The First 1997 observing semester is complete and all TAC-approved programs have been terminated. Data have been distributed to all investigators whose programs were completed or initiated during the semester. If you have not received data that you were expecting, please contact us at wiynq@noao.edu. Investigators who submitted proposals for programs that were not executed or completed should remember that new proposals must be submitted for TAC review if these programs are to be initiated or completed during future observing semesters.
At the time this article went to press, only 2 nights remained in the first semester 1997 WIYN Queue Observing Program. Data were obtained on 46 of 50 nights through July 2. The four unused nights were lost to weather. Nearly 12 hours of extra bright time were used for Queue observations during two scheduled T&E nights. All together (not including the remaining nights in the semester), 201 hours of dark time and 74 hours of bright time were spent obtaining data. This represents 62% of the time allocated for the WIYN Queue program during first semester 1997 (63% dark time; 60% bright time). This fraction of usable time is slightly higher than for previous semesters of Queue operation, but has been remarkably consistent over the lifetime of the Queue experiment. Only 22 hours were lost to technical problems during the past semester; this is slightly less than 5% of the entire NOAO WIYN Queue time allocation and represents a factor of two improvement over the second semester 1996.
Twelve of 32 programs were completed, and an additional 2 Hr Queue program potentially could be completed on the last night of the semester. All bright time, high priority long programs were completed. Though not officially completed, substantial progress was made on the four high priority synoptic programs during the semester. Five programs were not initiated, including four in the "best effort" category. All of these programs were dark time Hydra proposals, which could not be started because of a stretch of bad weather in late March and early April. Not only was this time best for observing many of the targets requested by these programs, but observations for high priority programs had to be postponed; this left little time during the second half of the semester for best effort programs. The table below summarizes the approximate level of completion for the observing programs in the first semester 1997 queues. A more detailed accounting of the past semester can be found at http://www.noao.edu/wiyn/obsprog.
First Semester 1997
WIYN Queue Observing Experiment
Level of Completion
Total 0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
Long Programs
High Priority:
Standard 7 - 1 1 - 5
Synoptic 4 - 1 3 - -
Best Effort: 13 4 3 2 2 2
2HrQ Programs
High Priority: 7 1 - 2 - 4
Best Effort: 1 - - - - 1
Totals: 32 5 4 6 5 12
The observing queues for second semester 1997 have been constructed and can be reviewed on our Web site at http://www.noao.edu/wiyn/obsprog/queue/F97/F97-Index.html. The NOAO WIYN Queue observing program has been allocated 62 nights (652 hours) between 1 August 1997 and 31 January 1998. A breakdown of the second semester 1997 in bright and dark time available is given in the following table.
WIYN Queue Observing Experiment:
Second Semester 1997
#of Hours
programs reqd.
Dark Bright Dark Bright
Long Programs
High Priority: 7 5 197 96
Best Effort: 4 4 80 80
2HrQ Programs
High Priority: 1 1 2 2
Best Effort: 1 3 2 6
Totals 13 13 281 184
Available Hours 467 185
26 science programs are included in the queue experiment with an even mix of bright and dark programs. The major scheduling constraint for this semester is for bright time programs having targets in Orion. Because of the large number of programs with targets in and around this region of the sky and the relatively few bright nights during the latter half of the semester (with the moon not too close to the Orion targets), two highly ranked programs had to be placed in the "best effort" queue. The oversubscription in Orion also forced two programs to be dropped from the queue that had TAC grades that would have allowed their inclusion in the best effort queue. Bright time has been fully scheduled, but there is a weather "buffer" of nearly 190 hours of dark time. Accordingly, some bright programs may be shifted into dark time. However, over 60 hours of dark time is in August when the weather is usually poor and during fall 1996 a scheduling buffer of about 100 hours disappeared before the middle of October.
A third instrument for the WIYN telescope will be available for use during NOAO time beginning in the first semester of 1998. DensePak will join Hydra and the WIYN Imager and be scheduled within the WIYN Queue program. Please see the DensePak article in this issue of the Newsletter for a description of this instrument. The DensePak fiber bundle will feed the Bench Spectrograph as does the Hydra MOS. Unfortunately, the WIYN Imager must be removed from the telescope for DensePak to be mounted. During the first 1998 semester, DensePak will only be offered for use in Bright Time so that there is no direct conflict between programs requiring its use and WIYN Imager programs that require dark time.
The WIYN Queue program has now been in operation for two years and NOAO would like to gauge the effectiveness of this experiment. Within the next few months investigators who have been involved in the queue process will be sent a questionnaire concerning issues raised by queue observing. This will be useful for refining the WIYN Queue program so that it better meets the needs of the community (if users indeed deem that the operational and scientific advantages offered by queue observing warrant the continuation of the program). If you receive a questionnaire, please answer all of the questions relevant to your experience with the queue process. This direct community input will largely determine the nature of any future "non-classical" observing program for the 40% NOAO share of time on the WIYN telescope and influence the structure and scope of queue and service observing programs envisioned for other NOAO facilities. We also solicit input concerning any aspect of the NOAO WIYN Queue experiment from all members of the astronomical community. Questions, suggestions, or comments concerning the general queue process can be sent to wiynq@noao.edu.
Paul Smith, for the WIYN Queue Team
(Di Harmer, Daryl Willmarth)