csa-1 fy15apr final · • completion of the transformation to the noao-2016 program status:...

Cover image: The cover shows four deep sky images from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey, a public survey mapping 6700 square degrees, approximately one-sixth of the sky, using the Blanco 4-m telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. All images are constructed from the g-, r-, and z-band images by Dr. John Moustakas of Siena College. The top left panel shows a bow shock in the interstellar medium of the Milky Way, in the constella-tion of Aquarius, glowing in the light of hydrogen emission. The top right panel shows the interacting galaxy system UGC 12589 at a distance of 470 million light-years. The distorted morphologies and the faint, diffuse light from tidally stripped stars are due to the gravitational interaction between the two galaxies. The bottom left panel shows the barred spiral galaxy UGC 11782 at a distance of 56 million light-years in the constellation of Pegasus. The bottom right panel shows the star cluster NGC 2420 in the constellation of Gemini. The cluster is 30 light-years across and contains more than 1000 young stars; it lies at a distance of approximately 8,000 light-years from the Sun above the disk of the Milky Way. All the data and catalogs from the survey are publicly available. Please see legacysurvey.org for more details.

Submitted to the National Science Foundation

Pursuant to Cooperative Support Agreement No. AST-0950945, Article 3-A

Cooperative Agreement No. AST-0809409

Also published on the NOAO website: http://www.noao.edu

NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation

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Contents

1 OBSERVATORY MANAGEMENT .................................................................................... 1 1.1 Summary of Observatory Activity ..................................................................... 1 1.2 Organization and Key Management Changes .................................................... 3

2 NOAO DIVISIONS ................................................................................................................ 4 2.1 NOAO South ...................................................................................................... 4

2.1.1 Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory ............................................ 4 2.1.2 NOAO South Engineering & Technical Services .................................. 9 2.1.3 NOAO South Facilities Operations ..................................................... 11 2.1.4 NOAO South Computer Infrastructure Services ................................. 12

2.2 NOAO North .................................................................................................... 15 2.2.1 Kitt Peak National Observatory ........................................................... 15 2.2.2 NOAO North Engineering & Technical Services ................................ 18 2.2.3 NOAO North Central Facilities Operations ......................................... 20 2.2.4 NOAO North Computer Infrastructure Services ................................. 21

2.3 NOAO System Science Center ........................................................................ 22 2.3.1 System User Support ............................................................................ 23 2.3.2 Science Data Management ................................................................... 25 2.3.3 System Community Development ....................................................... 28 2.3.4 Time Allocation Committee ................................................................ 33

2.4 NOAO System Technology Center ................................................................... 34

3 NOAO-WIDE PROGRAMS ............................................................................................... 36 3.1 Office of Science .............................................................................................. 36 3.2 Education and Public Outreach ........................................................................ 36 3.3 NOAO Director’s Office .................................................................................. 43 3.4 Risk Management ............................................................................................. 46

4 FY15 BUDGET SUMMARY .............................................................................................. 48

National Optical Astronomy Observatory Annual Project Report FY 2015 (1 October 2014 – 30 June 2015)

Submitted to the National Science Foundation

Pursuant to Cooperative Support Agreement No. AST-0950945

4 September 2015

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5 OBSERVING PROPOSAL STATISTICS FOR 2015B .................................................... 49

6 USAGE OF ARCHIVED DATA ......................................................................................... 50

7 GRANTS ................................................................................................................................ 52

8 NOAO SAFETY REPORT FOR Q3 .................................................................................. 53 8.1 South ................................................................................................................ 53 8.2 North ................................................................................................................ 54

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1 OBSERVATORY MANAGEMENT

1.1 SUMMARY OF OBSERVATORY ACTIVITY

From FY15 NSF base funding, NOAO plans to deliver and/or enable:

• Completion of the transformation to the NOAO-2016 program

Status: Nearing completion. During Q1, finalized FY16 employee plan and notified all employ-ees whether or not they would retain their positions during FY16. During Q2, reviewed and re-vised FY16 program plans, in order to initiate FY16 detailed planning. During Q3, per NSF di-rectives, NOAO initiated development of supplementary funding requests for the KPNO Mayall and WIYN silo programs. During this period, both the AURA Observatory Council (OC) and NSF Program Review Panel (PRP) reviewed NOAO plans and status and concluded NOAO was on track for a successful start to FY16.

• Operation and maintenance of NOAO facilities in Tucson and on Kitt Peak (Mayall 4-m and WIYN 3.5-m telescopes)

Status: Proceeding without significant problems, see discussion in Section 2.2.

• Operation and maintenance of NOAO facilities in La Serena (including the AURA recinto–compound) and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón (Blanco 4-m and SOAR 4.1-m telescopes)

Status: During a major electrical storm during Q2, major high-voltage equipment on Cerro To-lolo was damaged. As a result, Cerro Tololo has been on generator power since March while NOAO repairs and/or procures necessary equipment. This storm also caused significant dam-age to the access road to Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón. Temporary repairs have been com-pleted. Otherwise, standard operations and maintenance activities proceeded to plan. See Sec-tion 2.1 for further discussion.

• Community and DES usage of DECam at the Blanco 4-m telescope

Status: DECam operations proceeded well, producing significant data sets for DES and the community-at-large. Major scientific results from the first year of DECam operations are now appearing in the literature.

• Completion of the commissioning of a new, medium-resolution, near-infrared spectrograph (TripleSpec4) for the Blanco 4-m telescope, acquired through a sub-award to Cornell University (ReSTAR Phase 1)

Status: Completed. TripleSpec4 will be available for the user community during semester 2016A. See Section 2.1.1 for details.

• Technical and management support/planning for the deployment of the Dark Energy Spectro-scopic Instrument (DESI) on the Mayall 4-m telescope

Status: The NOAO DESI installation and commission plan was subjected to a Preliminary De-sign Review (PDR) during Q2. The panel report was very positive while also providing helpful suggestions for improvements. During Q3, the NOAO team was focused on preparing for the DESI Critical Design 2 (CD-2) review. In parallel to these planning and review activities, facili-ty preparation work has begun at the Mayall.

• Scientific user support services for the US community users of the Gemini Observatory

NOAO ANNUAL PROJECT REPORT FY 2015

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Status: The System User Support group (SUS) supported several new Gemini initiatives, includ-ing the Fast Turnaround observing mode and the initiation of the Large Long Program. At the January 2015 AAS meeting, SUS conducted a well-attended Gemini data reduction mini-workshop. SUS released a deeply revised and reorganized set of web pages with a focus on post-observing and data reduction support (http://ast.noao.edu/nssc/usngo). SUS is in transition to a new group name, “US National Gemini Office” to better reflect its core mission and to be more consistent with the NGOs in other Gemini partner countries. See Section 2.3.1 for more details.

• Science data management services that are focused on immediate NOAO needs, including sci-ence operations of the DECam (Blanco 4-m), Mosaic 1.1 (Mayall 4-m), and NEWFIRM (Ma-yall 4-m) wide-field imagers

Status: Operated per plan without interruption. See Section 2.3.2 for more details.

• Education and Public Outreach that focuses on critical, local activities and needs while main-taining a national (global) perspective through targeted, innovative programs

Status: Another successful year of diverse activities; see Section 3.2 for details. A major NOAO Education and Public Outreach (EPO) strategic planning retreat was held during Q2 and was attended by EPO group members from Arizona and Chile as well as the NOAO deputy director, the associate director for KPNO, and the manager of the Kitt Peak Visitor Center.

• Administrative and facility operations services necessary for an organization with more than 250 employees at two geographically distributed sites

Status: Administrative services were provided by the AURA Central Administrative Services and Human Resources groups, per plan. Facilities operations in Chile were stressed by the after-math of a severe weather event, while facilities operations in Arizona proceeded without signifi-cant issues. See Sections 2.1.3 and 2.2.3 for further details.

From FY15 (or earlier) NSF supplementary funding, NOAO plans to deliver and/or enable:

• Annual Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) programs in Tucson and La Serena

Status: La Serena FY15 program completed successfully during Q2, while the Tucson program will be completed during Q4. The La Serena program has one more year of funding within the current supplementary award, and then it will be assessed and revised consistent with the re-vised CTIO program. The Tucson program will be paused after the current year for a similar reassessment and revision process.

• Completion of the construction of TripleSpec4 for the Blanco 4-m telescope through a sub-award to Cornell University (ReSTAR Phase 1)

Status: Completed. Instrument was accepted from Cornell, and final payment to Cornell will occur during Q4.

On a cost-recovery basis, NOAO also plans to deliver and/or enable:

• Technical and facility operations support services for tenant and/or partner observatories on Kitt Peak, Cerro Tololo, Cerro Pachón, and Cerro Las Campanas

Status: Completed per plan and expectations. See Sections 2.1.3, 2.1.4, 2.2.3, and 2.2.4.

OBSERVATORY MANAGEMENT

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1.2 ORGANIZATION AND KEY MANAGEMENT CHANGES

The organizational structure as presented in the NOAO Annual Program Plan FY 2015:

The top-level NOAO organization chart for FY15 is shown above. Circles are top-level programs. Boxes are major sub-activities. Activity managers are shown in parentheses.

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2 NOAO DIVISIONS

2.1 NOAO SOUTH

The NOAO South (NS) division is responsible for opera-tions, maintenance, and development for all NOAO activ-ities in Chile. For program management purposes, these activities are separated into the following subprograms:

• Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

• NOAO South Engineering & Technical Services

• NOAO South Facilities Operations

• NOAO South Computer Infrastructure Services

2.1.1 Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory

Program Highlights

Science

The April meeting of the American Physical Society saw the release of the first wide-field map trac-ing the detailed distribution of dark matter to be derived from data taken with DECam on the Blanco telescope. A team of Dark Energy Survey (DES) scientists led by Vinu Vikram (Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Pennsylvania) and Chihway Chang (ETH Zurich) constructed this map from weak lensing shear measurements, made from DES Science Verification data, covering a 139 degree2 region around the south galactic pole (Vikram et al. 2015, arXiv:1504.03002).

Weak lensing is one of the four techniques that DES will use to study the acceleration of the universe and elucidate the properties of dark energy; it also serves as a probe of the distribution of both dark and baryonic matter and their role in the evolution of cosmic structure. Validating the use of DES data for weak lensing measurements, and developing and testing the analysis tools to be used, was therefore a key goal of the DES Science Verification (SV) program and the primary focus of the paper. As light from distant background galaxies passes through the mass distribution in the Universe, its trajectory gets perturbed, distorting the apparent shape of the galaxies. The weak lensing technique statistically measures this very small distortion, or “shear,” for a large number of background galaxies—more than one million in the Vikram et al. study—to infer the 3D distribution of both dark and visible matter in the foreground. The main challenge in applying this technique over a wide field using tessellated survey data is properly understanding and compensating for sys-tematic effects, including PSF variations and photo-z uncertainties. Vikram et al. applied principal component analysis to maps of twenty parameters characterizing the data to determine that the con measurements. This attests to the uniformity and stability of the DECam data, especially as regards the quality of the PSF.

To demonstrate that their weak lensing measurements trace real structure in the foreground mass distribution, Vikram et al. compared their mass map to the distribution of more than one mil-lion foreground galaxies and clusters visible in the same DECam images. Qualitatively, they find that overdensities in the reconstructed map correlate well with the distribution of optically detected clusters (Fig. 1). In particular, the maps show long filaments of matter along which visible galaxies and galaxy clusters lie and cosmic voids where very few galaxies reside. This is broadly consistent

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with the expectations from standard Λ-CDM models. The visible candidate superclusters and voids along the line of sight are also clearly seen as tight concentrations in redshift space in the photo-z data. Quantitatively, they find that the cross correlation between the mass map and their magnitude-limited sample of foreground galaxies is statistically significant at the 6.8 sigma level.

The DES SV data used for the analysis of Vikram et al covers only 3% of the area of the final DES survey, attesting to what will be possible when the same analysis is applied to the data set from the completed survey.

Figure 1: The weak lensing mass map derived from DES SV data along with foreground galaxy clusters detected on the same images. The clusters are overlaid as black circles, with the size of the circles indicating the richness of the cluster. Only clusters with richness greater than 20 and redshift between 0.1 and 0.5 are shown in the figure. It can be seen that there is significant correlation be-tween the mass map and the distribution of galaxy clusters. Several superclusters and voids can be identified in the joint map. (Image credit: Vikram et al. 2015, arXiv:1504.03002.)

Instrumentation/Management

During the reporting period CTIO’s efforts were focused on support of the second observing season of the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the use of DECam by the open-access community; improve-ments to the Blanco and SOAR telescopes; and preparing for the arrival of the near-infrared spec-trograph TripleSpec4 (TS4) and starting to commission it for science use.

The second DES season began on 15 August 2014 and ended on 15 February 2015. The equiva-lent of 105.5 nights (80 full nights plus 51 half nights) on the Blanco telescope were dedicated to the survey. During this time, a total of 17,778 images were collected for the wide-field survey, 91% of which were judged to be of survey quality. In addition, 2,370 images were obtained of the supernova fields, of which 83% were accepted. In comparing the second season to the first, the DES team re-


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ported both a significant improvement in the delivered image quality and an increase in the shutter-open fraction (a measure of observing efficiency), attributable to improvements to the telescope and its thermal environment made during FY14. These improvements have allowed the survey to make up some of the ground lost due to bad weather and early instrument problems, so that progress on the wide-field survey is only 10% behind the original target as of the end of the second season (Fig-ure 2).

Figure 2: Status of the DES. The survey goal for seasons one and two was to cover the survey foot-print with up to four exposures (“tilings”) in all filters. Tiles observed during the first season and second season are shown in light and dark blue, respectively. The grey background marks the areas DES planned to cover in the second season, but that were not observed. The plan for season two on-ly includes three tilings of the central section of the footprint, the fourth being left for season three. (Image credit: “Dark Energy Survey Operations Report March 2015,” by Thomas Diehl.)

The Blanco telescope and DECam have also proven to be a very reliable and robust system, with only 2.5% of time scheduled for observations with DECam being lost due to technical problems of any kind during the reporting period.

The two new f/8 instruments built for the Blanco telescope using ReSTAR funding passed im-portant milestones during the reporting period. Commissioning of the COSMOS optical spectro-graph was completed in October 2014, and a successful first science run with this instrument oc-curred in May 2105 with 11 nights used by two NOAO and one Chilean program. Integration and

NOAO DIVISIONS

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laboratory testing of the near-infrared spectrograph TripleSpec4 (TS4) was completed at Cornell University in February. The completed instrument was delivered to Chile in late April and achieved first light on the Blanco telescope during a six-night engineering run in early May (see Figure 3). The performance of the instrument measured on the telescope met all requirements, and it was even possible to obtain some early science verification observations, during this first, and a second com-missioning run in June.

Figure 3: The TripleSpec4 near-infrared spectrograph shown at left following its installation on the Blanco telescope was used to obtain the spectrum of Titan, shown at right, covering the 0.85 to 2.4 micron wavelength range with a resolution R ~ 3500. The deep absorption bands are due to me-thane in the satellite’s atmosphere. (Image credit D. James/NOAO/AURA/NSF and T. Herter/ Cornell.)

Status of FY15 Milestones

• Develop a program of regular preventative maintenance for the Blanco 4-m telescope and its key, supporting infrastructure and implement it starting in Q2 of FY15.

Status: Implementation of the basic framework for scheduling and tracking periodic mainte-nance activities within the JIRA issue reporting and tracking system was completed during Q1. Maintenance procedures for key components of the telescope and supporting infrastructure are now being progressively reviewed, updated, and incorporated within this system, with comple-tion expected by the end of the year.

• Refurbish or replace the secondary backup generator, secondary frequency converter, and asso-ciated transfer switches in the Cerro Tololo powerhouse to ensure robust operation of this criti-cal equipment for the next decade. Planning and prioritization will be carried out in Q1 of FY15 with procurement starting in Q2 as funding permits.

Status: The equipment in the Cerro Tololo powerhouse suffered serious damage as the result of lightning strikes during a severe electrical storm at the end of March. Both the main 23kv/2.4kv step-down transformer and the primary frequency convertor and/or associated control hard-ware were rendered inoperable. Work continues to diagnose and repair/replace these systems to restore commercial electric power to Tololo. In the meantime, the mountain is operating on


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generator power. A secondary standby generator has been ordered with a rental generator in use as backup for the primary in the meantime.

• Support the second season of observations for the Dark Energy Survey (DES), which runs from mid-August 2014 through early February 2015. Hold a workshop in March 2015 to promote the effective use by the community of the images collected during the first DES season.

Status: Completed. The second DES season began on 15 August 2014 and ended on 15 Febru-ary 2015. The equivalent of 105.5 nights (80 full nights plus 51 half nights) on the Blanco tele-scope were dedicated to the survey. During this time, a total of 17,778 images were collected for the wide-field survey, 91% of which were judged to be of survey quality. In addition, 2,370 im-ages were obtained of the supernova fields, of which 83% were accepted. The “DECam Com-munity Workshop 2015” held March 13–16 in Tucson was attended by 65 participants from DES, NOAO, and the user community. Twenty-eight presentations covered the properties of the instrument and its data, DES and community data reduction pipelines, the NOAO Science Ar-chive, and early science results from DES and community programs.

• Prepare for the delivery of the TripleSpec4 (TS4) near-infrared spectrograph, in January 2015, and commission it on the Blanco 4-m telescope during Q3 and Q4 of FY15.

Status: Integration and laboratory testing of the near Infrared spectrograph TripleSpec4 (TS4) was completed at Cornell University in February. The completed instrument was delivered to Chile in late April and achieved first light on the Blanco telescope on 29 April 2015. Two sub-sequent commissioning runs in May and June have been used to integrate the instrument with the telescope services and control system, characterize its performance, and obtain initial sci-ence verification data. Further commissioning and science verification runs are scheduled for the 2015B semester. The instrument will be offered for community use, without restrictions, in the call for proposals for the 2016A semester.

• Develop during Q1 of FY15 conceptual designs and resource estimates for the steps needed to increase observing efficiency at the SOAR telescope, including improvement of the guide star selection software, addition of an acquisition camera to the Goodman spectrograph, and imple-mentation of closed-loop control of focus and astigmatism, and propose them to the SOAR board for funding. It is anticipated that, given a favorable finding decision, one or two of these measures can be implemented during FY15, the others being carried over to FY16.

Status: Fabrication and assembly of the acquisition camera for the Goodman spectrograph was completed during Q3, and it was installed in the instrument and successfully tested on the tele-scope during an engineering run in June. The remaining work to integrate the acquisition func-tion into the observing software for the spectrograph will be completed in Q4. Work has begun on the design of the opto-mechanical modifications to the guider to allow its use as a low-order wavefront sensor, thus permitting closed-loop control of focus and astigmatism.

• To strengthen post-run scientific support of users of the SOAR telescope, carry out a survey dur-ing Q1 of FY15 of previous users of NOAO time to determine what factors have limited their ability to publish quickly and use this as the basis for planning and prioritization of improve-ments to be implemented during the remainder of the year.

Status: No progress during this reporting period.

• Implement succession plans for key staff who will transition fully or on a shared basis to LSST. Recruitment to replace the transitioning staff will take place in Q1 of FY15 with cross-training and knowledge transfer occurring over the remainder of the year.

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Status: Completed. Four staff members transitioned fully to the Large Synoptic Survey Tele-scope project at the start of FY15. One of these positions will not be replaced; the others have been filled through a process of internal recruitment. Similarly, the head of the Computer Infra-structure group, who will transition during Q4, is being replaced internally. Discussions contin-ued with LSST concerning additional staff that may transition from CTIO to LSST on a full- or part-time basis, as construction activity ramps up, to allow the timely recruitment of additional staff and to ensure critical knowledge is retained.

• Host the third annual La Serena School for Data Science during one week in August 2015 in collaboration with AURA, LSST, and Chilean institutional partners.

Status: The 2015 school will be held 15–22 August 2015 in La Serena (see www.aura-o.aura-astronomy.org/winter_school/). In response to the call for applications issued in April 2015, we received more than 190 applications for the 35 seats available, of which 165 were qualified. Of the qualified applicants, 91 were students from the US, 66 were from Chile, and 8 were from other countries, including Australia, South Africa, Mexico, India, and Pakistan. The applicant pool was 66% male, 34% female. The initial selection of candidates from this pool was made in June, based on the evaluation of application letters, grades, and recommendation letters, with the aim of selecting those students who would benefit most from the school. The successful can-didates have been informed and we are awaiting their confirmations; we will work down the waiting list if any of the selected students cannot attend. In parallel with the selection process, the core group of professors met to refine the program content for the 2015 School and finalize the schedule.

2.1.2 NOAO South Engineering & Technical Services

Program Highlights

During this reporting period, the NOAO South Engineering and Technical Services (NS ETS) group provided engineering and technical support for science operations of the CTIO telescopes, helping with problem diagnosis and resolution and regular maintenance of the optical, mechanical, electron-ic, and software systems of the telescopes and instruments. They also participated in projects to up-grade the performance of the telescopes and to install and test new instrumentation.

The near-infrared spectrograph TripleSpec4 (TS4) was a major focus of activity by NS ETS dur-ing the reporting period. NS ETS staff were responsible for testing and characterization of the infra-red (IR) detectors and their associated control electronics (work completed in January), which were shipped to Cornell University in January for installation in the instrument. A team from NS ETS then traveled to Cornell in February to participate in the integration of the instrument and witness the pre-shipment acceptance test. Various accessories including the instrument-to-telescope inter-face adapter, instrument-handling cart, and control electronics for the calibration lamps system were also developed and fabricated in Chile. The completed instrument was delivered to Chile on 24 April 2015. During the remainder of Q3, NS ETS staff participated in the mechanical, electronic, optical, and software integration of the instrument with the Blanco telescope and its control system and supported the commissioning of the instrument on the telescope.

NS ETS worked on various improvement projects for the SOAR telescope during the reporting period. The upgrade to the SOAR Telescope Control System (TCS) made steady progress, with cod-ing of the core modules substantially complete and testing underway. The optics of the SOAR guide cameras were modeled with Zemax software, and their performance was checked against measure-ments made at the telescope; this work provides the foundation for modification of the cameras to


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serve as low-order wavefront sensors, design of which began in Q3. Fabrication of parts for the Goodman Spectrograph acquisition camera was also completed in Q3, and this new system was in-tegrated into the instrument and tested and will go into service in Q4.


• Complete the Blanco telescope primary mirror active optics improvement project in Q1 of FY15.

Status: Completed. The new, high-precision pressure controllers for the 33 pneumatic actuators (air bags) that support the primary mirror were installed during Q4 of FY14, and the system has functioned flawlessly since being brought online in mid-August 2014 in time for the start of the second DES season. Finishing touches such as repackaging of the control electronics and as-sembly and test of spare modules were completed during Q1. Measurements continue to be made regularly during engineering time to refine the look-up tables used to drive the system and to monitor the resulting delivered image quality.

• Refurbish the Blanco aluminizing tank in Q3 of FY15 and optimize its control parameters (work to be completed in Q1 of FY16) to ensure stable, reliable, and reproducible deposition of a good-quality coating in time to re-aluminize the Blanco primary mirror during calendar year 2016.

Status: Work continues to document and refurbish the existing hardware, with documentation of the electrical system and cleaning and maintenance of the vacuum pumps both being completed in Q3. A proposal and quote for C02 ice cleaning of the interior of the chamber has been ob-tained from a contractor and is being evaluated. Members of the “coating team” participated in a course on evaporative and sputtered coating deposition given by an instructor from a compa-ny specializing in industrial vacuum technology, including practical training sessions using the coating plants at the 1.5-m telescope and Gemini South.

• Repair the Blanco mirror elevator in Q4 of FY15 following the similar work being carried out at the Mayall telescope during FY14.

Status: The project manager and engineer visited Tucson to learn in situ about the modifica-tions made to the Mayall telescope mirror lift and the problems encountered during implementa-tion of the solution adopted. In July they will travel to the Australian Astronomical Observatory to learn about the alternative approach successfully adopted there. Following these site visits a decision will be taken about which approach to follow, and procurement of parts will begin. Im-plementation of the adopted solution will continue into FY16.

• Build the new handling cart for the Blanco Cassegrain cage in Q2 of FY15, the design of which was completed in FY14.


• Complete during Q1 of FY15 the evaluation and costing of improvements to the drive mecha-nism and emergency brake for the Blanco dome shutter, building on similar work being carried out at the Mayall telescope and Anglo-Australian Telescope. Implementation will begin in Q2 of FY15 but is expected to continue into FY16 depending on the design finally adopted.

Status: While in Tucson for the mirror lift work, the project manager and engineer learned about the work involved in refurbishing the shutter drive gearbox. During their visit to the AAO in July, they will learn about their implementation of the emergency brake.

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• Complete upgrading the SOAR Telescope Control System (TCS) to the same standard as the re-cently upgraded TCS of the Blanco 4-m telescope in Q4 of FY15.

Status: During the reporting period coding was substantially completed for the TCS Kernel, TCS Application, and operator GUI, and testing is now well advanced. A beta release of the software was made in May, including a simulator for the mount control hardware, permitting system level testing without recourse to the real hardware. Work on the telemetry database module began and was largely completed during July, which allows a start to be made on com-missioning of the software at the telescope during engineering time in Q4.

2.1.3 NOAO South Facilities Operations

Program Highlights

The NOAO South Facilities Operations (NS FO) group is responsible for operations, maintenance, and long-term stewardship of the physical infrastructure shared by the facilities hosted by AURA Observatory (AURA-O) in Chile. This includes support buildings, housing, and miscellaneous other facilities in La Serena and on Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón.

NS FO started FY15 with the implementation of a web-based system to record and invoice utili-ties to the AURA-O tenants. The Web-based system was developed by the AURA-CAS and tested during Q4 of FY14.

In Q2 of FY15, LSST construction started, already significantly impacting the infrastructure us-age on the mountain, e.g., producing more traffic on the mountain roads, longer opening hours for the gate, and increased water consumption on Cerro Pachón. NS FO has been adjusting frequency of services to the demands of LSST construction and will continue to do so during the coming years.

At the end of March there was a severe electrical storm in the north of Chile, which also affect-ing the operations on the AURA-O site. The road was damaged in several places, and repairs are underway. Lightning struck the power lines, interrupting the commercial power to both mountains. Commercial power on Cerro Pachón was restored within a few days after the storm. On Cerro Tolo-lo however, there was damage to the step-down transformer and possibly the frequency converter. The transformer was sent for repair, and the frequency converter was thoroughly checked by NOAO South staff as well as an external company. After installation of the repaired transformer, several at-tempts were made to restart the system; so far all attempts have been unsuccessful. The electric team is now led by two of the NOAO South engineers, to troubleshoot the system, and the team has been working with external experts to diagnose the faults. In the meantime, the facilities on Tololo have been running on generator power since the March storm and will continue to do so until the com-mercial power system is restored. This being a fragile situation, with only one functioning generator, we are now in the process of installing a second, rental generator to make the electric system more robust.


• Improve the reliability of the electric power transmission infrastructure for both mountains by installing contacts/connectors at the junction between the commercial power company and AURA lines, at the bifurcation of the lines to Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón, and on each summit in Q2 of FY15.

Status: This project has been approved by the Advisory Committee, representing the AURA ten-ants, as a contingency project and will be carried out in Q4 of FY15 if funds are available. In


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parallel, the option to rent the equipment from the electricity company CONAFE was explored, but did not result in a satisfactory solution.

• Provide separate utility metering in Q3 of FY15 for all tenants on Cerro Tololo and implement a Web-based database for utility consumption to improve the accuracy of billing to users.

Status: Plans for placing additional electricity and water meters have been developed and the materials have been purchased. Installation of the meters will take place during the last quarter of FY15 or first half of FY16. Meanwhile, site plans of Cerro Tololo are being updated to reflect the current status of the electricity and water system in preparation for installation of these me-ters. The Web-based database was implemented at the end of FY14 and has been in full use since the beginning of FY15.

• Complete repairs to the roof of the La Serena office building in Q1 of FY15, addressing the roof sections over the Engineering & Technical Services and SOAR offices.

Status: The roof over the NOAO South library was replaced in March 2015, while the roof over the NOAO South ETS building was replaced in April/May 2015.

• Install a new heating and air conditioning system for the La Serena offices and laboratories in Q2 of FY15.

Status: No progress to report. LSST, NOAO and AURA are jointly evaluating a significant mod-ification and renovation of the La Serena office building in order to incorporate the base facility for LSST as part of an integrated building. This project would entail refurbishment of the exist-ing CTIO offices and laboratories, possibly including the replacement of the building heating and air conditioning system for the entire building. This project is therefore on hold pending completion of the preliminary architectural study for the new building, so that the work to be done can be planned and executed in this larger context.

• Remodel the La Serena machine shop in Q4 of FY15 to provide a covered, well-ventilated area for welding and painting and to provide a direct entrance to the shop superintendent’s office without passing through the machine shop proper, for safety reasons.

Status: In Q2 of FY15 quotes were received for the remodeling of the La Serena machine shop. Again the decision to proceed is on hold awaiting definition of the larger renovation project for the La Serena offices.

• Support the ramp-up in LSST construction activity on Cerro Pachón, incrementing the capabili-ties of the Facilities Operations group as needed by the end of Q4 of FY15 in order to meet in-creased demand for the group’s services and the need for more frequent road maintenance.

Status: LSST construction started in Q2 of FY15. In support of this, an additional truck driver has been hired, to be able to transport enough water over to Cerro Pachón to meet the LSST demand of 70m3 per week. Extra support for road maintenance work is being evaluated. The Facilities Operations group is participating in the definition of the LSST office building and da-ta center, and it represents NOAO during the selection process of the architect company.

2.1.4 NOAO South Computer Infrastructure Services

Program Highlights

The NOAO South Computer Infrastructure Services (NS CIS) group provides information technolo-gy (IT) support for NOAO personnel and facilities in Chile and supports the backbone communica-

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tions and network infrastructure for all AURA-O facilities in Chile. NS CIS provides the network in-frastructure support necessary to maintain reliable connectivity between the mountaintops (Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón) and La Serena as well as between La Serena and the rest of the world.

To meet the greatly increased demand for bandwidth from the mountains to La Serena by new tenant programs such as KASI and T80-S and the operation of DECam at Blanco, NS CIS purchased a new, low-cost (<US $4K), turnkey microwave system manufactured by Ubiquiti as an experiment. Installation of the equipment on the microwave tower at the El Pino offices of Las Campanas Ob-servatory in La Serena and on the Blanco 4-m building on Cerro Tololo was completed in February. Because Chilean regulatory restrictions prevent operation of this equipment at full power, it was on-ly possible to obtain a bandwidth of 45 Mbps, versus the 100 Mbps required and anticipated. Conse-quently, a more expensive (US $14K) 150 Mbps, full-duplex microwave system manufactured by Cambium was ordered and was installed during Q3. With this new hardware we obtain >200 Mbps in each direction, and as the system is adaptive, greater bandwidth can be assigned in the more heav-ily downlink direction, if necessary. The ultimate plan is to route all DECam traffic over the original Harris 155 Mbps link and the rest of Tololo traffic over the new Cambium microwave. The Ubiquiti system will then be repurposed to provide a backup link across the much shorter hop from Pachón to Tololo where it will easily deliver the full 100 Mbps.

There have been many failures on the International Santiago to Miami link, and although many attempts at fixes were applied at the Santiago and Miami ends, the problems persisted unknown. At the end of Q3 we are currently running over the REUNA-CLARA link to the US for connectivity.

As part of the plan to maintain spare computers for DECam, additional computers were pur-chased to fill each mission-critical role. These computers were assembled and installed in the Survey Image System Process Integration (SISPI) racks to allow rapid replacement during the night. These machines were tested and mountain staff were trained to perform the swap during a recent DECam engineering run.


• Complete the installation of a 10-Gb network segment in La Serena for virtual machines. The required transceivers will be purchased in Q1 of FY15 and installed in Q2 of FY15.

Status: This is 95% complete. The problems with the switch were overcome. All the server hardware is implemented. GlustrFS is installed and working as advertised. One facet remains, which is to update the Centos OS to the most recent version to implement important functions of KVM.

• Establish by the end of FY15 separate, independent sub-networks for each of the tenant tele-scopes on Cerro Tololo.

Status: Although some of the tenants are already isolated, we have decided on a different design that will make it a one-time process for all the tenants rather than piecemeal. The necessary hardware is being prepared.

• Improve the wireless network in La Serena to enable visitors and staff to gain access in a more consistent manner by installing a wireless local area network controller and captive portal with 802.1x in Q1 of FY15.


• Purchase and install in Q1 of FY15 the Cisco Identity Services Engine to make the network more secure from personal mobile devices.


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• Establish a network connection in Q3 of FY15 from Cerro Tololo to the water tower in the San Carlos valley to support remote monitoring of the pumping stations by the NOAO South Facili-ties Operations staff.

Status: Design and devices are almost complete. Installation and testing should be complete and working by the end of Q4.

• Transfer management responsibility for NS CIS from the current head of program to another member of the group in Q1 of FY15 to allow the former to focus on support of the LSST net-work and AURA network backbone.

Status: Management responsibility has been transferred within the group. The current head of the group will transition to LSST during Q4.

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2.2 NOAO NORTH

The NOAO North (NN) division is responsible for the administration, facilities, and information tech-nology (IT) support for NOAO activities based in southern Arizona. For program management pur-poses, these activities are separated into the follow-ing subprograms:

• Kitt Peak National Observatory

• NOAO North Engineering & Technical Services

• NOAO North Central Facilities Operations

• NOAO North Computer Infrastructure Services

2.2.1 Kitt Peak National Observatory

Program Highlights

Science

The new Kitt Peak Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph (KOSMOS) had its scientific debut at the January AAS meeting in Seattle. Alec Hirschauer and John Salzer of Indiana University used KOSMOS to study the faint end of the Luminosity-Metallicity Relation for low-luminosity, star-forming dwarf galaxies. Using KOSMOS spectra obtained in September 2014 on the Mayall 4-m telescope, Hirschauer and Salzer derived metallicities for a dozen faint galaxies by measuring the oxygen abundance ([O III] λ4363) of associated point-like emission-line sources selected from the ALFALFA Hα survey. KOSMOS spectra for four of these so-called Hα “Dots” are shown in Figure 4. The inserts show the [O III] λ4363 line used to derive abundances.

High-precision Doppler spectroscopy is one step closer to reality on Kitt Peak. The Extreme Precision Doppler Spectrometer (EPDS) for the WIYN 3.5-m telescope is the cornerstone of a new-ly established partnership between NSF and NASA to focus on exoplanet research. The aim of NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research (NN-EXPLORE) is to advance exoplanet science through the use of the NOAO share of the WIYN telescope. In May the NOAO TAC allocated ~60 nights of NASA-sponsored guest observer time on WIYN, employing existing instrumentation.

The NSF selected a new operator for the KPNO 2.1-m telescope based on a recommendation from NOAO. The Robo-AO project, led by Shri Kulkarni and Reed Riddle of Caltech and Christoph Baranec of the University of Hawai’i, will be installed in the telescope in Fall 2015. Robo-AO KP is an adaptive optics instrument that will enable high-angular-resolution imaging with an acuity of ~0.09 arcseconds in the visible and ~0.17 arcseconds in the near-infrared. The Robo-AO KP team plan to make available to the community up to two months per year of telescope time.


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Figure 4: KOSMOS spectra of two Hα dots. Inset boxes show [OIII]l4363 Å for determinations of Te abundances. (Image credit: Alec Hirschauer and John Salzer/Indiana University.)

Management

In FY15, KPNO scientific and technical staff continued to support the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) and NN-EXPLORE projects, maintain and operate the facilities on Kitt Peak, and provide support to visiting observers. The NSTC head of program, NOAO engineering manager, two NOAO scientists, an NOAO astronomer, the NOAO North risk manager, the NOAO deputy di-rector, and the KPNO AD participated in a Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the NOAO part of the DESI installation and commissioning in Tucson in March. In June this team attended the Law-rence Berkeley National Laboratory Lab Director’s Review in Berkeley, in preparation for CD-2 (end of July). The NOAO deputy director, the NSTC head of program, two NOAO scientists, and the NOAO North risk manager are all CD-2 presenters. Led by the NSTC head of program, staff continued with DESI preparations at the Mayall.

KPNO and NOAO scientific staff advanced plans to support the DESI imaging survey, sched-uled to start at the Mayall 4-m telescope late in observing semester 2015B. The survey will use ap-proximately 200 nights spread over 2016 and 2017, primarily in the B semesters, to select the targets for the DESI spectroscopic survey, which begins in 2018.

The NN-EXPLORE program was launched in Q2. In January, NASA released the solicitation for an Extreme Precision Doppler Spectrometer (EPDS) for the WIYN telescope. NOAO hosted a workshop in March for potential proposers, supported by the WIYN chief engineer, WIYN tele-

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scope scientist, and the AD. In May, the WIYN chief engineer, the WIYN telescope scientist, the NSTC head of program, the NOAO North facilities manager, and the AD provided NASA with fea-sibility assessments of the six submitted proposals. In June two teams were selected by NASA for a six-month Instrument Concept Study (ICS): Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), led by Principal Investigator Dr. Gabor Furesz, and Pennsylvania State University, led by Principal Inves-tigator Dr. Suvrath Mahadevan. In July the WIYN telescope scientist and the AD attended a work-shop at Yale on “Extreme Precision Radial Velocities,” where they learned about the technological and scientific challenges of high-precision RV.

A new management plan for WIYN was proposed at the April Board meeting. In it, the AD for KPNO will assume responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the observatory. The WIYN tele-scope scientist will supervise observatory staff and report to the AD, who will report to the WIYN Board.

In March, the AD briefed the Tohono O’odham tribal chairman and vice chairwoman about re-cent activities on the mountain, including an update on DESI and an introduction to the NN-EXPLORE initiative. The AD participated in a March meeting with the Schuk Toak District chair-woman and council members as well as representatives from the Smithsonian and NSF about the fu-ture of Horseshoe Canyon. The Tohono O’odham Observatory Open House was held on May 2, drawing approximately 400 people from the reservation to the observatory for an afternoon and evening of telescopic viewing, telescope tours, music, and dance.

Kitt Peak Visitor Center

The table below summarizes the number of visitors who participated in paid groups/programs at Kitt Peak during the first nine months of FY15.

Kitt Peak Visitor Center & Tours Summary of Participants (9 months ending 6/30/15)

Group/Program

# of Participants

Q1 Q2 Q3 Totals

General public tours 1723 3506 1945 7,174

School groups K–college 0 0 77 77

Special tours 30 37 37 104

VIP tours 55 80 33 168

Nightly Obs. Program 2,017 2,708 2,238 6,963

Advanced Obs. Program 36 40 64 140

Other classes & workshops 26 74 117 217

Youth group overnights 0 74 34 108

TOTALS 3,887 6,519 4,545 14,951


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Total participation in Kitt Peak Visitor Center programs in Q3 was level compared to the same period in FY14. The largest category increases occurred with the Special Tours, which jumped by almost a factor of three, and the Other Classes & Workshops, which was up 34% compared to the same quarter last year. Kitt Peak’s extended-length public observing opportunity, the Advanced Ob-serving Program, saw a 19% increase in attendance, and public interest in this program continues to rise rapidly. This program enables preregistered visitors to remain at a telescope until sunrise and sleep in a mountaintop dorm. The School Groups category declined 32% compared to last quarter. It is worth noting that over half of this reporting period includes the summer recess period for most school districts in southern Arizona. The daily guided tours of the three largest research telescopes remained popular, with attendance climbing by 15%.


• Assess, characterize, and (where necessary) improve pointing and tracking of the Mayall tele-scope following installation in FY15 of the new digital servo system and pointing model for the Telescope Control System (TCS). Initial testing and assessment will be complete by the end of Q2 of FY15. The new system will be complete and in routine use for nighttime observing by the end of Q3 of FY15.

Status: The new Telescope Control System has been installed and tested. Semester 2015A ended with the new system in part-time use; a permanent switch to the new TCS will be in effect at the end of summer shutdown. A new pointing model is currently being generated and should be completed before the end of FY15 (weather permitting).

• Work with the NSF to select an operator for the 2.1-m telescope and Coudé Feed. A recommen-dation will be made to the NSF in Q2 of FY15.

Status: Selection completed. A group led by Shri Kulkarni (Caltech) will move their Robo-AO system from Mt. Palomar to Kitt Peak, where it will be known as Robo-AO KP. The MOU, Sub-lease, and Tenant Agreement documents are currently under review by the NSF and Caltech.

• Complete a prioritized list with full costs of Delivered Image Quality (DIQ) improvements for the Mayall 4-m telescope by the end of Q2 of FY15.

Status: High-priority projects have cost estimates and are in planning or acquisition stages. A new differential image motion monitor (DIMM) is being assembled. The DIMM provides an in-dependent measure of the native seeing, which is extremely helpful to have as a baseline com-parison with telescope DIQ. Quotes for exterior dome re-surfacing are being solicited. A new and improved pointing map will be generated using the newly completed Telescope Control Sys-tem immediately following summer shutdown.

2.2.2 NOAO North Engineering & Technical Services

Program Highlights

In addition to the milestone progress reported below, NN ETS also completed the implementation of the modernized servo control and pointing model for the Mayall telescope control system (TCS). This project was started in FY14 and designed and installed in late FY14 and early FY15. It went through on-sky testing as planned during Telescope and Engineering nights starting in December 2014. Its on-sky testing was completed in June 2015, and it will be in full-time operational use start-ing in August 2015, following the completion of the Mayall summer shutdown.

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• Complete the transfer of all relevant paper documents to the new electronic document system by the end of FY15.

Status: Underway and making progress. 25,593 documents have been scanned as of 6 July 2015, and approximately another 8,200 documents remain to be scanned. Scanning time lost during early FY15 due to relocation of NN ETS offices will be recovered by increasing Q4 hours of part-time temporary assistant hired to support task. Will be complete by end of FY15.

• Complete a system-level plan with full costs for the improved reliability of the Mayall dome shutter by the end of Q3 of FY15.

Status: Completed. Plan complete as of 15 May 2015.

• Complete the purchase of the major components for the dome shutter system reliability upgrade by the end of FY15.

Status: Completed. Components ordered in late May 2015.

• Complete a detailed design for the implementation of the dome shutter system reliability up-grade by the end of FY15.

Status: Completed. Implementation equipment (rigging components) have completed detailed design and are in fabrication as of the end of Q3 of FY15.

• Release the initial versions of all DESI Interface Control Documents (ICDs) that affect the Ma-yall telescope or building by the end of Q2 of FY15.

Status: Completed but three months late. Last relevant ICDs were released on the DESI docu-ment database as of 30 June 2015.

• Extend the Mayall building glycol system to provide a service point inside the Coudé laboratory that will have sufficient capacity for the DESI equipment by the end of FY15.

Status: Delayed but underway. As of the end of Q3, design for the extension was underway by contracted engineering service. Implementation work is expected to begin in September 2015, after the Kitt Peak summer shutdown is complete.

• Extend the Mayall building electrical system to provide sufficient capacity to the Coudé labora-tory for the DESI equipment by the end of FY15.

Status: Delayed but underway. As of the end of Q3, design for the extension was underway by contracted engineering service. Implementation work is expected to begin in September 2015, after the Kitt Peak summer shutdown is complete.

• Complete the laboratory testing of the ODI with its enlarged 5 × 5 focal plane by the end of Q3 of FY15.

Status: Complete. ODI was delivered to the WIYN telescope mid-May 2015.

• Complete the on-telescope commissioning of the upgraded ODI instrument by the end of FY15.

Status: Underway as of end of Q3. Will be complete by the end of FY15.


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2.2.3 NOAO North Central Facilities Operations

Program Highlights

During FY15, departmental staff has supported a wide range of projects at both the Kitt Peak and Tucson facilities of the NOAO North division. During the first part of the year, significant efforts were expended for oversight of the contracted renovation efforts for the new LSST project space. Once the initial renovation was completed, staff continued to provide support through the year with furniture acquisition needs and relocation of staff into the new space. As part of the LSST needs, the existing mezzanine office space was also renovated to provide additional office space. Staff support-ed the shutdown and removal of items from the instrument stock room and then renovated the space to accommodate the office space needs of the REU summer program. Other facility projects during the year focused on replacement of 40-year-old sprinkler heads in the east wing basement, replace-ment of the primary building fire alarm system, and replacement of outdated alarm sensors in the main computer room. Routine maintenance efforts also continued throughout the year, with repairs done to several critical building air handling units and the Flex Facility Instrument chiller.

Staff also provided technical support to obtain a general engineering evaluation of the mountain electrical distribution system, with continuing efforts to support the subcontracted engineering de-sign and bidding process to replace the primary switchgear in the Mayall 4-m telescope to meet cur-rent codes. Technical support has been provided to various NSF consultants evaluating NSO and KPNO mountain facilities, the planned replacement of the main Mayall 4-m fire alarm panel, and options for extending the computer network fiber system to the West Ridge tenants. Other support has also been provided to CTIO in their efforts to repair power supply problems.


• Work with contractors and staff to prepare office space to house the LSST engineering design and construction team in the former KPNO engineering wing.

Status: During the year, staff worked with various vendors to prepare design documents and ob-tain contracted services to renovate the former engineering wing into new office space. Staff worked to prepare the space for the contracting effort and then coordinated closely with LSST staff to obtain furniture and move personnel into the area. Minor support efforts will continue to be provided in Q4 as requested by the new occupants.

• Continue targeted building modification and renovation efforts at NOAO North to address building deficiencies and program space demands.

Status: In addition to the major engineering wing renovation, staff worked on several other ren-ovation projects during the year. The vacated mezzanine office area was renovated to provide space for additional LSST staff. Another space was also renovated to accommodate summer students within the REU program, and the contracted replacement of the main building fire alarm panel was completed. Other efforts have also included routine updating of office finishes between occupants.

• Continue with ongoing programs to upgrade the various restrooms and fixtures to improve water conservation efforts, interior finishes, and accessibility.

Status: Building renovation efforts did not allow for anything other than routine repairs during the year. Plans continue to be developed, with work to take place in the coming year.

• Continue the ongoing window upgrade program to replace original exterior single-pane win-dows in the various buildings to improve energy efficiency and reduce solar heat gain.

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Status: The engineering wing renovation incorporated the replacement of 26 single-pane win-dows with new double-pane energy-efficient windows. Targeted replacement of deteriorated windows is ongoing in the La Quinta complex, and bid documents are being prepared for re-placement of the primary building entrance single-pane storefront system in the coming quarter.

• Continue with the program to upgrade and/or replace deteriorated or obsolete portions of the mechanical air distribution system and their associated heating/chilled water system piping and valves.

Status: During the year a failed 25-horsepower fan motor for a critical air-handling unit was replaced, and a bad fan bearing was replaced on another primary air handling unit. As part of the engineering wing renovation, numerous parts of the ductwork system were updated or re-placed and new or missing insulation installed. Older thermostats are being recalibrated and pumping systems adjusted to address concerns with the chilled water system. Ducts and grills have also been reviewed and cleaned as part of the space renovations during the year. New large chilled-water valves were obtained and will be scheduled for installation during the com-ing winter heating season.

2.2.4 NOAO North Computer Infrastructure Services

Program Highlights

• A long-term effort to switch the NOAO Tucson/Kitt Peak authentication system to an Active Directory (AD) server was completed. Currently, we use a single username and password for email, “inside” and “roaming” wireless, VPN access, and server and workstation login. We hope to soon use this same system for Spam quarantine boxes, UltiPro, Web timesheets, Reqless, CASNet, etc.

• The 15-year-old firewall/gateway system connecting the NOAO Tucson/Kitt Peak networks to the University of Arizona network (and hence to the various Internets) was replaced with a much faster system. Due to bugs in the Cisco software, the dedicated VPN tunnels that connect the NOAO Tucson network with remote LSST and NSO/DKIST offices was moved from the main firewall to another box.

• New versions of the central logs server and the central Windows updates server were installed. A new version of the Cisco box supporting AnyConnect VPN access was installed. A new ver-sion of the Barracuda SpamBuster appliance was installed. This should be completed during Q4.


• Absorb the few remaining unmanaged Windows systems in Tucson and on Kitt Peak into the NOAO North Windows Active Directory (http://ad.tuc.noao.edu) and install the Shavlik anti-virus and auto-patch software. Once the Windows computers are part of the AD, use group poli-cies to implement the AURA-mandated password and account lockout policies.

Status: This effort is basically complete. Approximately 125 Windows machines are attached to the AD.

• Absorb the 100 or so workstations and laptops with Mac and Linux operating systems running on the Tucson and Kitt Peak networks into the NOAO North Active Directory using software from Centrify. Once those computers are part of the AD, use group policies to implement the AURA-mandated password and account lockout policies.


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Status: This effort is continuing. Approximately 45 Mac, Linux, and FreeBSD systems are at-tached to the AD.

• Continue the effort to create customized DMZ configurations for Internet-facing servers such as ftp.noao.edu, www.noao.edu, email.noao.edu, and ssh.noao.edu. Consult and plan to do the same for servers run by groups outside of NN CIS.

Status: The necessary router hardware is now in place in Tucson; we hope to “isolate” at least ftp.noao.edu by the end of the FY. The effort on Kitt Peak to isolate the tenant networks from the NOAO network and each other is largely completed but has run into problems caused by limitations in the KP “backbone” switch. A replacement switch has arrived, and we hope to have it in place and operational by the end of the FY to support the existing tenant networks, the soon-to-be tenant network at the 2.1-m and the new networks generated by the installation of fi-ber connections to the observatories on the West Ridge.

• Implement a centralized control system for many of the wireless access points installed in the NOAO Tucson complex. Such a system will simplify configuration of the 30 or so access points and allow them to cooperate with a centralized power/channel operations plan.

Status: Completed. We are currently using 44 wireless access points and average a maximum of 150+ wireless connections per workday.

• Undertake a number of related projects leading to the goal of a single password for email, VPN, wireless, Active Directory login, Web Timesheets, Reqless, CASNet, and UltiPro.

Status: We have successfully completed our cut-over to the AD server for single-password au-thentication for our email server, AnyConnect VPN system, NOAO-Wifi “inside” wireless, Eduroam “roaming” wireless, server logins, and AD workstation logins. We will soon be in-stalling a new Barracuda SpamBuster appliance that will use this password for access to the quarantine box. In the not-so-distant future, we hope to work with AURA-CAS to use this pass-word for UltiPro, Web timesheets, and services such as Reqless and CASNet.

2.3 NOAO SYSTEM SCIENCE CENTER

The NOAO System Science Center (NSSC) operates a telescope time allocation process recognized nationally for its fairness and integrity for access to all NOAO-operated facilities and all facilities that offer open-access time via NOAO (e.g., Gemini, SMARTS). NSSC supports users of non-NOAO facilities (with particular focus on Gemini) and connects the astronomical community to ma-jor external development projects (e.g., LSST, TMT). NSSC also provides a robust set of data ar-chive and data processing services including desktop image processing systems support (e.g., IRAF), data calibration pipelines for wide-field imagers (e.g., Mosaic 1.1, NEWFIRM, DECam), and data management (e.g., capture, validation, and archiving of all raw data produced by NOAO-operated facilities, all data products from NOAO-operated calibration pipelines, and all data prod-ucts from NOAO Survey Programs). All data holdings are publicly available from the NOAO Sci-ence Archive following the designated proprietary period. With the advent of DECam, NSSC has stepped up to a petascale-level (“Big Data”) of data volume and complexity. For program manage-ment purposes, NSSC activities are separated into the following subprograms:

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• System User Support (SUS)

• Science Data Management (SDM)

• System Community Development (SCD)

• Time Allocation Committee (TAC)

2.3.1 System User Support

Program Highlights

Science

In Q3 there were two notable publications based on Gemini time and two different instruments that focused on planetary nebula (PN) evolution. Both have resulted in press releases.

The first paper focuses on PN central stars and their binarity. In the April 2015 issue of Monthly Notices of the RAS, De Marco et al. (2015, MNRAS, 448, 3587) use Kepler photometry and Gemini North-GMOS spectroscopy to further investigate this problem. GMOS spectra were used to deter-mine masses and luminosities. For some systems, repeat GMOS observations were used to deter-mine spectroscopic binary orbits. The GMOS image of one of the program objects, PN Kn 61, was featured in a Gemini press release (www.gemini.edu/node/11656).

Six PNe are known in the Kepler field. De Marco et al. were able to collect useful Kepler data on the central star in five of these systems. Of the five, one is the first known short-period post-common envelope binary exhibiting relativistic beaming. The second star has photometric variabil-ity consistent with an evolved companion. The third star is shown to be the product of a merger. The fourth has variability attributed to a binary. Variability was not detected for the fifth star stud-ied. These results suggest that there are many close binaries or close binary products among the central stars of PNe, but ultra-high-precision photometry would be required to detect them.

The second paper, by Manchado et al. (arXiv:1506.03712, ApJ, in press), deals with the high-spatial-resolution molecular structure of the Galactic PN NGC2346, whose images have been ac-quired with Gemini South and GSAOI-GeMS through the H2 on-and-off-band narrowband filter. The spectacular images, which are the PN images with the highest spatial resolution to date, give in-sight to the PN structure and the knot and filament formation. In particular, the improved resolution shows that the uniform torus around the PN geometrical center visible in past images is not a physi-cal structure but rather the effect of poor resolution. Hydrodynamic models have been developed to interpret the observed structure as well. Note that this second result is based on SV data for GSAOI. This publication was featured in an NOAO press release (www.noao.edu/news/2015/ pr1503.php).

Management and User Support

System User Support (SUS) staff supported the NOAO Time Allocation Committee (TAC) by per-forming technical reviews of Gemini proposals and answering technical questions during the TAC meetings and before the Gemini ITAC. SUS represented the US community at the Gemini Interna-tional Time Allocation Committee (ITAC). SUS has also kept the US community informed on new Gemini initiatives, such as the Large and Long Programs and the Fast Turnaround observing modes with Gemini, the “Future & Science of Gemini Observatory” meeting, and the AAS SUS workshop on near-IR data analysis.

SUS participated in the organization of the Toronto meeting, “Future & Science of Gemini Ob-servatory.” The SUS Head was a member of the Science Organizing Committee and the chair of the


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“Galactic Astronomy” and “Gemini Instrument Feasibility Studies (GIFS)” sessions of the meeting. She was invited to give a talk on the US vision for the future of Gemini operations, which included science highlights, most/least utilized instruments, and future instrument selection.

Finally, SUS has completed the NGO web page for data analysis (http://ast.noao.edu/ nssc/usngo).


• Provide effort in Q2–Q4 of FY15 toward post-observing support for Gemini observers per the expected continuing transfer to Gemini staff of Phase II support for US-led Gemini observing programs (which began as a test in semester 2014B): (1) By establishing data-analysis work-shops at the AAS, the first of which will be a near-IR reduction workshop, with other workshops of the series to be held on subjects based on specific feedback from users; (2) By establishing a dedicated website to provide supporting materials for post-data processing, with plans to include a guided example for Gemini Planet Imager data analysis and an expanded FAQ document for the Integral Field Unit and Nod-and-Shuffle mode of the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph.

Status: (1) The first NOAO/SUS workshop on data reduction at the AAS was a success; future workshops are planned at this time. (2) We are happy to report successful completion of the NGO data analysis web pages, including a portal and several linked examples and pages.

• Provide user support as needed for open-access, NOAO-allocated time on the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) array and the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT).

Status: 2015B support to the TAC members on technical issues was available on a one-to-one basis. The support included CHARA and AAT. We performed post-TAC technical reviews and joint NOAO-NASA reviews for 2015B approved proposals.

• Represent the US National Gemini Office (NGO) in the Gemini Operations Working Group and participate in the joint Gemini/NGO meetings to discuss all operation issues.

Status: The SUS head is preparing the report for the August 2015 Operations Working Group Meeting and will participate in the meeting as US representative.

• Represent the US National Gemini Office on the International Time Allocation Committee.

Status: Two US NGO Members participated in the ITAC and helped build the Gemini queue and classical schedules based on the scientific priorities elaborated by the NOAO TAC. We also contacted PIs of individual programs for alternate targets and conditions, as needed, and helped craft the final PI feedback with the TAC team.

• Host a workshop on Gemini data reduction during the January 2015 AAS meeting.

Status: The US NGO held a data reduction mini-workshop at the Seattle AAS meeting, the first of a series of mini-workshops with topics focused on reducing NOAO and Gemini observa-tions. Dick Joyce (NOAO) reviewed the basics with his talk, “An Introduction to Infrared De-tectors.” Rachel Mason’s (Gemini) talk, “Reducing GNIRS Cross-Dispersed Data” was on ex-tracting spectra from data collected by a Gemini instrument. The workshop was attended by ~40 people, mostly students. Future workshops will focus on topics based on the community feedback.

• Provide support (such as panel orientation materials and on-call support) to the Time Allocation Committee (TAC) for Gemini and other selected facilities offered through the NOAO Call for Proposals.

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Status: Completed.

• Provide technical reviews after both FY15 Time Allocation Committee meetings of all highly ranked programs to identify and eliminate technically infeasible programs.

Status: Completed.

2.3.2 Science Data Management

Program Highlights

Science Data Management (SDM) supports the data management needs of NOAO and its user community. Raw data from Kitt Peak, Cerro Tololo, and SOAR on Cerro Pachón are captured and archived in the NOAO Science Archive. Data from the NOAO wide-field imagers (DECam, Mosa-ic, and NEWFIRM) are processed through science pipelines, and the data products are archived. SDM continues to develop its major new initiative, the NOAO Data Lab, and also maintains the IRAF data reduction software.

The volume of data stored and served by the NOAO Science Archive (NSA) has grown dramat-ically since the start of operations with DECam in 2012. Roughly 75% of the 200+ TB of raw data in the Archive comes from DECam. More than 70% of the DECam data holdings are public (i.e., non-proprietary), including the first year of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and all data from the DECam Legacy Survey (DECaLS). Data calibrated by the DECam community pipeline are becoming a valuable resource not only to the original investigators but also to a wider archival user community. The first important publications based on public DES data downloaded from the NOAO Archive appeared this year, and many other users are accessing and retrieving public DECam data from the Archive.

During FY15, SDM worked on major “infrastructure” upgrades to the Archive and Portal, in particular updating third-party software and improving the future maintainability of the system. Ar-chive version 2.3.1, deployed into production in Q2, featured an improved Archive Download Man-ager, performance enhancements, and much-needed expansion of its limits on the search results and staging. Version 2.3.2 was deployed in Q3, including updates and corrections to 2.3.1. Version 2.4, with additional third-party software updates, was completed and tested but not deployed; its features are being rolled over into version 2.5, whose development was completed in Q3, with deployment scheduled for Q4. Version 2.5 will contain the remaining third-party software upgrades required by the Archive Infrastructure Plan and a redesigned query interface that will feature customized forms for accessing survey data, initially DES and DECaLS. Work is also ongoing to implement the dis-play of preview images for reduced data within the Portal.

In Q1, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) data management team delivered their first reduced and calibrated data products to NOAO, with further deliveries in Q2. These have been ingested into the Archive and are being served to the community. Another major DECam survey, DECaLS, uses the standard Community Pipeline reductions that are already publicly available in the NOAO Archive. The DECaLS team produced their Data Release 1 (DR1) in Q3, which is available from a dedicated server (http://legacysurvey.org); their coadded tile data products, including catalogs, have been de-livered to NOAO and will eventually be served through the NOAO Archive as well.

SDM continues to operate data processing pipelines for DECam, Mosaic, and NEWFIRM, and the reduced data products from all of these are archived. The last changes to the pODI Science Pipeline were completed in Q3, and all pODI data are being reprocessed for delivery to the Portal, Pipeline, and Archive (PPA) system at Indiana University.


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Updates to the NOAO Data Handbook were released in Q2 and Q3. The introductory chapter on NOAO data holdings and the Archive was thoroughly revised, along with revisions to the chapters on the Mosaic and NEWFIRM imagers. A new chapter on DECam was added, and another new chapter on the C/KOSMOS spectrographs was added in Q3. A chapter on the new CTIO Tri-pleSpec4 spectrograph will be added in the near future.

SDM staff and other NOAO scientists participated in the very successful Conceptual Design Review (CoDR) of the NOAO Data Lab, held in March 2015. A variety of documents were pre-pared for this review: Science Use Cases (SUC), Science Requirements Document (SRD), Opera-tional Concepts Document (OCD), Operational Requirements Document (ORD), System Architec-ture Document (SAD), and the Project Execution Plan (PEP) with associated Gantt chart. The Data Lab will provide services and interfaces for working with large, curated data sets, and in particular the massive catalogs from DES and other NOAO Survey Programs. The cumulative holdings of DECam data in the NOAO Science Archive are becoming an increasingly valuable resource for ar-chival research and already cover a significant fraction of the southern and equatorial sky (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Map of DECam data in the NOAO Science Archive as of March 2015. The color scale represents exposure time (in any/all DECam filters) at each position, on a logarithmic scale, from a minimum exposure time of 30 seconds. (Image credit: Knut Olsen/NOAO.)


• Continue operation in Q1–Q4 of FY15 of the NOAO data management system including data capture, transport, archiving, and user access to all NOAO-observed data. Routinely pipeline process and archive all Mosaic, NEWFIRM, and DECam data products. Continue support for the data handling systems for Mosaic, NEWFIRM, KOSMOS, and COSMOS.

Status: The NOAO data management system continued to operate smoothly with no major is-sues or failures reported. Data from all NOAO telescopes/instruments flowed expeditiously into the Archive as they were observed, and Mosaic, NEWFIRM, DECam, and pODI data were re-

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duced by NOAO pipelines shortly thereafter. All pipeline-reduced data were archived in the NSA excluding the pODI data, which were archived in the Indiana PPA system. Also, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) reduced single frames delivered by the Dark Energy Survey Data Man-agement (DESDM) team were ingested into the NSA, as well as millions of raw NOAO observa-tions from 2004 through 2008 that had not been previously ingested.

• Collect all Dark Energy Survey (DES) first-year single-frame reduced images from the DES survey team, reformat the images and their metadata as necessary, and archive them in the NOAO Science Archive during Q1 of FY15.

Status: All year one DES single-frame reduced images, excluding the supernovae observations, were delivered to SDM by the DES survey team in Q1 and immediately upon receipt were reformatted and archived into the NOAO Science Archive. The DES supernovae observations were received in Q2 and processed upon receipt.

• Complete the automation of the components of the data management system (i.e., data capture, data archive, user administration, system monitoring, and system alerts) during Q1–Q3 of FY15 for easier deployment of system upgrades and new releases of system components.

Status: Puppet configuration management was used heavily for the automatic deployment of NSA v2.3.1 in Q2 and NSA v2.3.2 in Q3. NSA v2.5, which contains the remaining upgrades and enhancements defined in the Archive Infrastructure Plan, was delivered and tested in Q3 and is scheduled for deployment in Q4. The deployment will be simplified by the efforts of the archive development team to bring the development systems more closely in alignment with the archive production system, as well as the automation provided by Puppet configuration management.

• Migrate the NOAO Survey Archive data sets to the NOAO Science Archive (remediating survey data headers as needed) and implement the Portal interface changes necessary for search and re-trieval of Survey data sets during Q2–Q3 of FY15.

Status: Emphasis was placed on the archive of the DES year one reduced single-frame data and preparation for archiving the DECaLS reduced data sets. The older data sets from the Survey Archive will begin ingestion into the Science Archive in late FY15. A new page for the Archive user interface (Portal) that will be deployed in NSA v2.5 has been designed to facilitate the easy discovery of the enhanced Survey data products.

• Upgrade the pODI pipeline during Q2–Q3 of FY15 to support the 5 × 5 upgrade of the pODI in-strument.

Status: The Wisconsin-developed pODI Quick Reduce pipeline that runs on the PPA system at Indiana University was updated to support the upgraded ODI instrument. The last upgrades for the pODI pipeline developed at NOAO were completed in Q3, and a final processing run of all pODI data began in the same quarter. Reduced pODI data are delivered to Indiana University for ingestion into the PPA system as they are processed.

• Implement the SDM Archive Infrastructure Upgrade Plan over Q1–Q4 of FY15.

Status: The evaluation and deployment of the NOAO Archive System v2.3.1 was completed dur-ing Q2, which included the first major steps of the infrastructure upgrade. Version 2.4 was de-livered and tested by the QA engineer in Q2, but it was not planned for release into production. Development of v2.5 was completed and evaluated in Q3 including the upgrade of the last major


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third-party package, Postgres 9.3. With the deployment of v2.5 in Q4, the Archive Infrastruc-ture Upgrade Plan will be completed.

• Prepare the Operations Concept, Operations Requirements, and System Architecture documents and presentations in support of the Conceptual Design Review of the Data Lab and develop the Data Lab Project Execution Plan during Q1–Q2 of FY15.

Status: All Data Lab documents—including the SUC, SRD, OCD, ORD, SAD, PEP, and associ-ated Gantt chart—were completed in early March in preparation for the Data Lab CoDR in mid-March. The response from the review panel was very positive. In Q3 the Project Execution Plan and Gantt chart were modified according to the recommendations received from the re-view panel.

• Develop an implementation of VOSpace and support the SMASH and Bulge projects, especially in the area of tools for catalog visualization and analysis during Q2–Q3 of FY15.

Status: The Java feature-complete implementation of VOSpace was demonstrated for the Data Lab CoDR Review Panel in Q2 and the NOAO Users Committee in Q3 with very positive re-sponses from both groups. During Q3, implementations of multiple data services (using DALServer and CADC code frameworks) were prototyped in support of Data Publication. Work continues in Q4 to build and deploy catalog services using the DECaLS DRI and SMASH catalogs.

2.3.3 System Community Development

Program Highlights

LSST Science

System Community Development (SCD) scientists, in collaboration with the Science Data Man-agement (SDM) group, completed the conceptual work for the NOAO Data Lab in FY15. The pur-pose of the Data Lab will be to help users efficiently explore and analyze the large data sets and cat-alogs being generated by NOAO’s wide-field instruments, with particular emphasis on DECam-based catalogs and images. NOAO’s current DECam holdings include object frames totaling more than 360 TB of data covering nearly the entire sky, and the holdings will at least double in size over the next few years. The Data Lab concept is to allow users to access and work with the large cata-logs associated with these data sets, explore the pixels associated with catalog objects in an efficient way, coordinate work with collaborators on large data sets, and run custom workflows close to the large data sets themselves.

The concept was reviewed by a Conceptual Design Review (CoDR) panel during March 16-17, 2015, by panel members Dr. Lisa Storrie-Lombardi (IPAC, Chair), Séverin Gaudet (NRC/CADC), Dr. Constance Rockosi (UCSC), Dr. Beth Willman (Haverford College), and Dr. Željko Ivezić (U. Washington/LSST). The review panel strongly endorsed the Data Lab concept, while recommend-ing that the Data Lab team focus on delivering the core data and catalog access and exploration ser-vices before developing more complex services such as custom user workflows. These priorities have been adopted in the revised Data Lab Project Execution Plan. Work began on the infrastruc-ture needed to support the Data Lab, including the virtual storage service, the database implementa-tion, and data access mechanisms. Work was also done on preparing and ingesting prototype cata-logs for Data Lab service development, including the USNO-A2, USNO-B1, DECaLS DR1, and SMASH catalogs.

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The ongoing collaboration between NOAO and the University of Arizona Computer Science Department to build a prototype software infrastructure to characterize and distribute events discov-ered by time-domain surveys made great progress in FY15. The Arizona-NOAO Temporal Analysis and Response to Events System (ANTARES) was funded with an award to the University of Arizo-na from the NSF in September 2013 (CISE AST-1344024). In Q1, NOAO scientists used the Ridg-way et al. (2014, ApJ, 796, 53) variability model to develop a method to quantitatively estimate how unusual a brightness change for a Galactic star would be based on empirical variability studies and Galactic structure models. By the end of Q3, the Galaxy model and software to make these quanti-tative estimates was complete. This research and implications for the Broker processing of the LSST alert stream were presented at the 2015 conference, “Hot-Wiring the Transient Universe IV.” In addition, throughout FY15, NOAO scientists continued to design, populate, and cross-match cata-logs that will be used to provide ancillary data for alerts processed by the software system. During Q3 and Q4, we also explored two filtering algorithms that will be used to categorize alerts based on observed and annotated features. A prototype of the system, with all major software components operational including Galactic variability, was completed in Q3, and a demonstration of the ANTARES capabilities was presented to various oversight committees and at several conferences in Q3 and Q4. We have initiated steps through these conferences to solicit and incorporate community concepts on filtering and categorization.

NOAO staff prepared white papers in support of the Data Lab, ANTARES, and other communi-ty and NOAO-related LSST issues: 1) “The LSST Alert System Forced Photometry Requirement,” 2) “Quality Control in Big Data Analysis,” 3) “The NOAO Variable Sky Project and Implications for the ANTARES Project,” 4) “An Optimized Cadence for LSST: The Optimum Unit Method, Re-quirements for Variable Target Science with Data Lab,” and 5) “Science Interfaces to Big Data.”

NOAO staff continue to closely follow the development of LSST scheduling metrics and to rep-resent community interests in their specification and testing. NOAO staff participated in the Scien-tific Organizing Committee for the August 2015 LSST Observing Strategy Workshop and partici-pated in planning the objectives and in organizing the program.

Finally, NOAO hosted a workshop, “Tools for Astronomical Big Data,” on 9–11 March 2015 in Tucson to survey the state of the art in addressing the challenges of conducting research with large astronomical data sets. Topics covered by the workshop included 1) the visualization of large data sets, 2) a survey of efficient algorithms for processing large data sets, 3) the efficient development of, and interaction with, large databases, and 4) the use of “machine learning” methodologies to ex-plore the properties of large data sets. The 2.5-day program included 26 presentations in a 50/50 mix of invited vs. contributed talks; posters were also presented. All talks are available online at the NOAO workshop website (www.noao.edu/meetings/bigdata/). The attendance included 130 partici-pants, which greatly exceeded the target of 80 attendees. The activities of the workshop were also broadcast by energetic “tweeting” among the participants. Overall, it was clear that there are now several software solutions available for sophisticated viewing of large, multidimensioned data sets. The community has also embraced a suite of algorithmic or machine learning methods to classify structure or identify interesting elements of large data sets. Those attending were highly enthusias-tic about the program and expressed a strong desire to make this a regular event.

TMT Community Outreach

2015 is the third year of a five-year cooperative agreement between the NSF and the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) Observatory Corporation, whose aim is to engage the US astronomy community in planning for potential NSF investment and participation in the TMT project. AURA is an associ-ate member of the TMT International Observatory, LLC (TIO), with representation on the TIO


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Board and the TMT Science Advisory Committee (SAC). NOAO is charged with executing the re-sponsibilities and participation activities of AURA in TMT and has established a US TMT Liaison office for this purpose. NOAO has formed a US TMT Science Working Group (SWG), consisting of astronomers spanning a range of scientific expertise, drawn from US non-TMT partner institutions. The SWG is charged with engaging with others in the astronomical community about US participa-tion in TMT and with considering models for that participation and how it may shape TMT opera-tions, instrumentation, data management, and other issues. The SWG is preparing a US TMT Sci-ence Plan, which is one element of a US National TMT Participation Plan to be delivered to the NSF as the product of the NSF-TMT cooperative agreement.

Mark Dickinson from NOAO chairs the US TMT SWG. In FY15, the SWG has focused on draft-ing its report to the NSF. In Q1 of FY15, the US TMT SWG carried out an online survey aimed primarily at the US astronomical community, asking about priorities for TMT regarding scientific programs, instrumentation, data management, operations modes, time allocation, and the potential level of US federal investment in the project. 467 people responded to this survey, and the SWG is using this information as input to its report for the NSF. The SWG met face-to-face in Seattle dur-ing the AAS meeting in January, and again in Washington, DC, before the TMT Science Forum in June. A draft of the US TMT Participation Plan will be submitted to the NSF during Q3 of FY15, and the final report is planned for the end of CY2015. NOAO communicates TMT-related news through articles in the NOAO Newsletter and the NOAO Currents electronic newsletter.

NOAO and TMT organized a TMT Open House at the January 2015 AAS meeting. This in-cluded short presentations by Michael Bolte (UCSC) on the TMT project status and Mark Dickinson (NOAO) on the SWG’s community liaison activities, including a summary of results from the SWG’s US community survey about TMT (carried out in Q1 of FY15). There was a question and answer period, followed by informal but structured “breakout discussions” with the audience on var-ious TMT-related topics, led by members of the US TMT SWG and TMT staff astronomers. This event drew an audience of approximately 350 participants.

Dickinson chaired the Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) for the 2015 TMT Science Fo-rum, which was held in Washington, DC on June 23–25 at the headquarters of the American Associ-ation for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and at the Mayflower Renaissance Hotel. The TMT Forum is an annual conference that gathers scientists from the international TMT collaboration. It is also the best opportunity for US-at-large astronomers to learn about and to get involved with TMT—the NSF provides support for US community members to attend the meeting through its co-operative agreement with TMT. About 140 participants, including 82 from the US-at-large commu-nity, attended the 2015 TMT Forum, which featured invited science presentations; discussion ses-sions on issues of TMT operations and instrumentation, education, outreach, and workforce devel-opment; and a full day of topical parallel working sessions organized by the TMT International Sci-ence Development Teams (ISDTs).

Dickinson also chairs TMT’s Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC). He organized the SAC’s meetings in Pasadena (October and April 2015), Seattle (January 2015), and Washington, DC (June 2015), and he has reported on the SAC meetings and activities at meetings of the TMT International Observatory (TIO) Board of Governors.

TMT solicited applications for new membership in the TMT International Science Development Teams (ISDTs), topical science groups that aid and advise the TMT project and that serve as a way to build an international community of scientists among the TMT partners. NOAO advertised this opportunity to the US community, which contributed the largest number of new applications. 56 US

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astronomers from institutions other than Caltech or UC are now ISDT members, making up 28% of the total.

Optical Interferometry Science

Four community programs, recommended by the NOAO TAC, have been accepted for the CHARA Array 2015 observing program and will be integrated into the CHARA schedule. The NOAO-CHARA agreement for community access has been extended through calendar year 2016.

NOAO staff continue to consult on the CHARA adaptive optics (AO) upgrade, as Phase I of the implementation nears completion and as prototyping of Phase II recently demonstrated high-order correction of atmospheric aberrations at 700 nm. AO promises a higher science throughput, with more useful nights, improved limiting sensitivity, and higher data quality.


LSST Science

• Create in Q1 of FY15 the foundational document set needed to form the Conceptual Design of the NOAO Data Lab: Science User Case, Science Requirements, Operations Concept, Opera-tions Requirements, System Architecture, and Project Execution Plan.

Status: Completed. All documents were shared with the Conceptual Design Review panel and with the NSF in March 2015. With the exception of the Project Execution Plan, all are publicly available at http://datalab.noao.edu.

• Hold a Conceptual Design Review of the NOAO Data Lab in Q2 of FY15 with a panel of exter-nal reviewers.

Status: Completed. The CoDR panel strongly endorsed the Data Lab concept and recommended that it proceed, with some recommendations for reprioritization. These recommendations were outlined in a report received by NOAO in April 2015. The Data Lab team’s response to the re-port was delivered to the CoDR panel in May 2015.

• Develop prototype Data Lab capabilities during Q1–Q4 of FY15 using two community-led DECam observational programs: the SMASH (PI: D. Nidever) and Galactic Bulge (PI: A. Saha) surveys.

Status: Ongoing.

• Create a prototype database in Q1 of FY15 of astronomical knowledge from multiwavelength catalogs for the Arizona-NOAO Temporal Analysis and Response to Events System (ANTARES).

Status: Prototype database created. Development and augmentation occurred throughout FY15 and will be an ongoing effort.

• Develop software in Q2 of FY15 to generate variability probability distributions based on posi-tion on the sky.

Status: Algorithms, models, and software to generate probability distributions completed in Q3.

• Create initial tools in Q3 of FY15 for generating a synthetic alert stream.

Status: The foundation for building these tools was laid in Q3. Progress on completing this milestone was delayed, as development of the working prototype software system moved ahead of it in the schedule. Work on generating a synthetic alert stream will continue in FY16.


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• Define the structure and algorithms for the first stage of alert filtering by the Arizona-NOAO Temporal Analysis and Response to Events System (ANTARES) during Q3–Q4 of FY15.

Status: Two different algorithm schemes for filtering were tested in Q3 and Q4.

• Write and distribute in Q1 of FY15 the report from the “LSST & NOAO Observing Cadences Workshop.”

Status: Complete. The report is available at https://project.lsst.org/meetings/ocw/sites/lsst.org.meetings.ocw/files/ 2014CadenceWorkshopReport.pdf.

• Hold a workshop in Q3 of FY15 on “Practical Big Data.”

Status: Completed.

• Write and distribute in Q4 of FY15 the report from the “Practical Big Data” workshop.

Status: A draft report will be completed by the end of Q4.

TMT Community Outreach

• Lead the activities of the US TMT Science Working Group (SWG). This consists of the TMT li-aison maintaining and updating the SWG membership, helping to set its agenda, and organizing monthly (or as needed) teleconferences and face-to-face meetings at the TMT Science Forum and at other occasions as needed.

Status: The US TMT SWG continues its activities, meeting periodically by telecon and in person in January and June 2015.

• Direct the US TMT Science Working Group (SWG) in producing a draft of the US TMT Partic-ipation Plan for the NSF in Q2 of FY15.

Status: The SWG is now completing the draft of the US TMT Participation Plan and plans to de-liver it to NSF in Q3.

• Organize and attend (as chair) quarterly TMT Science Advisory Committee (SAC) meetings, organize regular teleconferences of the TMT SAC co-chairs, participate (remotely, as SAC chair) in weekly TMT project meetings, and participate in weekly teleconferences with the TMT-NOAO community engagement group.

Status: As TMT SAC Chair, Dickinson has organized and attended the SAC meeting in Pasade-na (October 2015), Seattle (January 2015), and Washington, DC (June 2015), and the subse-quent TIO Board meetings in Hawaii (October) and Pasadena (February, April, July). He or-ganizes telecons of the TMT SAC co-chairs and participates regularly in the TMT project meet-ings and in TMT-NOAO community engagement telecons.

• Participate in the organization of a TMT Town Hall event at the January 2015 American Astro-nomical Society (AAS) meeting and in the planning of a subsequent Town Hall in January 2016.

Status: NOAO and TMT organized a TMT Open House event at the January 2015 AAS meeting, with presentations and audience discussion, attended by approximately 350 people.

• Participate in the organization of the third annual TMT Science Forum, nominally to be held sometime in the summer of 2015. Working with the TMT US Science Working Group (SWG), identify and encourage members of the US community to attend the Forum.

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Status: The 2015 TMT Science Forum was held in Washington, DC, 23-25 June 2015. There were 138 participants, including 82 from US institutions outside the TMT partnership.

Optical Interferometry Science

• Negotiate during Q2–Q3 of FY15 for community access in 2016 to the Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) array and provide required support to community users of the 2015 CHARA time and the NOAO time allocation process throughout FY15.

Status: The CHARA/NOAO agreement to offer community access through the NOAO TAC has been extended, offering 5–7 nights in 2016. TAC-recommended programs for 2015 have been scheduled, and support by NOAO staff will be available as needed.

2.3.4 Time Allocation Committee

Program Highlights

The TAC process was completed successfully for semesters 2015A and 2015B, with planning for 2016A now in progress and on schedule. Observing semester 2015A began on 1 February 2015 and ended on 31 July 2015. The NOAO TAC processed 328 new proposals for 2015A, requesting 769 nights on 13 telescopes located on 6 sites, with 432 nights available through NOAO. Semester 2015B saw the user community submit 298 new unique proposals, requesting 706 nights on 12 tele-scopes located on 5 sites, with 407 nights available through NOAO.

NOAO Tucson managed the second annual meeting of the Gemini Large Program (GLP) TAC panel (the first of which met in April 2014 in Tucson), which met in Tucson from 29–30 April 2015, overlapping with the NOAO Survey Science meeting, which met on 28 April 2015. The GLP TAC consisted of nine astronomers from the participating Gemini partners (six from the US, two from Canada, and one from Argentina), and this group reviewed and ranked 24 large and/or long pro-posals for the Gemini telescopes. The demand for this time is high (up to 20% of participating part-ner’s time is available to this program), with requested time exceeding potentially available time by a factor of 5.5. Seven Gemini Large Programs were scheduled as a result of the first call in 2014.

The annual NOAO Survey Science Meeting was held in Tucson on 28 April 2015. The princi-pal investigators, or their designates, presented scientific results and progress reports on 12 currently running NOAO Survey Programs.

The 2016A NOAO Call for Proposals will be released and available on the NOAO website on 1 September 2015, with the proposal deadline being 30 September 2015 at 11:59 pm MST.


• Work with SUS to issue calls for proposals for regular programs (twice a year) and survey pro-grams (once a year).

Status: Successfully completed.

• Coordinate with SUS and non-federal observatories to provide timely technical reviews of the proposals.

Status: Technical reviews were carried out for all US Gemini programs forwarded to the Gemi-ni Observatory for scheduling on the telescopes.


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• Convene Time Allocation Committee (TAC) panels twice a year to review the proposals and provide recommendations to the NOAO director.

Status: Successfully completed, with the TAC panels meeting in Tucson from 3–7 November 2014 for Semester 2015A and from 4–8 May 2015 for Semester 2015B.

• Keep the membership of the TAC panels current and ensure that they include the expertise re-quired to review the scientific and technical aspects of the proposals.

Status: Successfully completed.

• Work with the federal and non-federal observatories to prioritize and schedule the approved proposals.

Status: Successfully completed for semesters 2015A and 2015B.

• Ensure timely announcements of the results of the time allocation process.

Status: Notices (via email) to proposal principal investigators and co-investigators were sent out on 15 December 2014 for Semester 2015A and 15 June 2015 for Semester 2015B.

• If advised by the NOAO director, manage an NOAO Survey Call for Proposals and convene a Survey TAC during FY15.

Status: Due to the amount of telescope time committed to currently ongoing NOAO Survey Pro-grams, the decision was made to not issue an NOAO Survey Call for 2015.

• Work with the Gemini Observatory to implement a Gemini Large Program international TAC panel that is managed by NOAO as part of the overall time allocation process.

Status: Successfully completed, with the second annual call for Gemini Large and Long Pro-grams. This panel met in Tucson on 29–30 April 2015.

2.4 NOAO SYSTEM TECHNOLOGY CENTER

Program Highlights

The NOAO System Technology Center (NSTC) is responsible for NOAO’s engagement in techno-logical enhancements to the US Ground-Based Optical/Infrared System (System). NSTC carries out technical activities needed to realize new telescope projects or to enhance the instrument comple-ments on existing System telescopes operated by NOAO or other entities. NSTC is supported through a combination of NOAO’s base budget and supplemental awards such as the Renewing Small Telescopes for Astronomical Research (ReSTAR) award from NSF.

The primary result achieved by NSTC during FY15 was the completion of the TripleSpec4 pro-ject under the ReSTAR program (see milestone reports below). With the delivery and commission-ing of this final ReSTAR instrument, NSTC has completed its portfolio of work and will be discon-tinued as an NOAO reporting center as of the end of FY15.


• Deliver the fully integrated detector-controller subsystems for TripleSpec4 to Cornell University for incorporation into the instrument during laboratory integration.

Status: Completed. The system was delivered to Cornell in January 2015 and installed in the instrument with the support of visiting NOAO engineering staff in February 2015.

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• Receive the fully assembled and tested TripleSpec4 instrument at the Blanco 4-m telescope.

Status: Completed. Instrument was received at CTIO in April 2015.

• Complete commissioning of TripleSpec4 on the Blanco telescope and release the instrument for scientific use by the US astronomical community.

Status: Will be complete by the end of FY15. TripleSpec4 had successfully completed two com-missioning runs by 3 July 2015. The instrument will be offered to the US astronomical commu-nity for regular observing in the next call for proposals.

• Provide oversight for two TSIP instrumentation projects still underway (Binospec: a multi-object, dual-beam spectrograph for MMT being built by the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard-Smithsonian; and KCWI: an optical integral field spectrograph for Keck) and ensure completion and close-out of both TSIP project subawards by the end of FY15.

Status: Continuing as planned. Monthly progress reports were received from both projects, and follow-up status teleconferences were held with both as well. Both projects are progressing to-wards completion, although neither will be completed by the end of FY15. NOAO will request a no-cost extension of the TSIP award into FY16 and provide no-cost extensions under that au-thority to the projects. KCWI is now projected to be complete in November 2015, and Binospec is likely to be complete sometime in Q3 of FY16 (a detailed schedule review is underway by the Binospec team as of this writing).

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3 NOAO-WIDE PROGRAMS

3.1 OFFICE OF SCIENCE

Program Highlights

At the request of scientific staff members, the Office of Science (OS) resurrected the traditional Monday morning science discussion in Tucson. In the revamped format, we have had weekly re-views of recent press releases and special contributions from the scientific staff. The latter include reviews of scientific papers of interest and meetings attended as well as discussions of science re-sults and work in progress. The feedback has been positive, with some postdocs commenting that the format is a valuable way for them to interact in a more formal way with the rest of the scientific staff.

OS has also

• organized postdoc farewell events for all staff to celebrate the achievements of our de-parting postdocs and to wish them well;

• assisted in recruiting and interviewing candidates for the NSSDC Associate Director po-sition;

• written press releases and articles for the e-newsletter Currents that communicate NOAO science results to the public and to the astronomical community;

• solicited and edited Science Highlights articles for the NOAO Newsletter;

• recruited and scheduled Steward Observatory/NOAO Joint Colloquium Series speakers for Fall 2015.


This activity has no programmatic milestones beyond standard administrative tasks (e.g., expendi-ture monitoring and reporting).

3.2 EDUCATION AND PUBLIC OUTREACH

Program Highlights

NOAO educational outreach programs have been highly productive. NOAO staff organized and cochaired three sessions at the American Geophysical Union meeting on citizen science and teacher preparation for authentic sci-ence research. NOAO was selected for its kit develop-ment expertise to create an International Year of Light (IYL) 2015 teaching kit on quality lighting. These kits will be distributed worldwide through IAU, SPIE, and the International Dark Sky Association. NOAO’s Globe at Night program was also selected as an IYL corner-stone project. Under IAU sponsorship, NOAO staff at-tended the opening ceremonies for the IYL2015 at the UNESCO Paris headquarters. NOAO’s dark skies pro-grams in Arizona received excellent evaluations by an

Public Outreach Information Requests & Inquiries

(9 months ending 6/30/15)

Type/Origin of Request Number

Information requests/inquiries about astronomy/science (phone calls, e-mails, and walk-ins/requests for posters, bookmarks, brochures, etc.

435

Requests and inquiries for use of NOAO images 876

TOTAL 1311

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outside evaluator, and our annual review of NOAO EPO programs North and South will be held with an outside review committee on September 9 and 10. NOAO South EPO programs have worked vigorously to help establish astronomy programs in national parks and in areas of IV Región de Coquimbo to promote eco-tourism and preservation of the heritage of the night sky. NOAO South EPO staff are collaborating with El Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA, The Center for Advanced Studies of Arid Zones) and Corporación Nacional Forestal (CONAF, The National Forest Corporation) on a project in the National Park “Fray Jorge” (a Starlight Reserve). The project supports the development of a sustainable tourism model based on scientific knowledge.

Support for the tourist observatories near CTIO has also been an ongoing professional develop-ment and support effort. The first annual Picetti Award was given by AURA to long-time NOAO educational collaborator Padre Juan Batista Picetti, the founder of the Observatorio Cerro Mayu in the Elqui Valley. NOAO was a co-organizer of the first Chile-US Astronomy Education Summit, which saw 40 specialists in formal and informal education discuss for one week the future of astron-omy education in Chile.

The Teaching with Telescopes program continued to provide support for formal and informal education programs conducted with the Galileoscope. The Galileoscope project was named a cor-nerstone project for the International Year of Light, and large numbers of telescopes were donated to teachers as part of the project’s efforts. Over 220,000 Galileoscopes have been bought since the project originated under the International Year of Astronomy 2009.

A highly respected member of the group, Dr. K. Garmany, will be retiring at the end of August. She is a past president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). Another EPO staff mem-ber, Dr. C. Walker, serves as current president of the ASP. The EPO department head continues his work as head of the TMT Workforce, Education, Public Outreach, and Communications working group, under the NSF grant. An extensive evaluation of the educational infrastructure for the CTIO Visitor Center and for the astronomy teaching center, Centro de Apoyo a la Didáctica de la As-tronomía (CADIAS), was completed in Q3. The evaluation is being used in planning for renovations and improvements. The Public Information Office coordinates the work of film crews and other me-dia representatives on Kitt Peak and has been busy with an independent film crew and a BBC film crew. The level of effort in this media area continues to increase.

EPO Undergraduate Mentoring and Outreach Program: The EPO students supported sever-al educational events on average each week, including a Tucson citywide optics festival, the Sells Rodeo and Fair, science fairs on the Tohono O’odham Nation, star parties, and educational sessions at the Cooper Center for Environmental Learning. They also conducted a survey of NOAO outdoor lighting and participated in several research programs on sky brightness measurements and proto-cols.

Dark Skies Education: The Dark Skies Education program continued its weekly work with the Cooper Center for Environmental Education in Tucson, which serves public school children. The NOAO dark skies programs have been a mainstay of the night programs at the center. NOAO also was focused on completing the development of the International Year of Light (IYL2015) Quality Lighting Teaching Program (funded by IAU and the OSA Foundation). A prototype kit, finished at the end of April, was designed for use in a middle school classroom for an hour a day for several weeks. NOAO EPO staff conducted focus group meetings with teachers on the activities. About a dozen classrooms were visited to test the activities at 5th grade, middle school, and high school lev-els. The revised kit, almost completed, will be used in afterschool programs as well as classrooms. The goal of the accompanying Quality Lighting Teaching Kit is to increase student and public awareness of light pollution issues and quality lighting solutions. To accomplish this we use an


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online tutorial and Google+ Hangout On Air for instructor professional development. The teaching kit includes all teaching materials for the hands-on activities. The six activities allow students to solve realistic cases on how light pollution affects wildlife, the night sky, our aging eyes, energy consumption, safety, and light trespass into buildings. An article on this and the other IYL2015 “Cosmic Light”–themed programs was written for the AAS Spark newsletter.

NOAO EPO helped to host Global Astronomy Month in April through a Globe at Night chal-lenge to 5,000 locations where an observation has been made but where there hasn’t been a new one in the last five years. The 6th International Earth and Sky Photo Contest, which highlighted the natu-ral beauty of the night sky and its growing battle with light pollution, was also co-hosted by NOAO. The 10 winners of the 2016 contest, selected from about 1,000 entries, were from China, Iceland, Malaysia, Russia, South Africa, and the United States. The Globe at Night citizen-science campaign on monitoring light pollution continued for 10 moonless evenings each month.

A poster and paper were presented at both the “Light Pollution: Theory, Modeling and Meas-urements” conference, May 26–28, and the “Artificial Light at Night” conference, May 29–31, both in the province of Quebec, Canada. EPO staff members are involved in the IAU General Assembly Focus Meeting on light pollution, scheduled for August 11–13.

Colors of Nature: The NSF Advancing Informal STEM Learning “Project STEAM: Integrating Art with Science to Build Science Identities among Girls” continued with curriculum refinement meetings held regularly by video among the participants. The project, a collaboration of NOAO, the University of Alaska’s Geophysical Institute, and the University of Washington–Bothell, has devel-oped design challenges, extensive curricular materials, and professional development materials for informal science educators, including Girl Scout leaders and museum professionals. In October, the Tucson Summer Academy students had a reunion and field trip to Kitt Peak National Observatory, which included a tour of the Mayall 4-m telescope and a star party. A paper on the research results of the project was presented at the National Association for Research on Science Teaching in April, and an invited paper on the project was presented at the international Education and Training in Op-tics and Photonics (ETOP) 2015 meeting in June. During mid-June, for two weeks, EPO staff and students supported the NSF-sponsored two-week Colors of Nature Summer Academy for 30 upper elementary and lower middle school girls in Tucson. The girls explored the colors of nature through the lens of art and science and integrated the concepts that they learned in designing costumes illus-trating the functional uses of color for their final project. At the end of the Summer Academy, the girls exhibited their costumes for their families and the public in the lobby of the College of Optical Sciences building on the University of Arizona campus. The Summer Academy was oversubscribed by a factor of 3. The University of Alaska Summer Academy, supported by NOAO, is July 6–17.

Tohono O’odham Education and Outreach: NOAO staff set up a solar telescope at Sells El-ementary School on October 23 for students in the after-school program to observe the partial solar eclipse. Approximately 80 students and staff observed the eclipse. NOAO staff also built kaleido-scopes with students at Sells Elementary on November 26 as part of the Indian Day celebration. EPO staff co-taught an elementary astronomy course at Tohono O’odham Community College (TOCC). The class of 14 had a culminating visit to Kitt Peak, where they used the 0.9-m telescope to take images and visited other telescopes.

EPO staff also met the Edna Morris, the new superintendent of the Baboquivari School District (on the Tohono O’odham Nation), at Kitt Peak and discussed areas of collaboration. NOAO staff led a star party at TOCC on April 15 in cooperation with the TOCC AISES Chapter. Approximately 60 people attended the star party, which featured hands-on activities, dinner, and telescope observing. NOAO staff had a booth at the TOCC Career fair on April 17. The Tohono O’odham Open House

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was held on Kitt Peak the night of May 2. Approximately 400 members of the Nation attend-ed. NOAO staff supported Career Day at Sells Middle School on May 15. Three students from the Tohono O’odham Nation were accepted into and attended the Colors of Nature Summer Academy in Tucson in June. NOAO arranged for free transportation for these students from the Nation to the University of Arizona Art Department building, where the program was held.

EPO Student Outreach Events: EPO students were active running star parties, darks skies ed-ucation sessions, building and testing educational kits, and supporting science fairs. During mid-April the EPO students and staff supported the star party and career fair at the TOCC, as well as a career fair at Baboquivari Unified School District #40 Middle School in Sells. EPO students were also vital to the success of the Project ASTRO Spring Workshop. At the beginning of May, EPO students and staff supported the Tohono O’odham Open House on Kitt Peak with a UV bead activi-ty, solar observing, and night observing. At the end of June, EPO student and staff led a comet-making session at the Steve Daru Boys & Girls Club clubhouse in Tucson. One EPO student is graduating; she will be pursuing a Ph.D. in astronomy at the University of Maryland. Another stu-dent presented his astronomy research work done with a high school astronomy club at the AAS winter meeting.

Project ASTRO: The Project Astro Spring Workshop was held at NOAO in April. For this end-of-the-school-year workshop, 18 teachers and astronomers attended. The participants built Galileo-scopes and learned the principles behind telescopes. They also learned about upcoming sky events and had a star party. The year’s Project ASTRO Site Leaders Meeting was held at the ASP Head-quarters April 23–25 and attended by the NOAO Project ASTRO coordinator. NOAO staff updated the national network on our program and worked with other site leaders on activities related to the Next Generation Science Standards.

Teaching With Telescopes: The Galileoscope program has produced over 220,000 student tele-scope kits distributed worldwide, and NOAO continues to supply professional development materi-als online. Under sponsorship from the Mississippi Academy for Science Teaching, an NOAO staff member presented an all-day workshop on June 2, followed by a Galileoscope Star Party. The se-cond day also focused on Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) activities related to the dis-tance scale of the universe. The Galileoscope project has been named a core project for the Interna-tional Year of Light 2015 as part of the Cosmic Light Awareness cornerstone project and was repre-sented at the IYL2015 opening ceremonies.

Research Experiences for Undergraduates: Site Program at Kitt Peak National Observato-ry (PI: K. Mighell, Co-PI: D. Silva), NSF AST-126289

The six 2015 KPNO REU students are Rose Gibson, Logan Jones, Elizabeth Juelfs, Jacklyn Pezzato, Erik Sandberg, and Tayeb Zaidi. They started working at NOAO North on June 1. On June 24, the KPNO and NSO REU students had a day trip to KPNO where they visited the WIYN 3.5-m telescope, the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, and the Mayall 4-m telescope. The 2015 KPNO REU Lecture series has had six talks:

(1) 06/04/2015: Dave Silva (NOAO), "An Introduction to the National Optical Astronomy Observa-tory"

(2) 06/09/2015: Knut Olsen (NOAO), "New Views of the Magellanic Clouds"


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(3) 06/16/2015: Gautham Narayan (NOAO), "If You Only Knew the Power of the Dark Side: A Tale of Exploding Stars, an Expanding Universe, and a Mysterious Force"

(4) 06/18/2015: Yancy Shirley (University of Arizona), "True Grit: Discovering the Progenitors of Stars & Planets Using Dust Emission Surveys"

(5) 06/23/2015: Lori Allen (NOAO), "Measuring the Size Distribution of Near-Earth Asteroids"

(6) 06/25/2015: Katy Garmany (NOAO), "Kitt Peak and the Tohono O'odham"

On June 26, the 2015 KPNO REU students started a seven-night observation run at the WIYN 0.9-m telescope at KPNO. Each of the 2015 KPNO REU students has or will get three nights of ob-serving time with the Half-Degree Imager (HDI) CCD camera at the 0.9-m.

NOAO South Education & Outreach In October, the NOAO South EPO team collaborated with Explora-CONICYT to organize the local “Week of Science,” which includes events such as visits by outstanding students to CTIO labs and telescopes, participation in public fairs in La Serena and Co-quimbo, and conducting planetarium sessions and as-tronomy workshops. During that month, there were activities related to a project training preschool teachers at the Universidad Santo Tomás as well as with the “Sustainable Neighborhood” project with the Environmental Ministry.

In November 2014, the team participated in the creation of the Annual AURA Award for astronomy education named after Father Picetti, with the first award presented to Father Juan Bautista Picetti in recognition of his more than 50 years of science education. The NOAO South EPO team traveled to Tucson to participate in the first all-NOAO EPO retreat where many of the issues and challenges for the future of the group were discussed.

After about a year of planning by EPO and AURA staff working with staff of Associated Uni-versities, Inc. (AUI), the first Chile-US Astronomy Education and Outreach Summit was held in March. All of the EPO South team participated in the summit.

The EPO-South team was busy organizing and implementing the activities of the joint project with CEAZA (Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Aridas, The Center for Advanced Studies of Arid Zones) for science training for park rangers of the Fray Jorge National Park. The project aims to develop scientific capabilities in park rangers for future scientific tourism and night sky observa-tions.

In June 2015, a time with an abundance of visitors from neighboring countries to La Serena and Tololo due to Copa America–the South American Soccer Cup, the team hosted the visit of the NSF-funded Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Program (ACEAP). This program is an initiative to bring US astronomy educators to Chile to learn on-site about the efforts of US-funded observato-ries in scientific research and outreach initiatives. The EPO South team coordinated all the activities of the group in their stay in La Serena/Tololo June 22–26. The visit was highly successful, with the

CTIO Visitor Center & Tours Summary of Participants (9 months ending 6/30/15)

Group/Program # of Participants

CADIAS Center 1,604

EPO-S/CADIAS Outreach 6,075

Tololo Guided Tours 1,587

School Groups K–12 1,312

Special Tours 503

TOTAL 11,081

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group learning the inside of observatory operations and gaining a better feel for how scientific re-search is conducted. The ambassadors came from a variety of backgrounds and included astronomy teachers, advanced amateurs, planetarium educators, and astronomy writers.

Figure 7: The ACEAP group at Sunset on Tololo. (Image credit: Daniel Munizaga/NOAO.)

Figure 6: The ACEAP group on Tololo. Front, left to right: Kadur Flores, Sarah Komperud, Dr. Brian Koberlein, Vivian White, Shannon Schmoll, Jim O’Leary, Charles Blue. Back, left to right: Renae Kerrigan, Mike Prokosch. (Image credit: Daniel Munizaga/NOAO.)

Media Releases There were three NOAO press releases during this reporting period. Two are under development. Other news events not worthy of press releases were publicized on the NOAO home page, and nu-merous links on our home page were made to various events of interest.


• Support the strategic plan for NOAO South outreach and the Centro de Apoyo a la Didáctica de la Astronomía (CADIAS) astronomy teaching center in Chile. This includes programs involving dark skies education and teaching with Galileoscopes.

Status: NOAO South remains active in outreach. An assessment was made of how CADIAS can be remodeled to make it more effective for education. The Galileoscope program held a work-shop at Observatorio Cruz del Sur sponsored by SPIE, which bought the Galileoscopes and tri-pods.

• Execute a wide-ranging, dark skies awareness program for Chile and Arizona, including the national/international citizen science program, Globe at Night, started and run by NOAO.

Status: Globe at Night remains vigorous, as does the program at the Cooper Center for Envi-ronmental Education near Tucson. The International Year of Light teaching kits will be used to supplement our programs when they are completed early next fiscal year.


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• Work with the Tohono O’odham Nation to support an astronomy program at the Tohono O’odham Community College (TOCC) and to support a science fair program in the Tohono O’odham high schools.

Status: Numerous outreach events were conducted with the Tohono O’odham Nation, and the Tohono O’odham Open House held in Q3 was successful, with a large effort from the EPO group. A robotics program at TOCC was established due to networking by the college with the NOAO EPO group. A former NOAO EPO student provided the expertise to get the program started at TOCC.

• Support the Teaching with Telescopes program in Arizona and Chile with teacher professional development on telescope and optics concepts, making use of Galileoscopes. Support to the ex-tent possible the current Galileoscope star party programs in Arizona cities. Maintain the nation-al Teaching with Telescopes teacher support website.

Status: The Teaching with Telescopes program continues its concerted efforts in teacher profes-sional development. Most recently there was an invited workshop in Mississippi as well as a workshop in Chile.

• Conduct professional development workshops and programs for formal and informal science educators in coordination with professional organizations such as the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), the American Astronomical Society (AAS), the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), and the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Status: NOAO continues to be active in all of these organizations and to search for high-value professional development opportunities in collaboration with these professional organizations.

• Support the training of guides and provide support for astronomy programs for the public at the major municipal and touristic observatories in northern Chile.

Status: The guide training and support program continues at a steady level. We are looking for ways to formally connect the guide training program to a university again. The program has worked with the Observatorio Cruz del Sur in particular in Q3 and continues to be responsive to requests for assistance from any tourist observatory.

• Support dark skies education programs in northern Chile with education partners such as the El Centro de Estudios Avanzados en Zonas Áridas (CEAZA).

Status: The CEAZA program and related programs on sustainable tourism are continuing. Training continues for professionals who work with the public as educators, rangers, and natu-ralists.

• Maintain an active southern Arizona Project ASTRO teacher/scientist partnership program with professional development activities held at least twice a year.

Status: A Project ASTRO training session was held in Q3, and planning is underway for a fall Project ASTRO workshop, to be held September 11–12.

• Design and deliver (with grant partners) a successful two-week Colors of Nature Summer Acad-emy for middle school girls during the summer of 2015 in Tucson, Arizona, and Fairbanks, Alaska.

Status: The Summer Academy program was held successfully June 8–19 in Tucson and is cur-rently underway in Fairbanks. The summer academy was attended by 30 girls in Tucson, with a

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similar number in Fairbanks at the University of Alaska. About half of the students in the Tuc-son summer academy self-identified as Native American or Hispanic in background. The year-end NSF report was submitted.

3.3 NOAO DIRECTOR’S OFFICE

Program Highlights

During FY15, a core activity for the NOAO Director’s Office (NDO) is executing the NSF-approved NOAO-2016 transformation plan. During Q1, the FY16 employee plan was finalized, and all NOAO employees were informed whether or not they would retain their positions during FY16. During Q2, FY16 program plans were reviewed and revised, in order to initiate FY16 detailed plan-ning. During Q3, per NSF directives, NOAO initiated development of supplementary funding re-quests for the KPNO Mayall and WIYN silo programs. Also during Q3, the AURA Observatory Council (OC), the NSF Program Review Panel (PRP), and the NOAO Users Committee (UC) all re-viewed NOAO plans for FY16 and beyond, as well as implementation status. All three groups con-cluded that NOAO was on track for a successful program in FY16 and beyond.

Another core FY15 NDO activity is working with AURA Corporate and NSF Astronomical Sci-ences (AST) on the development and implementation of a new cooperative agreement (CA) between AURA and NSF for the management of NOAO in the period of FY16–FY25. During Q1, the direc-tor and deputy director traveled to NSF headquarters to present responses to several findings and recommendations of the CA proposal review panel, as well as to participate in CA implementation planning. Work on various details continued throughout the rest of this reporting period.

As required by cooperative support agreement (CSA) AST-0950945 under the current CA, NDO produced and delivered to NSF two major reports during Q1: the NOAO Annual Program Plan for FY15, supplemented this year by a status report on implementation of the NOAO-2016 Transfor-mation Plan, and the NOAO Fiscal Year Annual Report for FY14. NDO also submitted to NSF dur-ing this reporting period the FY14 Q4 Financial Report and updates to the Master Site Plan.

The deputy director continued to be the overall manager of the NOAO Dark Energy Spectro-scopic Instrument (DESI) program. Key accomplishments during this reporting period include work-ing with NOAO technical staff to update planning for DESI/Mayall activity in the 2016–2018 time frame. A formal Critical Decision 1 (CD-1) memo was issued by DOE in favor of DESI during Q2, which also received a Major Item of Equipment (MIE) new start during FY15. The deputy director negotiated a memorandum of understanding between NOAO and LBNL for NOAO participation in the DESI science collaboration. The principal contributions to the collaboration are preparatory work for the Mayall in 2014 and 2015 and a 5000-square-degree z-band survey to obtain DESI tar-gets at the Mayall in 2016–2017. During Q2, the deputy director organized preliminary design re-view for the DESI integration and commissioning work package plan. That review was completed successfully during Q2. The director and deputy director provided assistance to NSF and DOE to complete an agency-level letter of agreement for the preparation, installation, and commissioning phase.

Working closely with the associate director for KPNO, the NOAO director participated in pro-gram and budget planning for WIYN Observatory, particularly in regard to the new NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research (NN-EXPLORE) program.

Working closely with the NOAO North EPO group, the deputy director developed the NOAO thematic presence for the January 2015 AAS meeting and provided general oversight for the imple-


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mentation and deployment of that presence. The director and deputy director attended the January 2015 AAS meeting in Seattle, where the director conducted the annual NOAO Town Hall meeting. After a brief overview of the NOAO program, questions from the audience were answered. The di-rector then repeated the town hall presentation for all NOAO employees in Arizona and Chile in small-group (10–20 people) settings at Tucson, Kitt Peak, La Serena, and Cerro Tololo.

The deputy director also managed the NOAO interaction with its Users Committee, including orchestrating a written response to their 2014 report and organizing their 2015 meeting.

The director participated in meetings of the AURA Board of Directors, AURA Management Council for LSST, AURA Observatory Council, and AURA Workforce and Diversity Committee as required. As needed, the director also participated in meetings of the Gemini Board of Directors, TMT International Observatory Board of Directors, and WIYN Board of Directors.

The deputy director participated in meetings of the DESI Executive Council, the DESI Institu-tional Board, the GMT Science Advisory Committee, the SOAR Board of Directors, and the AURA Services Oversight Committee, either in person or remotely, as needed. At the request of the direc-tor, the deputy director represented the director at meetings of the LSST Corporation Board of Di-rectors and the AURA Board of Directors.

By invitation, the director attended a meeting of the National Research Council (NRC) Board of Physics and Astronomy (BPA) committee, which is charged by NSF to recommend a strategy to op-timize the US Optical and Infrared System in the era of LSST. The director’s presentation discussed the current and possible future roles of NOAO within that system. Also by invitation, the director participated in an external review of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) in Mitaka, Japan, as well as a workshop about public/private partnerships sponsored by NSF Mathe-matical and Physical Sciences.

Both the director and deputy director participated in the “Tools for Astronomical Big Data” meeting (March 9–11) and the “DECam Community Science Workshop” (March 11–13) held in Tucson.

Accomplishments during this period related to workforce development included (1) two man-agement training sessions with the entire NOAO senior management team, (2) participation in a meeting of the AURA Workforce and Development Committee, (3) the launch of the annual Per-formance Assessment process (in collaboration with the AURA Human Resources group), and (4) management of the recruitment process for the Associate Director of the NOAO System Science and Data Center.


Observatory Management

• Develop an annual program plan for FY16, to be delivered during the first quarter of FY16.

Status: On schedule. Complete draft to be released to AURA OC before September 1.

• Deliver scientific quarterly and annual progress reports as required by NSF under the terms of its cooperative agreement with AURA for the management and operations of NOAO.

Status: All required reports delivered on time, including Fiscal Year Annual Report FY14 as well as Quarterly Reports for FY15 Q1 and Q2.

• Participate as required by AURA in reviews by NSF and other federal agencies of AURA activi-ties.

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Status: Director and deputy director participated in several meetings related to development of a new cooperative agreement between AURA and NSF for management of NOAO.

• Participate as required by NSF, DOE, and other federal agencies in planning and reporting meet-ings (e.g., the semi-annual NSF Program Review Panel meeting).

Status: Completed as needed; see description above.

• Inform all current employees by the end of Q1 of FY15 of their planned FY16 employment sta-tus, with specific attention to employees who will separate from NOAO by the end of FY15 due to NOAO restructuring.

Status: Completed by director with assistance from AURA HR group.

• Organize and complete the annual EPO Advisory Committee meeting by the end of Q2 of FY15.

Status: Completed by deputy director with participation of NOAO EPO groups.

• Organize and complete the annual NOAO Users Committee meeting by the end of Q3 of FY15.

Status: Completed by deputy director, with participation by director and other senior managers as needed.

• Complete the transformation of NOAO to its FY16 structure and program by the end of FY15.

Status: In progress and under control. See further discussion above.

Diversity Program

• Maintain through the diversity advocate a national presence on issues related to diversity and use this information and recognized best practices to inform diversity activities at NOAO.

Status: During Q1, the diversity advocate (DA) attended the IINSPIRE Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) annual conference on behalf of AURA. IINSPIRE is the Iowa Illinois Nebraska STEM Partnership for Innovation in Research. The DA also attended uncon-scious bias training administered by Language and Culture Worldwide, LLC, through the How-ard University Advance-IT program.

During Q2 and Q3, the DA was a Faculty Fellow in the Howard University ADVANCE Institu-tional Transformation (ADVANCE-IT) project. The project’s mission statement is to “[s]trengthen and improve gender diversity in the nation’s STEM workforce by developing an innovative, strategic model for institutional transformation to attract, increase, support, and re-tain an equitable proportion of female faculty and academic leaders in the STEM disciplines, through education, advocacy, and empowerment.”

• Continue the diversity advocate’s work with the AURA HR group, as appropriate, to ensure that procedures and practices in hiring, promotion, tenure, workplace climate, etc., are aligned with diversity best practices.

Status: The diversity advocate met with the AURA HR head to discuss procedural changes to make diversity training a more standard part of hiring and promotion processes. She also met with the National Solar Observatory (NSO) HR specialist to discuss training for upcoming hir-ing searches. The DA worked with AURA HR to lead two unconscious bias training sessions for NSO and NOAO managers. Finally, the DA was a member of the Associate Director for NOAO System Science and Data Center (NSSDC) selection committee.


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• Continue as needed the diversity advocate’s work to address, advocate for, and inform NOAO staff and management of concerns related to diversity.

Status: The DA fulfilled this role as part of her duties on search and scientific organizing com-mittees, as well as through regular meetings with the NOAO director, bringing any staff con-cerns to his attention.

• Continue, in coordination with AURA, to work on broadening participation in the NSF science enterprise by engaging individuals, institutions, and geographical areas “that do not participate in NSF research programs at rates comparable to others.” (Quote from the Executive Summary of Broadening Participation at the National Science Foundation: A Framework for Action, Au-gust 2008.)

Status: The DA spoke about AURA’s role in building participation in the “Astronomy Enter-prise” to students at the LSAMP IINSPIRE annual conference. The talk was designed to en-courage more applications from students seeking summer internships at AURA Centers. The DA attended and organized ASTRO sessions at the National Society of Black Physicists during Q2. She was also a co-organizer and speaker at the NSF-sponsored “Inclusive Astronomy 2015” conference.

3.4 RISK MANAGEMENT

Program Highlights

Under the leadership of the AURA president, the NOAO director worked on the NOAO sections of the new AURA Enterprise Risk Management plan. The plan considers risks in four areas: strategic, operational, financial, and compliance. Each area has 8–10 specific risks that are defined and char-acterized by probability and severity. The plan also includes a description of the mitigation process for each of those risks.

No new programmatic risks arose during this reporting period. The environmental, safety, and health (ES&H) risk-mitigation activities are described in the NOAO safety report found in Section 8 of this document.


• Revise as necessary internal NOAO practices to comply with AURA-level revisions resulting from AURA’s FY15 review and revision of its overall risk management strategy.

Status: In progress. The first step was completion of a draft of the AURA Enterprise Risk Man- agement plan and review of risk-mitigation activities already in place. As necessary, those mitigation activities will be revised and/or extended during the course of FY15.

• Complete quarterly environmental, safety, and health (ES&H) meetings.

Status: The NOAO Safety Council (which includes the director, deputy director, associate directors for KPNO and NOAO South, safety officers for KPNO and NOAO South, and the facilities operations managers for Arizona and Chile) completed the Q1–Q3 meetings and scheduled the Q4 meeting.

• Complete annual safety reviews, using teams of external environmental, safety, and health (ES&H) experts, at the Blanco, Mayall, SOAR, and WIYN facilities. Each review shall involve on-site walk-throughs as well as evaluation of documentation.

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Status: Activities are planned for the second half of FY15.

• Review and update as necessary the NOAO Safety website (http://ast.noao.edu/safety) before mid- year.

Status: This is a continuous process. See Section 8 for summary of recent activities.

• Review and update as necessary the NOAO Emergency Contingency Plans for Arizona and Chile before mid-year.

Status: Arizona plan updated; Chile update in progress.

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4 FY15 BUDGET SUMMARY

Y-T-DCarryover from Total Funds Expenditures & Unencumbered

Prior Year New Funds Available Encumbrances BalanceNOAO

CSA AST- 0950945 Base ProgramsCTIO

110 Telescope Operations - 4,713,527 4,713,527 2,942,385 1,771,142 130 Science Research - 744,498 744,498 427,407 317,091 140 User Support - 128,511 128,511 50,097 78,414

Subtotal - 5,586,536 5,586,536 3,419,890 2,166,646

NOAO South (NS)200 Engineering & Technical Services - 1,342,749 1,342,749 642,253 700,496 210 Facilities - 27,121 27,121 92,724 (65,603) 220 Mt. Operations - 40,782 40,782 (31,788) 72,570 230 Computer Infrastructure Services - 432,744 432,744 335,533 97,211 240 Director's Office - 924,963 924,963 582,014 342,949

Subtotal - 2,768,359 2,768,359 1,620,735 1,147,624

KPNO300 Director's Office - 351,193 351,193 259,064 92,129 310 Telescope Operations - 1,589,412 1,589,412 1,715,110 (125,698) 330 Science Research - 98,272 98,272 16,693 81,579 340 User Support - 105,925 105,925 44,004 61,921 350 Mountain Operations - 1,160,522 1,160,522 903,765 256,757 360 Outreach & Education - 11,000 11,000 10,989 11 370 Visitor Center - 193,884 193,884 41,432 152,452

Subtotal - 3,510,208 3,510,208 2,991,059 519,149

NOAO North (NN)380 Engineering & Technical Services 90,000 2,051,084 2,141,084 1,781,521 359,563 382 Central Facilities Operations 72,824 500,000 572,824 360,426 212,398 384 Computer Infrastructure Services - 494,000 494,000 329,714 164,286

Subtotal 162,824 3,045,084 3,207,908 2,471,661 736,247

NOAO System Science Center (NSSC)400 Science Data Management - 2,039,136 2,039,136 1,510,121 529,015 420 System User Support - 1,356,272 1,356,272 947,663 408,609 430 System Community Development - 859,969 859,969 655,444 204,525

Subtotal - 4,255,377 4,255,377 3,113,229 1,142,148

NOAO System Technology Center (NSTC) - 500 System Instrumentation 316,812 245,964 562,776 181,265 381,511

Subtotal 316,812 245,964 562,776 181,265 381,511

Office of Science (OS)700 Science Staff - 528,266 528,266 388,153 140,113 710 SPRFs - 220,000 220,000 99,861 120,139

Subtotal - 748,266 748,266 488,014 260,252

800 Education & Public Outreach (EPO) - 926,046 926,046 612,247 313,799

820 NOAO Director's Office (NDO) 7,500 567,533 575,033 426,283 148,750

840 Reserve 3,509,510 1,602,900 5,112,410 186,862 4,925,548

850 AURA F&A, Management and Administrative Fees - 2,243,727 2,243,727 1,536,232 707,495

Total Base Programs 3,996,646 25,500,000 29,496,646 17,047,477 12,449,169

### La Serena School for Data Science 52,435 - 52,435 4 52,431

### TSIP 104,052 - 104,052 2,379 101,673

Total CSA AST- 0950945 Programs 4,153,133 25,500,000 29,653,133 17,049,859 12,603,274

### CSA AST-1019067 Non-NSF Research Support - - - 24,260 (24,260)

### CSA AST-1062976 REU - CTIO 220,189 - 220,189 77,988 142,201

Total NOAO Programs 4,373,322 25,500,000 29,873,322 17,152,107 12,721,215

NATIONAL OPTICAL ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORYBUDGET SUMMARY REPORT FOR AST- 0809409

FY 2015 AS OF 6/30/2015

NOAO-WIDE PROGRAMS

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5 OBSERVING PROPOSAL STATISTICS FOR 2015B Observing proposal (request) statistics for telescope time awarded through the NOAO telescope time allocation process (TAC) are published on the NOAO website. The proposal statistics for 2015B can be found as follows:

• Request Statistics by Telescope: www.noao.edu/gateway/tac/obsreqs15b_s.html

The statistics provided are broken down first by observatory and then by telescope and include the number of requests (proposals), nights requested, nights allocated, nights scheduled for new programs (standard and survey), and subscription rates for new programs (standard and survey).

• Request Statistics by Instrument: www.noao.edu/gateway/tac/inst15b_s.html

The statistics provided are for the 342 new proposals (standard and survey) submitted to the 2015B NOAO TAC. They are broken down first by observatory, then by telescope and instru-ment with totals by telescope. They include the number of proposals, “runs,” total nights, and dark nights; the percentage of dark nights; and the average nights/run.

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6 USAGE OF ARCHIVED DATA The first two tables below illustrate access to and usage of reduced data in the NOAO Science Ar-chive (R2) from NOAO Survey programs. The table on the left shows the data download volume in gigabytes, the number of files retrieved, and the number of unique visitors (for that month) who downloaded archive data through the ftp site. The table on the right shows the Web activity logged from the NOAO Science Archive website. It includes users (visitors) collecting additional infor-mation before or after downloading data, as well as visualization of the data online.

Archive Data Retrieval Activity (ftp) NOAO Science Archive Website Activity

Date Retrieved (GB)

Files Re-trieved

Unique Visi-tors Date Bandwidth

(GB) Pages

Viewed Unique Visi-

tors

Oct 2014 1.09 23 8 Oct 2014 49.61 7,118 888

Nov 2014 9.42 874 12 Nov 2014 30.27 7,479 878

Dec 2014 1 33 7 Dec 2014 20.82 5,327 690

Jan 2015 0.10873 120 9 Jan 2015 502.64 19,657 791

Feb 2015 3.28 35 10 Feb 2015 25.49 4,468 941

Mar 2015 32.66 175 6 Mar 2015 116.47 11,013 1,181

Apr 2015 156 7,469 4 Apr 2015 43.13 19,657 1,147

May 2015 79.12 294 5 May 2015 118.24 4,468 1,010

Jun 2015 142.87 5,855 14 Jun 2015 28.17 11,013 1,223

Total: 425.55 14,878 Total: 934.84 90,200

The NOAO Portal provides principal investigators (PIs) access to their raw data from all instru-ments and to pipeline-reduced products from the Mosaic instruments at the CTIO and KPNO 4-m telescopes and the NEWFIRM instrument. The metadata are stored in a searchable Archive, which allows discovery and retrieval from the NOAO Portal (portal-nvo.noao.edu). After the requisite proprietary period (usually 18 months), the data become accessible to the general public.

Portal Data Retrieval Activity (ftp) NVO Portal Data Retrieval Activity

Date Bandwidth (GB) Pages Viewed Unique Visi-

tors Date Bandwidth (GB)

Pages Viewed

Unique Visi-tors

Oct 2014 2,276.83 24,869 90 Oct 2014 7.66 1,472,164 675

Nov 2014 1,988.38 47,576 90 Nov 2014 6.69 171,828 550

Dec 2014 6,123.33 28,899 55 Dec 2014 1.95 68,548 514

Jan 2015 9,483.79 51,983 64 Jan 2015 1.21 13,805 304

NOAO SAFETY REPORT FOR Q3

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Feb 2015 5,220.64 34,793 68 Feb 2015 0.91705 23,077 353

Mar 2015 8,336.57 95,960 103 Mar 2015 16.02 181,970 1,160

Apr–Jun 2015 23,000 180,000 78* Apr 2015 7.1 28,472 518

May 2015 32.4 67,995 581

Jun 2015 21.14 45,358 645

Total: 56,429.54 464,080 Total: 95.09 2,073,217

*quarterly sum extrapolated from average daily use


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7 GRANTS The following table lists the grants received by NOAO staff from non-NSF agencies during the first nine months of FY15.

Principal Investigator

Awarding Agency Title Budget

Amount Period of

Performance

Jeyhan S. Kartaltepe

NASA

What Drives Star Formation in Galax-ies?: A Multiwavelength Analysis of Infrared Galaxies

$141,132 4/17/15– 4/16/17

Tod R. Lauer Johns Hopkins University

Hazard Analysis and Deconvolution Analysis for the New Horizons Mis-sion

$67,885 4/30/15– 3/31/16

Acronyms used in table:

NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NOAO SAFETY REPORT FOR Q3

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8 NOAO SAFETY REPORT FOR Q3 8.1 SOUTH

During Q3 of FY15, the following safety activities occurred at NOAO South:

• There was one reportable incident caused by a gas leak at the dormitory/restaurant on Cerro Pachón during Q3. Apparently, gas entered the office of the paramedic located near the site of the leak through an open window and accumulated overnight. On entering the office in the morning, the paramedic felt so unwell that he had to self-administer oxygen. Initially there were concerns about possible intoxication by the gas. However, a thorough investigation of the inci-dent concluded that it is more likely he suffered a panic attack. The gas leak was repaired im-mediately, and the entire gas system and the furnace it supplies were inspected by an external contractor and have been recertified. Procedures for the regular inspection and routine mainte-nance of all the gas systems at NOAO South have been reviewed and revised in light of this in-cident. Training for staff and the staff of contractors on how to respond to emergency situations has also been reinforced.

• The plan for remediation of asbestos at the Blanco 4-m telescope was approved by the local health authorities following a site visit in April. The final work plan is being reviewed and re-fined with the contractor selected to do the work, including the careful coordination of activities needed to minimize the impact on science operation of the telescope. The sealant and other spe-cial supplies required have been ordered from the US. The work, which is expected to take four months to complete, will begin during Q4.

• Coordination meetings were held with the contractor selected to work on the repair and refur-bishment of the surface of the Blanco dome to discuss safety aspects of the task that involve work at altitude.

• The personnel elevator at the TelOps office on Tololo has been repaired, and both it and the main elevator in the Blanco telescope building have been recertified.

• The winter operations plan was reviewed and updated and came into force in mid-April.

• Remodeling of the “two-units” building on Cerro Pachón, which is being converted into a first aid clinic, continued, with completion expected in July. The documentation required for its au-thorization was submitted to the local health authorities, and tentative approval granted pending a site visit once work is complete.

• The removal and proper disposal of chemical waste and obsolete electronics from laboratories on Cerro Tololo and in La Serena has continued during the quarter, with considerable progress made but more to do.

• The NOAO South recycling plan was renewed this quarter with the installation of new recycling bins for different kinds of waste at strategic locations on each mountain and in La Serena.

• In support of the work being carried out in the Tololo powerhouse to restore commercial electric power, safe working procedures for high-voltage electrical work were reviewed and revised, and discussed with all the staff involved. The daily plan for this work includes meetings each morn-ing of all participants, including external contractors, to discuss work plans, including any safety aspects.


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• A first aid course is being given to all interested staff by an instructor provided by ACHS. So far there have been two well-attended sessions, one in La Serena and one on the mountain, with fur-ther sessions scheduled for the remainder of the year.

• The safety officer continued to participate in several regular meetings related to safety:

o Monthly meetings, with the representatives of the service provider for the mountain emergency medical service, ESACHS, to coordinate the work of the paramedics. The safety officer also directly supervised the nurse stationed on Cerro Tololo, who is an NOAO South employee.

o Regular meetings of the Comité Paritario de Higiene y Seguridad (Chilean workers safe-ty committee), monthly safety coordination meetings with other AURA program safety officers, and the quarterly meeting of the NOAO safety council

o Weekly coordination meetings for construction work, including blasting, on the LSST site and a special series of meetings

• The safety officer also carried out regular inspections of work areas, purchased and revised per-sonal protective equipment, and supervised the safety of larger maintenance tasks and engineer-ing shutdowns at the telescopes by observatory staff and work carried out by external contrac-tors.

8.2 NORTH

During Q3 various safety activities occurred on Kitt Peak and at the Tucson offices. They are as fol-lows:

Kitt Peak

• Underground storage tanks were inspected and passed, and cathodic protection testing was performed.

• A Tohono O’odham Nation Open House was held at Kitt Peak on May 2. • The following safety training sessions were held: crane rigging, signaling, master rigging,

and mobile crane. • Docent safety training in emergency procedures was held. • United Fire is now performing fire extinguisher inspections at Kitt Peak and Tucson. • A wildfire manual for Kitt Peak has been published. • Clean-up of lake for fire protection purposes is in progress and going very well.

Tucson

• Elevator inspections were performed. • The underground storage tank was inspected and passed. • A vandalism incident took place in the logistics area on June 1. Barrels were tipped over

and moved. An oil drum was turned upside down, with a small amount of oil spilled. Cabi-nets were tipped over. Security is now going into fenced-in area to inspect on their rounds.

• The DESI CD-2 Director’s Review took place in Berkeley, CA.