TSU 2-m AUTOMATIC SPECTROSCOPIC TELESCOPE PROJECT Monthly Report for May, 2000 This monthly report for the TSU 2-m AST project covers the calendar month of May, 2000. The first part of the report (I) discusses what we did with the expected highlights identified in last month's report; the second section (II--IX) covers the status of various tasks in the schedule; and a third part (X) gives highlights for June. During May, 2000, we continued to have one part-time employee (Mike Williamson) working at TSU on the telescope program, in computer programming and electronic instrumentation, in addition to M. Krebs and M. Wells, who provide machining work at their private shops. We arranged to use Allen Keel as a summer student doing projects related to the control system. I. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE PAST MONTH During May, 2000, we said we expected to do the following things [with steps taken then in brackets]: (1) to finish preparing the telescope for shipment to Arizona, [This is finished except for putting some of the parts on their pallets.] (2) to finish the modifications of the oil bearings, [On the basis of extensive tests over the last six months, we have decided not to modify the oil bearings. We have finished the auxillary oil collection system that catches oil drawn out of the bearing by motion of the telescope.] (3) to continue writing the telescope control software, specifically preparing it for supporting Tasks 172, 175, and 177, [These tasks are finished to the extent necessary to begin testing the telescope in Arizona.] (4) to arrange with Bob Leach for actual delivery of the CCD dewar and controller (Tasks 145-150), [We have sent the CCD to SDSU and expect the controller to be finished in the first of second week of June.] (5) to finish the paperwork for procuring the material and services for constructing the camera for the spectrograph, [We have prepared sole-source contracts for the glass for the camera lenses and for the design of the camera cell. We have bid out polishing the lenses and coating the lenses. Final design of the camera will require measurements of the properties of the actual optical glass which Epps will then use to produce a final design of the camera.] and (6) to finish contracting with Jeff Hall to write the data reduction and handling system. [We have finished our contract with Hall and settled on a set of system requirements with him.] II. ENCLOSURES We finished our contract with Sierrita Mining to modify the control building for the spectrograph (Task 59) and expect them to do the work in June or July. III. MECHANICAL INTEGRATION This phase of the project is finished. Of the tasks remaining from last month, we finished insulating the telescope (Task 83) and resolved the questions about the oil system (see part I above). IV. MIRROR TESTING All the testing of the primary mirror that MSFC intended to do is finished, as we reported last month and as Scott Smith has discussed with you directly. The tests of the secondary mirror mentioned last month have taken up the last several weeks at MSFC, with minimal progress. There have been questions about separation of the mirror and Hindle shell (test plate) for running this test and even questions as to whether Torus Optics sent Marshall the right Hindle sphere. Marshall intends to send an engineer out to Iowa to get Torus Optics to set the test up again in their lab. On the bright side, the mirror showed absolutely no effect of its mounting, the putative reason for the test. V. SET TELESCOPE UP AT SITE Having finished all the tests we agreed with you and Marshall to do before shipping the telescope to Arizona, we began disassembling the telescope and putting it on pallets in the last week of April. This work is about 60% finished as of 1 May. We certify that the telescope passed all the mechanical tests we proposed to do in the set of formal shipping criteria we gave you in October. Busby has obtained permission from the University to use the quote from Sierrita Mining (see last month's report) for transporting the telescope from Nashville to Arizona, staging the parts into the observatory, and assisting TSU personnel in assembling it. VI. CONTROL SYSTEM Williamson has continued integrating the motion-control programs to run the basic motions of the telescope (tracking and slewing) and has completed them to the point of running the telescope with these programs. He has integrated the positions from incremental encoders, time from the GPS card, and positions from the low-resolution absolute encoders, all latched simultaneously with a signal from the motion controller, into the basic software that calculates instanteneous position on the sky. We have run this program in the telescope to determine that it points the telescope in roughly the right direction and that it drives the telescope at roughly the right rates for the position it's pointed. Further, precise tests must necessarily wait until we have the telescope set up at the observatory and exposed to stars. It is particularly important for setting the telescope up to have access to the north star, which is the easiest way to determine the zero points of the axes and to do the initial alignment of the optics. As part of this work, we have replaced the Nextmove motion-control board (an ISA device) with a Galil stand-alone controller having communication through a serial line. This device is much more reliable, keeps track of a much wider range of angular position (an annoying limitation with the Nextmove), and requires a much simpler, more reliable program to run it in the telescope-control computer. VII. SPECTROGRAPH CAMERA We have contracted with Harland Epps to oversee development of the spectrograph camera. He has drawn up for us documents for procuring all the materials and services for constructing this camera so we can either bid them out or botain them through sole-source contracts. These documents cover (1) obtaining the materials for the lenses (CaF2 and optical glass blanks, along with precise measurments of the indices of refraction of the actual glass for making the final design of the lens and pieces of the glass for coating tests), (2) contracting with an optical shop to make the lenses to his final specifications, (3) contracting for coating the lenses to minimize reflections of the wavelength range we intend to use, (4) contracting with a specialist firm (which he's used before) to design a mechanical cell for the lens, and (5) contracting to build the cell. Task 208-210: Design and manufacture mounts for optical elements: We have finished shop drawings for the mounts for the echelle grating, cross-dispersion grating, and the two reimaging mirrors discussed last month and done a detailed solid model of the device for positioning the optical fibers at the input of the spectrograph. Some of the material for these mounts was delivered in April with the bulk expected in early May. VIII. SMALL SYSTEMS & CALIBRATION We have finished Tasks 245-250, a bunch of minor jobs related to the instriment head and baffling system. Task 259: Build the pick-off mirror. Mark Wells ran into problems with getting the pickoff mirror plated and has decided instead to get it polished by a specialist he found in Huntsville who has polished many metal mirrors for NASA. IX. DATA-HANDLING SYSTEM Fekel continues to work with Jeff Hall on defining the requirements of the data- handling/reduction system that Hall will write for us as a modification of his existing software. We defined and sent system requirements to Hall in April. X. HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE NEXT MONTH During June, 2000, we expect (1) to transport the telescope to Arizona, (2) to continue writing the telescope control software, specifically preparing it for supporting Tasks 172, 175, and 177, (3) to arrange with Bob Leach for actual delivery of the CCD dewar and controller (Tasks 145-150), (4) to finish the paperwork for procuring the material and services for constructing the camera for the spectrograph, and (5) to finish contracting with Jeff Hall to write the data reduction and handling system.