The March 1997 Newsletter outlined the long range plan for nighttime astronomy. It is appropriate, now that it is one year later, to review how we are doing in terms of implementing that plan.
The central element of the plan was the replacement, over about a 15 year period of time, of all of the nighttime facilities offered to the community--except for the Blanco and Mayall 4-m telescopes--with new facilities that would basically double the available aperture. A comparison of the facilities available in 1990 with what will be offered in 2002 is shown in the following tables:
Capabilities - North
1990 2002
4-m Mayall 8-m Gemini (0.425)*
2.1-m 4-m Mayall
1.3-m 3.5-m WIYN (0.4)
Coudé Feed 2.4-m
0.9-m 9-m HET (0.07)
0.9-m 6.5-m MMT (0.07)
Burrell-Schmidt (1/4)
No. of Nights: 2281 No. of Nights: 1082
No. of nights × (D)2: 9056 No. of nights × (D)2: 22315
* Fraction of NOAO time.
Capabilities - South
1990 2002
4-m Blanco 8-m Gemini (0.45)
1.5-m 4-m Blanco
1.0-m (Yale) 4-m SOAR (0.3)
0.9-m 2.4-m
Curtis-Schmidt (Mich.)
No. of Nights: 1460 (est.) No. of Nights: 1004
No. of nights × (D)2: 7264 No. of nights × (D)2: 18925
The following summarizes the status of each of the new telescopes on the list:
The construction of the Gemini telescopes is the responsibility of the international Gemini project team, but a visit to the Gemini Web site will show just how well the project is doing. First light on the northern telescope should occur within the next year or so, and the southern telescope is on schedule for first light in the year 2000. We have also taken steps to be ready to receive proposals for both Gemini and the independent observatories to which we will have access through the NSF instrumentation program. The new procedures and software that were in place for the application process for the spring of 1998 allowed much more efficient processing of proposals and is easily expanded with current staff to the much larger number of proposals that we expect to receive once Gemini is on line. In order to make it as easy as possible for the community to apply for observing time on this diverse suite of instruments, we have worked out arrangements so that applications for all of the telescopes accessed through NOAO can make use of a single form with a common deadline for submission.
NOAO supports the Gemini project in a number of ways, including providing management oversight for all instruments being built by US organizations and building the near-infrared spectrometer for Gemini North.
The WIYN telescope continues to perform well in terms of delivered image quality, and the users committee has endorsed continued operation in queue mode. The advantages of queue scheduling are that it enables unique science through flexible scheduling and rapid response time, and also provides valuable experience that will be directly applicable to the Gemini telescopes when they come on line. Our survey of the community indicates a high degree of satisfaction with the quality of the data delivered by the queue observers. The WIYN partners are currently engaged in developing a long range plan, which will include a strategy for deploying new instrumentation.
The SOAR project, which has as partners Brazil, the University of North Carolina, and Michigan State University, is now in the concept design phase. The project manager is Tom Sebring, who was previously project manager for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. The project scientist is Gerald Cecil of the University of North Carolina, who is currently resident in Tucson.
The scientific case for building wide-field O/IR imaging telescopes was strengthened by a community workshop sponsored by the USGP. The 46 participants in this workshop were divided into eight subject matter panels, asked to devise ambitious programs for Gemini and other large telescopes, and to define what resources (software, observing modes, surveys, preparatory observations) would be required to carry out those programs from end to end. All eight panels identified the need for surveys covering tens to hundreds of square degrees. The full report of the workshop is available through the NOAO home page.
The effort to obtain wide-field 2.4-m telescopes for both KPNO and CTIO is being led by Richard Green. After extensive discussions with a variety of possible university partners and also with the NSF, we have concluded that the only--and the best--way to achieve the long term goal of one full telescope for community access in each hemisphere is to proceed incrementally through partnerships. We are in the process of preparing proposals to the NSF for partial funding for the first telescope in each hemisphere, have identified partners for the first northern telescope and one partner for the southern telescope. We are actively seeking additional partners.
We have concluded an MOU for community access to the HET and are negotiating the MOU for the MMT. We expect time to become available during 1999, with the exact date dependent on how rapidly commissioning proceeds.
As promised at the last Users' Committee meeting, we will continue to manage the transition from existing to new telescopes in such a way as not to disrupt ongoing observing programs or to remove fundamental capabilities. For example, the Burrell-Schmidt at Kitt Peak is now being operated by Case Western Reserve University, but wide-field imaging by the NOAO community is now supported with the Mosaic CCD imager at the 0.9-m telescope. KPNO plans to continue to operate the Coudé Feed, which offers the only capability for very high resolution (200,000) spectroscopy, until we find resources to move the spectrograph to the 4-m. And if resources permit, KPNO will continue to operate the 2.1-m until the community has access to the equivalent of a full 2.4m on Kitt Peak. CTIO is similarly beginning to evolve its facilities, and the 1-m telescope has been returned to Yale, which is leading a consortium that will refurbish and continue to use the telescope.
Sidney C. Wolff