[2015/01/15]
Memo by Minowa-san
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Instrument plan discussions in Subaru Users Meeting
2015/01/15 (JST)
[ Cs focus future plan ]
=== Cs instrument decommission plan ===
Kodama:
No Cs instrument after 2019 is too extreme.
Iwata:
It is required to make sure the operation (and commissioning)
of HSC and PFS. The ULTIMATE instrument will be attached to
the Cs focus.
=== FOCAS decommission ===
Takami:
If FOCAS is decommissioned,
is there any possibility to extend the time exchange program?
Arimoto:
There is no limit of the number of exchange nights between
Subaru and Gemini.
Kleinman:
Gemini might be able to accept COMICS as a carry-in instrument,
since the COMICS has a unique MIR capability.
NIRI is too old and is going to be passively decommissioned
and replaced by GSAOI.
GNIRS and GMOS will remain. For GMOS-N CCD replacement will
be made soon.
Silverman:
If FOCAS is a really unique instrument, it is better to
keep FOCAS even in the PFS era. It might be useful for the
follow-up of HSC sample.
Yoshida:
Is it possible to cover all demand for using FOCAS (and
MOIRCS) by the time exchange program?
Ohashi:
It might be possible to selectively increase the exchange
time for GMOS and DEIMOS.
Arimoto:
Keck has an idea to increase the nights of the time
exchange with Subaru from 10 to 60.
=== MOIRCS hibernation/decommission ===
Kodama:
The life time of nuMOIRCS (after replacing the detector
to H2RG) seems to be too short.
Jovanovic:
It's better to decommission the logistically difficult
instrument first. MOIRCS has a lot of trouble, but FOCAS is
stable. It might be better to keep FOCAS as a backup.
The upgrade of H2RG (or experience to do so) can be used
for the other instrument.
Somebody:
What is the pros and cons of SWIMS/MIMIZUKU compared to
MOIRCS/COMICS?
Motohara (SWIMS):
Pros --- Simultaneous two bands imaging, wider wavelength
coverage
Cons --- lower wavelength resolution (<1000), no more slot
for carry-in filters
Miyata (MIMIZUKU):
Pros --- field stacker to increase photometric accuracy
Cons --- NIR slit viewer, lower wavelength resolution
[ Prime focus future plan ]
== FMOS scheduled end of S15B, possible extention ==
Iwata:
Subaru Telescope already decided to continue FMOS operation
until the end of S15B. We received some requests to keep
FMOS operational until spring season of 2016. That
primaliry depends on schedule of IRM4 floor reinforcement
schedule for PFS spectrographs.
Tamura:
PFS is flexible for 2-3 months delay.
Silverman:
When will the actual decommission be decided?
Iwata:
It will be decided after the PFS review at this summer.
=== Suprime-Cam decommission plan ===
There is no comment from the community about decommissioning
Suprime-Cam at 16A (and keep it as a backup).
=== HSC readiness ===
Koda:
How about the availability of HSC's NB filter?
Iwata:
The opening of HSC NB filters is determined upon requests
from the PIs of the filters. Note that available slot for
NB filters will be limited.
Matsuhara:
When will HSC operation be stabilized?
Iwata:
After S14A, HSC got more stabilized, although some
relatively minor issues still remain. The decommission of
Suprime-Cam will be decided before CfP of S16A based on the
readiness of HSC.
Motohara:
How about the readiness of HSC pipeline?
Silverman:
HSC pipeline is working very well.
It's already time to be distributed.
Koda:
Is it possible to use the pipeline for extended objects
such as low surface brightness galaxies?
Silverman:
The HSC software team is working to implement the pipeline
for very extended sources.
Tanaka Masayuki:
Current pipeline does not work for the extended sources
such as those larger than half of the CCD.
Yoshida:
Miyazaki-san reported about the short of HSC detector with
unknown cause. HSC could be returned to Japan in the worst
case. It's very important to prepare for such fatal situation.
Iwata:
If HSC have to be returned to Japan, downtime may be more
than one semester.
[ Future plan without ULTIMATE-Subaru ]
Motohara:
It might be possible to have one of the three pillars of the
Subaru by combining the upgrade of existing instruments.
Minowa:
ULTIMATE-Subaru is a combination of wide-field instruments
and adaptive secondary mirror.
Most of the cost of the ULTIMATE-Subaru is from the
wide-field instrument. Even if we find that the ULTIMATE-
Subaru is impossible because of the lack of funding,
we might be able to have only for the deformable secondary
mirror. If so, the deformable secondary can provide AO
correction to all of the existing instrument (except for
the prime-focus instrument), which makes the existing
instrument very unique.
[ AO instrument future plan ]
Akiyama:
What kind of science with IRCS+AO188 can be performed
better by the other AO instruments at Keck or Gemini?
Minowa:
AO188 has an advantage of the widest field to find AO
natural guide star. Because of this, some of the
observations (especially for extragalactic objects) can be
done only with AO188. IRCS is unique for high-resolution
spectroscopy in Echelle mode (especially in thermal
infrared), but not so unique for imaging and grism
spectroscopy.
[EOF]
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