Hydra CTIO was installed on the Blanco Telescope on 7 and 8 January for the last scheduled engineering run before it goes into service on a shared-risk basis in March 1999. The instrument performed very well, with no significant problems. The positioning was excellent. The user interface was reliable and straightforward to use. The new bench spectrograph, corrector and comparison lamp system behaved well. The fibers appear to be quite uniform and efficient. The FOPS guider is working nicely. The basic process of commissioning Hydra is essentially over and the instrument is ready for scientific use.
There remain a number of pending issues to be resolved, the most important of which are the need to change to a better camera/CCD detector system and the installation of the small fibers. We expect both of these to be completed by the end of the coming semester. Other problems will doubtless appear as people start to use the instrument, but by and large Hydra is ready for use, right on schedule.
Even though Hydra isn't completely finished, this is a good opportunity to give well-deserved kudos to all the members of the team who have participated in this project and give my personal thanks to everyone who has put their energy into building Hydra CTIO, especially to Sam Barden. The progress and success of this project is due in no small part to Sam's coming to Chile for three months, with his family, and devoting himself tirelessly to the commissioning process.
Much credit also belongs to Rolando Cantarutti, who kept the project on track by his willingness to go to Tucson for several months, completely immersing himself in Hydra.
Thanks also go to Gary Muller, Tom Roussey, and Dave Dryden for coming to Chile and doing an excellent job of installing Hydra and showing the CTIO staff how to use and maintain it, as well as for their work in building it in the first place.
I can't write this without also emphasizing the contribution of Fabian Callao who devoted a tremendous amount of energy and time beyond the call of duty to the job of getting the fibers installed and polished. His efforts will show in the quality of the science Hydra will produce. Gracias, Fabian!
And we must all remember the contribution of our late colleague, Lee Groves, who worked hard on the software as long as his health permitted and left a significant part of himself in it.
Thanks Sam and Rolo! And thanks also to Fabian, Gary, Tom and Dave as well as Rodolfo Cardemil, Jeff Lewis, Andres Montane, Hugo Ochoa, Gabriel Perez, Rich Reed, Nelson Saavedra, German Schumacher and anyone else who I should give credit to but have forgotten.
This project has been an outstanding example of how cooperation and collaboration between NOAO North and South can and ought to function. The two hemispheres functioned as a team, working towards a common goal. That's how it should work and it looks like it did!
Tom Ingerson (tingerson@noao.edu)