Top End

Andy Adamson

Head of UKIRT Operations/Director of Science

Michelle Winters

As many will be aware, a proposal from the Gemini Board to take Michelle to Gemini North on long-term loan was accepted by PPARC in the Autumn of 2003. This decision was obviously a major disappointment to JAC staff who had invested considerable energy and time (at both observatories) into Michelle. The instrument was scheduled for a final slot on UKIRT at the start of semester 04A. Because of the short time available in the semester before its return to Gemini, various software changes have been made to make the most effective use of Michelle's capabilities. Flexible scheduling infrastructure has of course been in place for some time and we are therefore able to ensure that the best programmes are carried out in appropriate weather conditions. Experience with UIST showed that imaging acquisition of target fields can be an extremely efficient way to do spectroscopy, and we have therefore implemented a similar system for Michelle observing. Finally, UKIRT adopted the JCMT Observation queue¹ system which enables the automatic execution of a large number of Observations sequentially. Useful, but not essential, to Michelle observing, the queue system will truly come into its own with the arrival of WFCAM. All of this work was completed in time for the return of Michelle in January 2004. At the time of writing we are just recovering from some bad winter storms which have put paid to most observing for two weeks or more, and once again revealed Michelle's Achilles heel - the water-soluble cryostat window. It is clear that such a short run with Michelle is a difficult and risky thing to schedule but there was little doubt that we had to take this chance. Recommissioning will be complete very soon and we then look forward to a short semester of fully flexible Michelle observing in all modes of the instrument.

Trials and Tribulations

Simultaneously with the return of Michelle, UIST suffered a cryogenic failure which will require major engineering to cure; this is scheduled for March 2004 and will be critical to the successful completion of semester 04A science programmes. With UKIRT at times down to only one instrument, this has been a very difficult two months and we are grateful to 04A users for their understanding when we have had to ask them to undertake entirely queue observing due to both weather and instrument problems. The sight of UKIRT with only UFTI attached to its bottom end is not one which any of us wish to see very often. However the camera has acquitted itself very well and we are thankful again to the UKIRT community for providing suitable backup programmes for execution in poor weather while Michelle engineering has been in progress.

Science

There are some noteworthy features of the science articles in this issue of the newsletter. First, Michelle echelle spectroscopy makes its first appearance, in an interesting paper addressing the fundamental properties of late-type stellar atmospheres. Secondly, the UIST Integral Field has been showing its paces and is quickly becoming a key facility, particularly for extragalactic programmes. Finally, we note that two of the papers in this issue come either from Service observing or from overrides carried out by summit PATT observers; it is not widely known that more than one quarter of publications citing UKIRT data include data from the service programme. The operation of Overrides within the UKIRT flexible scheduling model is another success of the system.

Opticon

UKIRT is now a member of the Opticon network of medium-sized telescopes. Supported by the European Commission under the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) and open to astronomers across the European Union and Associated States, this network provides travel, accommodation and subsistence costs for eligible observers up to a maximum agreed number of supported runs per semester. Access remains on a strictly science-grade basis, with the decision on allocations resting solely with the UKIRT TAG. UKIRT is unique in this network, in offering flexible observing. We look forward to supporting Opticon observers and queue P.I.s; further details of the programme, including eligibility criteria, can be found via links on the UKIRT home page.

¹The term "queue" is becoming overloaded. It should be made clear that this "queue" is a very low-level, tactical entity relating to execution of Observations and MSBs at the summit, not to the strategic queue implicit in the OMP database.