Magellan Associate Director Report Personnel Observing Statistics Commissioning of Instruments Facility instruments User (P.I.) Instruments Clean Room Operations Earthquake

Personnel‏ Ricardo Covarrubias (Magellan Fellow) departed in early December No other personnel changes during this reporting period Search underway for Mechanical Engineer Job ads run in both Chile and the USA 21 applications (deadline was 1 March) 5-6 interesting Goal is to make an offer by the end of April

Observing Statistics Baade + Clay Telescopes Instrumentation Usage: 23 Feb Aug Aug Feb 2010 IMACS37%41% MIKE23%16% LDSS-38%11% PANIC8%11% MagE16%11% MIKE fibers1%4% MagIC7%3% PFS--3%

Observing Statistics: Instrument Usage

28 Aug Feb 2010: Observing Statistics 2.1% 0.2% 1.0% 0.9% 11.5% 86.4% Baade 0.7% 0.3% 0.1% 0.3% 9.8% 89.5% Clay % Lost to Computer % Total Downtime % Lost to Instrument % Lost to Telescope % Lost to Weather % Open

Observing Statistics: Downtime

Instrument Downtime: Observing Statistics 23 Feb Aug Aug Feb 2010 IMACS1.6%0.5% MIKE0.1%0.0% LDSS-30.1%0.0% PANIC0.0%2.8% MagE0.2%0.0% MIKE fibers0.0% MagIC1.3%2.2% PFS--1.2%

Commissioning of Facility Instruments Successful commissioning run in October Image quality as good as 0.37 arcsec across the full 0.5 degree FOV was obtained First real test of support system for f/5 secondary First science runs are scheduled for April Megacam:

Commissioning of Facility Instruments (cont.) Successful commissioning run in early-December Both imaging and spectroscopic modes were tested First science runs are scheduled for the March and April bright runs MMIRS:

Commissioning of Facility Instruments (cont.) Passed pre-ship review in late-January Instrument arrived at LCO without mishap and was assembled and tested in the new clean room Commissioning to begin in late this month FIRE: FourStar: Detector problems slowed progress Pre-ship review to be held in May? Commissioning likely to begin in 2010B semester

Clean Room Clean room tent was installed by Alan Uomoto in early-December Air conditioning system was finished in January New transformer for ASB will be installed in March or April to handle increased load of clean room HVAC system Thanks to the efforts of Magellan and LCO staffs, the clean room was readied (just) in time for the arrival of FIRE in late-February Being used again right now by Harvard/SAO group to carry out work on MMIRS

Operations Clay primary mirror was aluminized in January 80.6% reflectivity at 530 nm before washing 90.1% reflectivity after washing 91.6% after coating Baade primary mirror was washed in March 76.5% reflectivity at 530 nm before washing 90.1% reflectivity after washing Why the 4% lower reflectivity of the Baade mirror before washing? Had ~2 months more exposure than Clay mirror CO 2 cleaning had also been temporarily suspended (2.5 months) due to suspicions of grounding problems

Operations The M1 server to correct the primary mirror for aberrations as a function of elevation, is in regular use at both Clay and Baade. This was successfully deployed for MegaCam commissioning and proved itself with the excellent delivered image quality. Collimation Two probe is used for checking f/11 collimation. Tests show scaling errors in off axis astigmatism and coma corrections and probe position dependent focus errors. More extensive sampling of the focal plane and guider positions is required to deal with these errors. These issues affect performance of the guiders under normal operation. Megacam extra-focal-image-based alignment yields very rapid and very accurate collimation for f/5 as evidenced by the 0.37" imaging achieved across the field during commissioning.

Operations Computers/Software The Magellan operations computers have been upgraded to the CentOS operating system. The upgrade will mitigate various situations that froze the computers and will make possible upgrades to the telescope interface and active optics system that were difficult under the old Red Hat system. Operations efficiency has been improved by setting up simultaneous initialization of all guider axes and simultaneous initialization of the ADC prisms. Work has begun on improving rotator reliability and troubleshooting capabilities. Testing of the fast tip/tilt secondary has begun at Baade. The initial work done has been to improve data logging to characterize guide errors. The telescopes do very well with standard guiding.

Operations MagE The cryotiger failed and was replaced. The camera read noise occasionally rises and is fixed by a power cycle. MMIRS We are exploring contracting of MMIRS mask cutting through CTIO. Prospects look very good.

Operations IMACS Flexure compensation became unstable do to a failed connection. It was repaired after extensive diagnosis. A slow leak of the Cargil oil in the F2 camera was discovered. No obvious source of the leak was found. Some mitigating repairs were done. The system needs to be monitored. Adjustment of SO9 lens has improved imaging at f2. There have been some overheating problems in the electronic racks. Following an extensive investigation, the primary culprit for noise on the IMACS f/2 camera was isolated to noise from the shutter signal line. A loose SH guider was found to be the cause of poor rotation guiding. The stage was modified by Tyson Hare.

Earthquake At 3:30 am on February 27, Chile was rocked by a powerful (8.8 mag on the Richter scale) earthquake Epicenter was located 120 km north of Concepción and 320 km south of Santiago Damage was wide-spread and > 500 lives were lost Although the quake was felt strongly at LCO, the observatory installations were unaffected Power was lost initially both at LCO and El Pino, but within 24 hours operations were back to normal Biggest problem was transportation of observers to and from the USA due to the closure of the Santiago airport which suffered significant damage 8 days passed before the first visitors were able to make it to LCO, and those who were stranded were able to make it back to the USA

GPS Measurements Showing Movement of South American Plate in Maule Earthquake Las Campanas moved 3 cm to the west Central and Southern Andes Project

Damage at Santiago Airport

Earthquake Preparedness We have been slowly pursuing a number of events designed to better protect the Magellan installations at LCO from future strong earthquakes: TCS monitors were changed to LCDs and have been bolted down in Baade and Clay control rooms. Hardware to secure the electronics racks located in the control room and the equipment room has been purchased and is being installed. Seismic retro fit to reinforce the air and glycol tank mounts has been completed. New collars and anchor bolts and restraints were added. Two seismic accelerometers were purchased and installed into the telescope and enclosure emergency stop control systems. All telescope and enclosure motion is now stopped when a significant earthquake occurs. This installation required a change in the emergency stop control PLC systems.

Earthquake Preparedness (cont.) Other measures that we have identified but not yet implemented: Suspended ceilings and light fixtures in Baade and Clay control rooms, lounges, kitchen, and the ASB need to be either secured or replaced. (El Pino as well) Structural analysis for the GMT indicates that seismic accelerations may be significantly amplified at both the secondary and primary mirrors much more than previously assumed. Should carry out a similar structural analysis for the Magellan telescopes ($$$) In the meantime, we will install accelerometers on one of the Magellan telescopes to directly measure this effect We need to update the emergency signs in all buildings so that they conform with the current building code. We should prepare a simple one page document that states what do in an earthquake.