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KPNO 2000 - The Future of Kitt Peak in the Gemini...(1Jun94) Era (from KPNO, NOAO Newsletter No. 38, 1 June 1994) For the last several months the NOAO scientific staff have been involved in discussions to identify and plan for the long-term future of NOAO, focusing particularly on how the Observatories will change to meet the challenges of the Gemini 8-m telescopes. These discussions culminated in the NOAO 2000 meeting held at Sacramento Peak in late March, discussed elsewhere in this Newsletter. Of special importance to our KPNO user community is the role KPNO will play in the Gemini Era, as well as the telescopes, instruments, and scientific capabilities which it will provide to astronomers. Two themes arose repeatedly throughout our discussions. First, the scientific capabilities, rather than just the apertures of telescope mirrors, are the important components of any program. Scientific capabilities require telescopes, instruments, observing time, software, and staff together to yield quality scientific results. The second theme was the achievement of excellence in those scientific capabilities we choose to pursue. The range of capabilities in which we excel must address the diversity of forefront scientific problems of interest to the community, but be limited in number so that our resources can be focused effectively. The scientific capabilities which we believe will be critically important to enable our user community to address scientific research problems at the start of the next century are: o Wide-field optical and IR imaging with the highest achievable image quality short of high-speed adaptive technology. o High spatial resolution optical and diffraction limited IR imaging with adaptive optic techniques. o Multi-object spectroscopy in the optical and in the infrared. o Faint object spectroscopy with high throughput. o Moderate/high dispersion stellar spectroscopy of large samples and broad spectral coverage (and stability for stellar seismology). The KPNO of the 21st century will work in partnership with the Gemini telescopes to bring these important scientific capabilities to the community, and to enable excellence in the scientific productivity of Gemini and cost effectiveness in the operations of the Gemini telescopes. The development of outstanding Gemini instrumentation at NOAO will require access to telescopes to prototype and to commission instruments. Those telescopes are best provided near the scientific and engineering resources responsible for building the instruments, and KPNO is the natural site for carrying out these tasks. KPNO will also play an essential role in supporting Gemini science programs; rare is the observational project which can be carried out without access to other facilities for program definition, feasibility demonstration, and followup. Our existing telescopes will play an important role in providing new observations needed from smaller telescopes to make the most productive use of data from the Gemini telescopes and the most efficient use of time allocated on the Gemini telescopes. KPNO staff will also contribute significantly to the scientific operation of Gemini through the allocation of telescope time, support of users in observing run preparation, data reductions, archiving, remote observing, and so forth. Each of these components leads KPNO to a full role in the scientific support of the Gemini telescopes. We must pursue each of these parts of the overall program vigorously if we expect to provide the level of support that the astronomical community will demand of us in the Gemini Era. The implementation of a successful national Gemini program requires the continued operation of smaller telescopes equipped with instrumentation providing needed support to Gemini observing programs. Additionally, many important scientific programs do not require 8-m telescopes, or cannot be carried out on large telescopes, and NOAO/KPNO will continue to support such programs at a modest level. The most critical priorities for the KPNO portion of the NOAO program for NOAO 2000 are: o The provision of scientific capabilities not available at Gemini (e.g. wide field imaging, multi-object fiber spectroscopy). o The development, commissioning, and deployment of state-of-the-art instrumentation for Gemini telescopes. o The support of Gemini observing programs requiring additional data to make the most effective use of Gemini observing time. o The development of new observing modes, flexible scheduling, data archiving, and remote observing technology to apply to the Gemini telescopes to obtain the greatest scientific effectiveness for those telescopes. o The availability of telescope time to a broader astronomical community than can be served by the limited resources of Gemini. Between now and the end of the century KPNO will gradually reshape its program to focus on the scientific capabilities listed above. Decisions to upgrade or replace existing facilities or instruments will be made with these priorities in mind, always considering the context of Gemini. Over the years the KPNO small telescopes (i.e. < 2-m) have become increasingly specialized with innovative instrumentation which excels at particular types of observations; each telescope is a competitive, world-class facility dedicated to demanding scientific problems. Our general purpose 2.1-m and 4-m telescopes are now equipped with a stable of instruments, some of which are arguably the best in the world. The new 3.5-m WIYN telescope, of which NOAO will receive a 40% share of the observing time, is optimized for wide field, multi-object, fiber spectroscopy and optical imaging. Further specialization of all of the existing KPNO telescopes will be required to reduce operating costs if we are to continue to provide both the range of capabilities and the access to telescope time that we believe the community wants. A second new direction which KPNO will pursue vigorously is the initiation of collaborations with the community to make new capabilities and scientific opportunities available to our users. Discussions with several groups are now underway to bring new instruments to Kitt Peak or to open innovative facilities to community access. Further details will appear in future issues of the Newsletter as these collaborations are realized. We are interested in making such partnerships work to everyone's benefit. Of particular interest now is a desire to seek out university, commercial, or private partners to build a new, modern technology, 2-m to 4-m class telescope on Kitt Peak in support of Gemini science and instrumentation programs. A third component of our program for the rest of the decade is the development of new observing modes to provide useful astronomical data to a wider community of users. In the last year we have initiated several experiments, including the queue scheduling program of last summer and the fall 1993 semester, the "Save the Bits" data archive, and the Key Projects initiative. Shared risk observing on the new 3.5-m WIYN telescope will commence in early 1995, and observing time on WIYN will be allocated primarily in a queue or service mode. The purpose of these various programs is to provide a wider range of scientific opportunities to our users, with mechanisms to accomplish both smaller and larger programs than we have traditionally supported, as well as to provide access to a broader community of astronomers. These initiatives will not only provide better service to our users, but will also serve as blueprints for Gemini telescope operations. These three components outlined above, specialization, collaboration, and new modes of observing, together provide an exciting path to the future for KPNO, taking into account the needs of our user community as well as the context of the Gemini 8-m telescopes. Some of the decisions we must make to achieve these goals will be painful. KPNO cannot serve all needs, or continue to try to, but must focus its resources on the most important priorities for the coming century. To achieve this vision for KPNO 2000 will require hard work, hard decisions, and your help. Caty Pilachowski, Interim Director of KPNO
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