionnaire to the NOAO WIYN telescope user community to gather data from the investigators' perspective on the scientific effectiveness and efficiency of the queue program. Roughly 370 astronomers who had applied for WIYN telescope time since the start of science operations at the facility have been sent questionnaires: the mailing includes both PIs and Co-Is. If you have not received a questionnaire and you applied for WIYN telescope time in the past, please send your email address to Paul Smith (psmith@noao.edu) if you would like to receive one. Responses were due on 1 November; however, the Queue Team would be interested in your suggestions and opinions, even if your responses are returned too late to be used in the formal survey. Results from this survey will be a major factor in determining the future development of the WIYN queue observing program.
The WIYN Queue Team welcomes the arrival of Abhijit Saha to NOAO. The NOAO WIYN queue program is among the many activities in which Saha will be involved. He brings considerable experience in observational astronomy (particularly direct imaging techniques), telescope scheduling, and an impressive research background to the WIYN queue program. Saha will be an important and welcome contributor to the complex and labor-intensive WIYN queue experiment.
Progress of the WIYN queue program for the current observing semester can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.noao.edu/wiyn/obsprog. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments about the queue process, please send them to wiynq@noao.edu. As always, we encourage investigators to send us reprints and preprints of any work that includes data taken by the WIYN queue observing program. Please send relevant publications to:
WIYN Queue Experiment
c/o Paul Smith
National Optical Astronomy Observatories
P.O. Box 26732
Tucson, AZ 85726-6732
Paul Smith for the WIYN Queue Team,
(Di Harmer, Abhijit Saha, Daryl Willmarth)