Bruce Bohannan, Tony Abraham, and Richard Green
Improvement projects for Fiscal Year 2000 mark a transition from work at the Mayall 4-m directed at improving the delivered image quality (DIQ) to starting a similar program at the 2.1-m. In looking at the less than 3.5 FTE we now have available for projects after setting aside time for basic operations, maintenance, and response to failures, it is no wonder our ambitions take several years to achieve.
For our on-going program to improve the DIQ at the Mayall 4-m, this year we expect to finish the improved 4-m primary mirror cooling system, complete commissioning of the active control system of the 4-m primary (the 4mAPS), and install a wavefront camera for the Cassegrain focus that will enable wavefronts to be taken on a nightly basis. At the 2.1-m we plan to upgrade the servo system to eliminate the oscillation in hour angle that causes elongated images. Other work on the DIQ at the 2.1-m has been proposed, but has been given a lower priority so that we might complete the most important work that will show immediate gains.
Other projects initiated this year include replacing our aging electronic guiders with those designed by CTIO, installing a seeing monitor patterned on that developed by ESO, and prototyping a data reduction computer based on PC hardware. We are also upgrading the 4-m aluminizing facility by moving the chamber into a "room" built in the main floor of the Mayall building so that we will have a cleaner environment in which to coat mirrors.