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Updates

Road Status as of Sept 2017

Lake Mary Road construction is nearing completion (last stated as ~Fall) but there are still portions that are dirt/gravel. Speed limit between the south side Mormon Lake turnoff and Stoneman Lake Road is still 25 mph. During the day they are paving and some spots have a 5-10 minute wait for a pilot car to guide traffic down the one-lane portions of the construction sites. The road marking have still not been applied so traffic cones are placed the length of the work site (watch out work cones that have been knocked over or blown over by the wind). The fresh road surfaces are also quite slick in the rain and drivers should exercise caution during inclement weather. The project includes widening and resurfacing portions of Lake Mary Rd, specifically from milepost 310 (south Mormon Lake turnoff) to 317.5 (Stoneman Lake Road). The project also includes replacement of a bridge south of DCT, at MP 297.5.The county has advised people to expect delays of up to 30 minutes when passing through the construction zone. Completion is expected for sometime in the fall, depending on weather.

Coconino County Lake Mary Road Construction Updates

Updated information about 2017Q4 Schedule is in the 2017Q4 Call for Proposals

2017 Sept 21: Because of the differences in the re-installation of the secondary mirror, there are two key items that impact observing:

The nominal focus offsets for each instrument have changed, some of them significantly. Please, please, check with your TOs for current nominal focus offsets before setting them yourself, at least until you are comfortable with the current range of settings.
The actual performance of the optics has changed. The predictive model that keeps the optics tuned is in the process of being re-built, but will take some time. In general,
1. If you have had the optics tuned up recently, near where you are observing, things should be ok.
2. If you have not tuned recently, or have slewed a significant distance, or the temperature has changed drastically (by more than 5 degrees C or so), then you should ask the TO to re-tune.
3. If ryou think your focus needs to be checked, then you should consider asking the TO to re-tune the optics.
4. In particular, we are recommending that on split nights, the optics be tuned at minimum at the night start, and at turn over in the middle of the night.

If you are using the DeVeny spectrograph, there is one change to the DeVeny procedures from what is in the manual. In the step where you log into vishnu to start up the slit viewing camera (manual version 170420, page 22), the ssh command should be changed slightly to:

    ssh -Y lois@vishnu

The -Y replaces the -X that is listed.

For LMI, DeVeny, and NIHTS, the primary User Interface machine has shifted to dct-obs1.lowell.edu. This is instead of baggins.lowell.edu. The user name and password for dct-obs1 are different from those on baggins. See your TO when you are on-site for this information. If you will be observing remotely, please contact either your TO or Stephen Levine (sel .at. lowell) to get the updated credentials. Observing should otherwise look pretty much the same as before. If you notice a problem, please let us know.