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f/8 Focus of CTIO 4-m Telescope to Return...(1Mar93)
December 1993
(from CTIO, NOAO Newsletter No. 33, 1 March 1993)

As was announced in a previous Newsletter, the f/8 secondary mirror
will be removed from the 4-m telescope on 9 June 1993, in order to send
it to the US to be refigured. The R-C and echelle spectrographs, the
Rutgers Fabry-Perot, the ASCAP photometer, the f/8 direct imager, and
visitor instruments requiring f/8 will not be available on the 4-m
until the mirror is reinstalled.  All f/30 and prime focus instruments
will be available, of course.

We are now able to say that we fully expect to place the f/8 focus and
the above instruments back into service on 1 December 1993. We will
accept observing time requests to use the above instruments during the
final two months of the scheduling period which starts on 1 August
1993, for which proposals are due by 31 March 1993.  That is:

You can apply to use 4-m f/8 instruments during December and January of
the next scheduling period for which applications are due.

The prime and f/30 foci will also be available during this period, but
because of the expected strong demand, anyone who requests non-f/8
instruments should supply a compelling scientific reason why time
earlier in the semester is not acceptable.

We don't expect any problems meeting this schedule, but there is always
the possibility that something will go wrong and that the f/8 secondary
will not be available at the planned time. So f/8 time assigned during
the above-mentioned period will have to be on a provisional basis,
with the caveat that we will confirm the availability of the instrument
sometime around the first of November. If you are awarded time on this
basis and you buy your airplane tickets before the observing time is
confirmed, you may want to get refundable fares; CTIO will not
reimburse you for non-refundable tickets in the event we have to cancel
your time allocation.

We also will draw up a fallback observing schedule for December-January
to cover the possibility that the f/8 is not available.  Observers who
apply for other foci may be offered contingency time, if some doubt
develops about our meeting the schedule.

Note that these same uncertainties will still exist at the time
proposals are due for the February-July 1994 scheduling period (the one
that follows the one being discussed here), but will have been resolved
by the time the TAC meets and the schedule is made.

We think that the chances are very high that the f/8 secondary will be
available on schedule, so our advice to you is to go ahead and apply
for time on the assumption that the mirror and the associated
instruments will be there.

Jack Baldwin, Bob Williams

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