Remo Tilanus (Joint Astronomy Centre), Tim Jenness (Joint Astronomy Centre)
The James Clerk Maxwell telescope in Hawaii has operating flexible queue observing for a number of years. The limited number of staff has dictated that most of the serviced observing is being carried out by visiting astronomers who not necessarily are familiar with the scientific and technical aspects of a particular program. Ensuring data quality has been the focus of a number of recent software and procedural development projects. In addition we believe that it is important to maintain the interacive nature of ground-based astronomy even if the observations are being carried out without the P.I. present at the telescope. This adds an additional challenge of frequent and ensured feedback between the observer, local staff and the P.I. This is relevant because many submm observations cover periods over more than one night.
Thus, while the scientific return is increased by flexible queue scheduling the 'costs' are an increase in complexity of operations and the need for a significant investment in new software and the development of new procedures in order to reliably and efficiently support this mode of operations.