3rd Quarter Proposal Deadlines, Mimir Status

3rd Quarter [July, August, September 2005] Observing Proposals are Due On:

• May 1 for outside visitors requesting non-collaborative time - these proposals must use the combined visitor TAC proposal submission path
• May 11 for BU/IAR internal proposals (and collaborative proposals)

Mimir Observing Mode Status -

Until the end of the August servicing (see below), Mimir observing will only be allowed in the F/5 camera mode. The camera block has become sticky so camera motions will not be allowed until this problem has been resolved. New observing mode options have been commissioned. These are:

Sub-Frame Readout - which allows reading a rectangular shaped region, currently centered on the array center. This mode should be used for L-band direct imaging and some spectroscopy, where faster read times are useful.

Fowler-type sampling - this mode obtains up to 16 readouts of the array at the beginning and end of each integration. The images generated can be averaged to effect a reduction in read noise. Since each read takes about 0.25 sec, this mode is most useful for JHK spectroscopy and narrow band (H2 S1 line) imaging, where the integration times are long and read noise dominates the total noise budget.

Mimir servicing schedule:

Mimir will be taken out of service after the third week in July and not returned to service until about the second week in September. This is to allow for three weeks of warm servicing in August. Service items include fixing the camera motion problem, filter wheel encoder problems, some remaining thermal management issues, and to work on reliability and repeatability of the slit/decker units.