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ARC 3.5-m Instrument News Page
Apache Point Observatory
New Mexico, USA
GIFS
- 2016-03-28: The instrument was removed from the observing floor. It is no longer available for use.
- 2016-02-14: The instruent has warmed, been powered down and decabled. It is no longer available for use.
- 2016-01-26: The instrument will be decommissioned the second week of February. It will then be sent back to GSFC sometime before summer.
- 2015-10-26: Vacuum not soft. Must have been a bad fill yesterday morning. Leaving on the pump for the rest of the day and will start cooling at the end of the day.
- 2015-10-25: Inadvertantly warmed. Will put on vacuum pump tomorrow to see if it is vacuum related.
- 2015-10-16: GIFS is cold and operationsal again.
- 2015-09-12: GIFS is on the vacuum pump.
- 2015-10-09: Started warming GIFS. Will put it on the vacuum pump on Monday.
- 2015-10-05: Hold time is down to about 13 hours. Carol and another Goddard person is here this week. As soon as they leave I'll put the camera back on a vacuum pump for a few days.
- 2015-08-03: Pump and cooled this week for upcoming scheduled usage
- 2015-03-10: The instrument is not on the schedule for the next quarter, leaving warm. It will not be available for use without 1 week advanced notice.
- 2014-09-30: Goddard team added additional thermal isolation to the cold block. The LN2 hold time nearly tripled to 26 hours. Camera is once again cold and with a good vacuum.
- 2014-09-15: Placed on vacuum pump in preparations for Sept 29th usage
- 2014-07-03: Warm for summer shutdown
- 2014-05-27: Recommend TUI 2.3.0b2 or later versions to control the instrument.
- 2014-05-19: The instrument is now fully configurable in TUI 2.3.0b1 or later.
- 2013-09-04: There is now a simple exposure widget for the instrument. Configuration commands must still be entered in the log window