The
36-th Subaru Advisory Committee
Date: 11:00- 15:30, Jan.10, 2002(JST)
Place: NAOJ, Subaru TV conference
room
Participants: Ando, Iye(Chair), T.Ichikawa,
Okamura, Kataza,
Sato, Sugiyama, Tamura(Secretary),
Nakano, Maihara, Yamashita,
S.Ichikawa,
Kudritzki
Absent: M.Hayashi, Fukushima,
Karoji
0. Minutes of the 35-th SAC
Meeting(36-1)
1. IFA Long Term Plan (36-5;
Kudritzki)
The IFA of UH has 200 staff and 60
scientists at Manoa campus, Hilo campus and observatories at Mauna Kea and
Haleakala. A 2m outreach
telescope, Faulkes Telescope, for UK/US students recruitment will be
commissioned in the spring of 2002.
The fund raising and recruitment of new staff were made under the
initiative of the new director. The
key strategy is to promote development of detectors and instrument, a coherent
planning of new telescope projects, and nourishing strong science team with a
vision that IFA should lead the development of the next generation of the
world's best astronomy facilities.
Three new telescope projects
are introduced:
(I)Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (with
NSO)
Off-axis telescope, 4m AO, off-axis,
prototype now building on Haleakala.
(II)6.5m off-axis design, low scattering,
low IR emissivity, AO/normal/wide fields, IRTF
replacement.
(III)High Dynamic Range Telescope: 6
off-axis mirrors, each 8.5m, equivalent to 21m, unique PSF, ultra-low scattered
light and IR emission, distributed pupil, diffraction limited (0.01") to 750 nm
with AO, narrow field 3'x3' (0.12" blur diameter), wide field 3degx3deg (0.2"
diameter), 500 actuators AO.
*
Presentation of the long term IFA plan at the Long Term Plannining Workshop of
NAOJ is to be organized.
2. Status report of the Hawaii
Observatory(36-2;
Ando)
2.1
Telescope: Major improvements were made on Mirror Analysis procedure and
the tracking accuracy. The
vibration behavior of the telescope is under investigation. Revisions are made on telescope control system. The IR tip-tilt chopping secondary
mirror is now performing smoothly.
2.2 Instruments: The AO system
performance becomes stable. COMICS
runs well.
The readout system of SuprimeCAM is
improved.
New IRCS detectors performs
satisfactorily.
Multi object spectroscopy of FOCAS is
commissioned.
The manufacturing of the second
generation instruments is on their way.
2.3
Telescope Operation:The supervision of the operation groups will be transferred
from astronomers to dedicated specialists.
2.4
Budget: One division with 4 astronomers will be transferred from Mitaka
to Hilo.
The budgetary situation will
become tougher from next year and increased effort should be made for acquiring
budget for building new instruments.
2.5
Open Use Observations:No serious problem. The three nights run of a PI
instrument HHESS was made successfully.
All the 8 instruments are offered for open use in S02A. Engineering review will be made on
Kyoto3DII.
2.6
Telescope upgrade: Offset Shack-Hartmann, improvement in tracking
accuracy, infrared secondary mirror control, re-coating of the optical Nasmyth
image rotator.
2.7 Telescope time for UH88/UKIRT:
MOU soon to be signed.
2.8
Others: Keck laser guide star experiment with laser traffic control was
made and Subaru measured the scattering level of the laser beam. The MOU for the OHANA project is under
consideration.
3. Time Allocation
Committee(36-3;
Yamada)
3.1 Summary of the submitted proposals
was given. The rate of over
subscription is about 5 for S02A in contrast to 7.2 for
S01B.
3.2 Schedule for the next semester
S02B was explained.
3.3 Some key issues for the next
semester were discussed.
All the 8 instruments will be offered
for S02B. Electronic
submission of proposals will
be accepted. The CFP for intensive program will
be made also for S02B.
According to the strong demands from the
community that the constraint of the maximum of three nights for open use
proposals should be relaxed and that the service observations should be
incorporated, TAC is expected to report a new scheme from S03A accepting such proposals. and the new framework. The remote operation is expected
to start from S03A.
4. Budget for computers and
software(S.Ichikawa)
The budgetary framework for computers
and software is explained.
5.
Subaru Users Meeting: Report from GOPIRA(36-4,
T.Ichikawa)
5.1
Intensive Program / Observatory Project:The users expressed their hope to
keep
useful fraction of dark nights available
for open use proposals despite the
implementation of the Intensive program
and the Observatory program.
5.2
Petition was made to continue financial support to the university groups
despite the
new situation of the budgetary
scheme.
6.
UH/UKIRT Time allocation(36-9-1, Tamura)
6.1
The call for proposals for the use of UH2.2m telescope in the second
semester of 2001 was made and application of two PI instruments (LIPS of Tohoku
Univ. and Kyoto 3DII of Kyoto Univ.) was granted their
time.
6.2 The CFP for 3.8mUKIRT will be made
from the second semester of 2002.
6.3
The signature of the MOU will be made.
7.
TAC for UH/UKIRT Time(36-9-2、Ando)
A
proposal was made to constitute a TAC with 4 members representing the Hawaii
Observatory, Mitaka Office, R&D subcommittee, and the Committee for Optical
and Infrared Astronomy (COIA) and make scientific assessment without recourse to
outside referees unless the number of proposals become unaffordable. This proposal was approved by the SAC
and parallel discussion will be made in the COIA.
8. Observatory Project(36-6,
Ando)
The
outline of the Observatory Project to be conducted during S02A and S02B was
decided but the task force will review the progress every half year until the
end of the project.
The project will be conducted by
organizing two teams for deep surveys:
A.
Wide band SuprimeCam imaging of Subaru-XMM Deep Field. 13 dark nights in
Sep-Nov. 2002.
B.
Wide and Narrow band SuprimeCam imaging of Subaru Deep Field. 8nights in
Apr-June, 2002 and 6nights in
Feb-Mar, 2003.
The calibrated data will be made
available to domestic users as soon as possible and will be made open to the
international community within about one year.
9.
Intensive Programs(36-7, Iye)
Five
proposals were reviewed and the following two were
granted.
1)
Subaru Super Deep Field using Adaptive Optics (Yoshii et
al.)
5 bright nights(S02A)+5bright
nights(S02B). It was advised that
special care should be taken for the AO calibration with help of the AO group
for AO calibration.
2)
Very Deep Search for Lyman Alpha Emitters at z=5.7 and 6.6(Taniguchi et
al)」
5 dark nights (S02A+B) was assigned on
the condition that this program should be merged with the similar program
carried out for SDF by the Observatory Project.
10.
Telescope Time Allocation Framework(36-8a, Ando)
The
framework for S02A-S03Bsemesters was proposed by the director based on the
discussion with the IFA director.
The 3nights returned from IFA will be used for engineering nights for
replacements of computer systems in S02.
11.
Sharing the calibration data(36-8b, Ando)
The
basic policy for sharing the calibration data was agreed. The observatory will clarify the
technical details and start the scheme as soon as
possible.
12.
Post Subaru Plan(Iye)
It
was proposed to start discussion and assessment of the long term plan for
Japan's next generation optical/infrared astronomy project. An arrangement will be made between the
CIOA.
13.
Referee system(Maihara)
The
chair of TAC proposed to reduce the number of referees from 5 to 4 considering
the heavy increase of the submitted proposals and it was duly accepted to do
so.
14.
Next Meeting will be held in the second half of May or in June and the
schedule inquiry will be made toward the end of March.
EOF