Visit to the WIYN Institutions:

September 25-29, 2000

Attached below is a draft set of topics that I would like to discuss with WIYN partners during my visit of September 25-29. I'd like to hold a 1-hour open meeting to air many of the issues in a round-table, brainstorming atmosphere. In addition, I'd like to meet with as many individuals as I can (typically 30 minute slots) to develop some of the ideas in more detail. I can also meet with students if they wish.

Defining the Future of WIYN

WIYN's particular strengths are
  1. excellent image quality
  2. wide-field
  3. major allocations of time can be dedicated to consortium-wide science interests to solve major problems
In the era of 8-10m telescopes, WIYN needs to build on these special strengths to have a major impact in astronomy. But, the WIN 3.5-m also needs some new state-of-the-art instrumentation that take advantage of its strengths.

  1. New instrumentation: spectrographs, imagers, IR options: Currenly Active new WIYN instrument projects include: WIYN Tip/Tilt Module (WTTM), USNO IRCAM, 6-pack, Cassegrain Rotator/IAS, Dual-beam spectrograph, CCD Controllers

  2. Upgrading existing instrumentation: Currently Active upgrade projects include: Hydra positioner speedup, Bench IR camera, throughput upgrades, Harcon to Arcon upgrade, general improvement projects from Dave Sawyer's list

  3. Adding telescopes to the WIYN system: disposition of 0.9m now under review at NOAO. Is there longer-term interest in large (8-12m) aperture?

  4. Recommendations from the External Review
    1. Upgrade bench spectrograph to improve its detected photon throughput.
    2. New CCD Controllers to reduce readout time
    3. Deploy additional IFU instrumentation for their unique attributes
    4. WIYN Tip/Tilt Module, with IR camera
    5. IR Camera for Bench spectrograph (also to be used with WTTM)
    6. Other comments

  5. Recommendations from the Self-Appraisal: largely similar to External Review. Some developments issues are:
    1. Hire a Director who will dedicate time to energize the instrument program
    2. Seek additional funding sources: NSF, Board of Visitors
    3. Expand operations to include the KPNO 0.9-m telescope
    4. Encourage further cross-institutional projects
    5. Increase the educational and outreach opportunities using data from WIYN

  6. Defining the instrument proposal and planning process: described in the strategic planning documents, but should be re-visited

Scientific Cohesion and Cooperation

  1. What major scientific initiatives are the partners interested in pursuing? I'd like to get 2-3 ideas for WIYN-wide science questions (e.g., galaxy interactions and evolution, chemical studies in the Galaxy and Local Group stars)

  2. Should there be a WIYN internal science symposium? A strategic time might be immediately after the February/March Board meeting. The Director can fund some travel, especially for students.

Recognition of WIYN: Important for funding, both internally and externally

  1. Web page upgrades: I am looking for university talent to upgrade the web pages as a university contribution to the partnership.

  2. NOAO science writer press releases? NOAO recently hired Doug Isbell, formerly from NASA, to improve the visibility of NOAO. Doug has expressed interest in working with WIYN scientists to develop news stories. A draft describing the work of Howk and Savage has just been released. Do we have any other stories on our desks?

  3. More in the NOAO Newsletter? I want to highlight WIYN activities better in the NOAO Newsletter. Can you give me summaries of your pre-journal results? Any instrumentation news? This includes the university instruments, too.

  4. Special AAS sessions? Should we try to focus the AAS on WIYN results? How about a group of papers in San Diego based on the Open Cluster project?

Educational Initiatives

  1. Discretionary time for students (grads and undergrads): I have 5 nights per semester to grant for the benefit of WIYN. These can be given to grads needing a few more frames for their thesis, or for educating undergrads. Send me proposals!

  2. Outreach programs: NOAO runs a successful outreach program, and I need to learn what the universities are doing in this regard, and how WIYN might be able to help. With a few hours of bright time per month, the NOAO nova search program can be enhanced from WIYN (see http://www.noao.edu/outreach/rbse).

Meeting With Administrative Board Members (John, Jeff, and Pierre)

  1. Seek ways to allow more university involvement in the telescope's operation and development:

  2. Fund-raising opportunities: How can the director be involved to help universities raise funds?

  3. Addressing the soft-ledger imbalance: The review committees noted that the imbalance in voluntary contributions should be addressed. Several options are embedded in the above comments.