Top End
Tom Geballe
Head of UKIRT Operations, Joint Astronomy Centre, Hilo
As we eagerly await the arrivals of new instrumentation for UKIRT, the
performance of our (and your) telescope continues to get better. Since
summer 1997, the basic tip/tilt system has been augmented by primary active
control and active focus-tracking. In addition, the dome ventilation system
and its controls are now completely installed and partially working. All
of these are serving to improve the performance of the tip/tilt system
and we believe that all are leading to further gains in image quality,
attested to by images in this Newsletter. We have now seen the promised
land of 0.2" image quality on a number of occasions. Now when the upgraded
telescope only produces 3/4 arcsecond images at K band, and even though
this is a substantial improvement over performance in the fairly recent
past, some observers grumble (as they should).
Although the improvement in image quality is substantial, since the
last Newsletter progress on Upgrades has continued to be slower than we
had hoped, due largely to the time lag between the loss of key engineering
personnel and their replacement and training. Several new and very able
recruits have now largely rectified the situation and progress is picking
up again. I note that in the previous Top End column I wrote
that the Upgrades Programme is now in its final year of funding. Now, however,
in addition to the bringing the complete dome ventilation system in 1998,
I hope and expect that the other uncompleted portions of the programme,
the installation and operation of the the primary mirror cooling and the
installation of dome floor insulation, will be funded in 1998/99 financial
year. Incidentally, the latter has been delayed as much by safety (fire
hazard) concerns as by lack of effort.
UKIRT's popularity among UK astronomers and indeed astronomers worldwide
continues to be very high. During the recently completed PATT round,
135 applications for UKIRT time were received by PATT. This, the largest
number of UKIRT applications ever received, led to an oversubscription
factor greater than 4 for the first time. We are happy to be so popular
but recognise the anguish this causes many astronomers (including those
on the local staff) and are eager to reduce the above factor by significantly
reducing the amount of engineering time, which, because of telescope upgrades,
has been unusually high for the last several semesters. I believe that
next semester will see such a reduction.
The just-completed survey by the UKIRT Board concerning wide field
options for UKIRT and UKIRT's role in the Gemini era elicited a large response.
This makes it clear that UKIRT will be in great demand as a wide field
facility, both in its own right and in a supporting role for programmes
on 8-10m class telescopes. Developing a wide field infrared capability
clearly is crucial to the U.K. community, as has long been recognised by
the UKIRT Board. Thus, it is gratifying that, except for U.K. participation
in the millimetre array project, the most highly rated new project proposed
to the Astronomy Committee in January 1998 was the development of this
capability at UKIRT. This exciting development will occur on top of a vigorous
funded programme which in the next three years will deliver three major
instruments, UFTI, Michelle, and UIST, each of which is primarily aimed
at doing stand-alone science. All of the above will expand UKIRT's
role as a multi-purpose facility which produces a great variety of its
own exciting results as well as supporting astronomy by larger telescopes.
With all of these developments UKIRT will continue to be a dynamic facility
for observers and will present a stimulating environment for its staff
to work, for many years to come.
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