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A Message from the Director (1Mar95)
(from CTIO, NOAO Newsletter No. 41, 1 March 1995)

In the March 1994 NOAO Newsletter No. 37, I emphasised the need for
change at CTIO - in spite of the obvious successes over the last 20 years.
This change is driven not only by the natural wish of the CTIO users and
staff scientists to continue to progress (see, e.g. science highlights in recent
Newsletters).  Other driving factors include:  (1) the impact of internal and
external reviews of NOAO, (2) the forthcoming integration with operations
of Gemini, (3) the budget for activities at CTIO and (4) the success of new
initiatives to bring new telescopes to CTIO.

This note is a status report only and will be divided into three major areas:

         A.  Program Priorities at CTIO
         B.  People
         C.  Pesos and Dollars (the budget)

A special AURA/NOAO workshop is being arranged for March which will
map out NOAO's detailed priorities for the next five years or so, taking into
account the inputs from many different sources.  The following, current
CTIO priorities will have to be folded into the overall NOAO priorities and
resources at the workshop.

               A.  Current Program Priorities at CTIO

The following table summarizes activities being planned at CTIO - in rough
priority order:

1)  Preparation for Gemini Operations:
         (a)   Site preparation on Cerro Pachon
         (b)   Light pollution campaign

2)  CTIO 4-m Imaging Upgrades:
         (a)  Thermal and optics upgrades -/>  subarcsecond images
         (b)  Tip-tilt f/14 secondary
         (c)  Control system

3)  Tololo/Gemini instrumentation:
         (a)  Joint ARCON development and production
         (b)  IR instruments for Gemini North and Tololo/Gemini South

4)  New initiatives:
         (a)  SOAR (Pachon)
         (b)  New 2.5-m wide-field telescope to replace smaller telescopes
                  (Tololo)

5)  Operations (including minor upgrades) of remaining Tololo telescopes
         and instruments.

6)  New user-funded telescopes on Tololo
         (a)  GONG
         (b)  2MASS

                   Preparation for Gemini Operations

CTIO has been giving highest priority throughout the last year to preparation
for Gemini operations.  Two key areas of this initial effort have been site
preparation and combatting light pollution.  In addition, CTIO scientists have
been contributing to a wide variety of Gemini planning committees.

The beginning of site preparation work for Gemini South was reported, along
with a photograph, in the September 1994 Newsletter No. 39, p.12.  The
summit has been levelled to the 2715m level.  Work continues to advance on
preparations and widening of the access roads to Cerro Pachon.  Power has
now reached the summit area.  The simple, yet colorful ceremony for laying
the foundation stone for Gemini South took place last October amid wide
and positive international media coverage.  Concrete foundations are well
advanced for the 20-unit dormitory, which is being moved over from Cerro
Tololo to Cerro Pachon.

A wide-ranging attack on the problem of potential light pollution at Cerro
Tololo and Cerro Pachon is under way.  A committee consisting of Mark
Phillips (chair), Mario Hamuy, and Ricardo Schmidt has succeeded in setting
up a program in which the Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso is providing
advice to the Municipality of Vicuna in the design of an "astronomy
friendly" lighting system for the town.  AURA is funding the advisory phase
of this program.  Chilean energy officials at a national level have recognised
the wasteful aspects of mercury-vapor lighting installations and, as a result,
are providing loans to municipalities throughout the country to switch to
sodium fixtures.  Unfortunately there is only a single supplier of
low-pressure sodium fixtures within Chile, so most of the new street lights
will be high-pressure sodium.  It is therefore vital that we emphasise the
advantages of avoiding costly waste by sending this light down to the street,
not into the sky.  We are in discussions with municipal officials in La Serena
about a similar lighting program.  We are still hopeful that the managers of
two new, multimillion-dollar, open-pit mines being opened up in Andacollo
can be persuaded to use low-pressure sodium fixtures; initial contacts have
been encouraging in this regard.  We are also seeking to have the concept of
light as a potential secondary pollutant introduced into Chilean national and
regional environmental legislation.  Environmental concerns and legislation
seem to be gaining support in Chile.

                    Imaging Upgrades at the CTIO 4-m

The status of this successful program is outlined in a separate article by Jack
Baldwin in this issue of the Newsletter.  Since October, the median seeing at
the Cassegrain focus near the zenith has improved to subarcsecond levels -
an improvement of about a third of a second of arc.  Our target for the 4-m
is to deliver performance that does not significantly degrade the median site
seeing.  The next two major phases of this program involve installation of an
f/14 tip-tilt secondary for the 4-m telescope and improvements to the control
system for the 4-m.  Apart from essential work in support of future Gemini
operations, we are protecting the 4-m image-upgrade program, as significant
work on this program is likely to cease once the ramp-up to Gemini
commissioning and operations begins in earnest three years or so from now.

              Tololo/Gemini Shared Instrumentation Projects

The Gemini CCD controller workpackage has been tentatively assigned to
Chile with the understanding that CTIO will be heavily involved in
managing the design and manufacture of these controllers, based on the
highly successful CTIO ARCON. Chilean scientists and engineers will be
involved to the maximum extent possible in the production of these
ARCONs.  Because the ARCONs will also be used in the CCD mosaic being
built for the NOAO 4-m telescopes, meetings were held in Chile in January
between:  (1) representatives from the Gemini (international) project, (2) a
group of scientists and engineers selected by CONICYT (the Chilean
equivalent of the NSF), (3) representatives of NOAO from Tucson and (4)
members of the CTIO scientific and engineering staff - to work out a way to
manufacture ARCONs for all four of these interested parties.

During at least the early phases of Gemini operations, CTIO is expected to
provide infrared instrumentation on loan to Gemini.  Brooke Gregory, Jay
Elias and Richard Elston played a leading role during the latter part of last
year in designing an infrared spectrometer for Gemini North which could
then be copied or adapted later by NOAO for deployment at CTIO.  The
international Gemini project office is now negotiating with NOAO to provide
this spectrograph on Gemini North.

Additional major IR instruments will come from the NOAO Instrumentation
Group in Tucson.  Plans are still being worked out, but we expect to have an
imager (probably the Cryogenic Optical Bench, COB) permanently assigned
to the south, and to have other major instruments (such as the Phoenix
high-resolution spectrograph) spending equal amounts of time available to
users at southern and northern sites.

                         New Initiatives at CTIO

                                 SOAR

Included in the roles for CTIO envisioned in the McCray report (p.36/37) is
the development of a new technology 3-4 meter class telescope.  Following
the withdrawal from the SOAR project by Columbia University towards the
end of 1993, meetings have been held in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Sao
Paulo and Itajuba (Brazil).  The astronomers present agreed to seek funds for
a partnership - between the University of North Carolina (UNC), Brazil and
NOAO - in a 4-m class alt-az, dual-Nasmyth telescope with the following
main features: excellent imaging; facilities for rapid switching between
instruments; tip-tilt secondary.  It is presumed that SOAR, the existing 4-m
at CTIO and their associated instruments will develop so as to complement
each other and Gemini, and that the user communities would seek to share
the time on these telescopes so as to maximise mutual benefit.  A site is
being reserved on Cerro Pachon for SOAR for a fixed time period.  A draft
MOU has been drawn up for signature by UNC, Brazil and NOAO.

                          New 2.5-m Telescope

Various ideas are being explored to try to find ways to replace some of the
small telescopes on Cerro Tololo with a wide-field 2.5-m telescope -
perhaps equipped with a permanently mounted pair of cameras (optical and
infrared) and made available to users on a queue scheduled basis.  An
alternative would be to build a copy of the Sloan Digital Survey telescope
(including its roll-off shed) with a dedicated optical imager - perhaps in
some form of partnership.

We need a telescope that will take over much of the mix of wide-field
surveys, photometry, and synoptic observing programs now being carried out
on the 1.5-m, 1-m, 0.9-m and Schmidt telescopes.  Our goal is a field size of
>  25 ', with pixels < 0.3".  A 2.5-m, f/6 telescope, with a NOAO mosaic
imager gives this at about 0.21"/pixel (8192 pixels of 15 um).  A 40'-45'
field obtained with coarser sampling would also be acceptable; this is the
appropriate (fiber) field for the 4-m present and future spectrographs.

While many of these programs can be carried out on the 4-m PF/LFCCD,
the amount of time needed is large.  For many broadband (UBV, etc) studies,
the smaller apertures compete favorably with the 4-m, because the exposures
are quickly sky limited (in a few minutes).

We envision that this telescope will be run on Cerro Tololo in a queue
scheduled mode, with a dedicated observer.  This has clear cost savings for
the support staff (although it will take some scientific staff supervision).
This also should allow the telescope to be run very efficiently, permit several
synoptic programs every clear night, and allow photometric observations to
be scheduled under the best observing conditions.

By having a modern telescope with one, or at most two, fixed instruments,
we expect to achieve a very low maintenance overhead.  Personnel to run
this telescope could be found by closing an appropriate number of the
existing small telescopes on Cerro Tololo.

           Operations of the Smaller Telescopes on Cerro Tololo

Consistent with the McCray report (p.12), all the telescopes with apertures of
1-m or less have very restricted instrumentation to provide for efficient
operation.  Continuing budget pressures combined with the high priority of
the items listed above are producing considerable difficulties for the
operation of the smaller telescopes (1.5-m and below) on Tololo.  We are of
course striving to make the cutbacks in a manner that minimises the impact
for our users.

The 1.5-m telescope has been operated during the year with a wide suite of
instrumentation; from August 1995 all the other small telescopes will be
operated with only one user instrument each (single-channel photometer on
the 1-m, single 2048 X 2048 CCDs on the 0.9-m and the Schmidt).  Pressure
is mounting on our ability to support a full suite of instrumentation (and
detectors) at the 1.5-m.

As part of an attempt to respond to these mounting pressures, CTIO has
negotiated an arrangement with the MACHO research team in California . In
return for nightly access to the 0.9-m telescope and its 2048 X 2048 CCD
camera (a total of 15% of the available 0.9-m time goes to this program),
Tololo is provided temporarily with new resources, which will enable the
0.9-m and perhaps some of the other smaller telescopes to be upgraded or at
least maintained in a more satisfactory manner until replacement becomes
possible.  Further details were given in the December 1994 NOAO
Newsletter, No 40, p.26.  We welcome other such proposals of high
scientific merit from the community.

                 New User-funded Telescopes on Cerro Tololo

                                  GONG

Installation on Cerro Tololo of one of the six GONG stations is scheduled to
take place in June of this year, (see the GONG section in this Newsletter).

                                 2MASS

2MASS is a project of the University of Massachusetts to survey the whole
sky at 2 um.  This will involve building and operating a pair of 1.2-m class
infrared telescopes - one in the northern hemisphere, the other at Cerro
Tololo.  With the recent appointment of Rae Steining as project manager for
2MASS, we are now expecting that site work for the southern 2MASS 1.2-m
IR telescope will probably begin on Cerro Tololo in late 1996 or early 1997.

                       B.  People at Cerro Tololo

                           The Scientific Staff

Discussions were held at the last Users' committee meeting concerning the
critical shortage of scientific staff at CTIO - see the more detailed remarks in
the article by the committee chairman, Jim Rose.  Given the backlog of
untaken sabbaticals, the committee recommended providing relief by
increasing the numbers of scientific staff.  AURA's Observatories' Visiting
Committee also noted (p.8 of their report), that the theme "underscores the
importance of considering fewer projects and/or transferring resources in
such a manner that more staff scientists can be appointed at CTIO."  Given
the expectations of the McCray report and our user community and the
resulting timescales for action on the corresponding priority list, there is
little room over the next few years for considering fewer projects at
Cerro Tololo.

          The Engineering and Technical Services (ETS) Divisions

The McCray panel (p.32) notes that in order for CTIO to fulfill its
obligations, the observatory should maintain an adequate engineering staff.
"With subcritical staffing, it will be impossible for CTIO to maintain their
current instruments, let alone even assist in the development of further
instruments."  The ETS division of CTIO currently spends about 60% of its
effort in direct support of operations on Tololo.  The complexity of modern
instrumentation has increased to the point where the remaining staff can no
longer form a team large enough to build complete facility-class instruments;
they have had to struggle to find the resources needed to develop the
ARCON CCD controller.

                The Administrative and Operations Divisions

The McCray panel (p.32) notes that "because of its remoteness, CTIO needs
to be more self sufficient than observatories in the North."  This includes the
ability to handle reliably, in Chile, a wide variety of activities from
importation to road maintenance.  CTIO has to be able to provide the kinds
of services equivalent to those provided and supported on a larger scale by
the Mauna Kea Support Services or the Tucson/Kitt Peak Central Facilities.
Such services become most effective when one has the advantages of
economy of scale.  The Gemini agreement suggests maximising the degree
of integration between the Gemini operations teams and the existing
infrastructure at the Gemini sites (such as provided by the business and
operations divisions of CTIO).  It is clearly important for the future of
Gemini operations in Chile that CTIO retain a strong, locally-experienced
and cost-effective administrative core.

                   C.  Pesos and Dollars - The Budget

The long-term planning for CTIO is intimately related to projections for the
observatory budget.  At least three factors are squeezing on the level of
available resources:  (1) The exchange rate between the peso and the dollar:
the peso is gaining in strength against the US dollar; it is currently NOAO
policy to cover unfavorable changes in the exchange rate off the top of the
NOAO budget.  (2) The NSF budget for astronomy and for the NOAO may
well continue to decline in real purchasing power over the next five years.
(3) The complexity of tasks to be covered by NOAO staff is increasing
steadily.  Along with the othere divisions of NOAO, CTIO  is preparing a
contingency plan for level dollar funding for the next five years. Meanwhile,
Chilean professional salaries are expected to reach values similar to those in
Tucson by the end of the decade. Even with substantial improvements in
efficiency, the overall impact of decreasing long-range budgets for CTIO will
inevitably force cuts in the projects at the bottom of the priority list given
above.

Malcolm Smith

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