List of 2015B programs for:
MegaCam,
WIRCam,
ESPaDOnS.
QrunID | Instrument | HST Dates | Number of Nights | Status | Run Summary |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
15BQ01 | ESPaDOnS | Aug 1 - 4 | 4 | Done | Despite the threat of storm Guillermo and about one night and a half lost to fog and high humidity, these first four nights of the semester were relatively productive. There were no technical issues. |
15BQ02 | Sitelle | Aug 4 - 9 | 6 | Done | This second Sitelle run, dedicated to engineering tests, characterization, and scientific observations was very successful. |
15BQ03 | MegaCam | Aug 10 - 19 | 10 | Done | This was a poor MegaCam run, with high humidity, fog, and overcast skies. Only 18h of scientific observations were obtained. |
15BQ04 | WIRCam | Aug 20 - 25 | 6 | Done | This short run was severely affected by bad weather, with almost 50h lost to high humidity and fog. Only 8h of observations were validated. |
15BQ05 | ESPaDOnS | Aug 26 - Sep 3 | 9 | Done | Despite the threat of hurricanes Kilo and Ignacio, this run was overall successful. Some time was lost to high humidity, but less than expected. |
15BQ06 | MegaCam | Sep 4 - 17 | 14 | Done | The two main sources of lost time this run were high humidity (32h) and the time needed to recover from 2 power outages at the summit (12h). The Image Quality was generally excellent, with measurements frequently below 0.5" (in r). |
15BQ07 | ESPaDOnS | Sep 18 - Oct 1 | 14 | Done | Almost 55 hours were lost to weather, but there were no technical difficulties otherwise. Good progress was made on a lot of programs. |
15BQ08 | MegaCam | Oct 2 - 19 | 18 | Done | This long MegaCam run was relatively productive, despite almost 60 hours lost to weather. Seven or 8 nights had photometric skies, with thick clouds, high humidity, or fog affecting the rest of the time. |
15BQ09 | WIRCam | Oct 20 - 26 | 7 | Done | The majority of the nights were photometric during this short WIRCam run, which helped catch up since the first run of the semester had been severely affected by bad weather. We are halfway through the allocation of WIRCam nights, and about a third of all observations have been obtained. |
15BQ10 | MegaCam | Oct 27 | 1 | Done | This is a bright-time engineering night to test a new filter exchange mechanism for MegaCam. |
15BQ11 | ESPaDOnS | Oct 28 - Nov 3 | 7 | Done | The run was lengthened by 1 night to allow the technical staff some more time with the MegaCam filter exchange mechanism. With the exception of about 1h lost to fog and a couple of hours lost to technical issues, observations were taken every night from twilight to twilight. The Image Quality was well below 1 arcsec except on the last night; one night even had seeing between 0.3 and 0.5 arcsec! |
15BQ12 | MegaCam | Nov 4 - 16 | 13 | Done | The weather was generally poor during this run, except at the beginning and at the very end of the run. Fewer than about 3h were lost to technical issues, the majority due to a power outage in Waimea; 60h were lost to weather (precipitation, clouds). |
15BQ13 | ESPaDOnS | Nov 17 - Dec 2 | 16 | Done | The exchange to MegaCam initially scheduled for Dec 3
indeed happened that day. The ESPaDOnS run was not extended.
For this ESPaDOnS run, two full nights were lost to weather, and a few more hours to high humidity. The time lost to technical issues was minimal. |
15BQ14 | MegaCam | Dec 3 - 16 | 13 | Done | The exchange to MegaCam initially scheduled for Dec 3 indeed happened that day, despite a major issue with MegaCam's electronics. For the first 4 nights, half of the mosaic has unresponsive or misbehaving chips, and exhibits a higher level of noise that is also changing with time. The issue was addressed and fixed Monday Dec 7. |
15BQ15 | WIRCam | Dec 17 - 27 | 11 | Done | A poor WIRCam run with 60 hours lost to weather. |
15BQ16 | Sitelle | Dec 28 & 29 | 2 | Done | Sitelle engineering for the pointing model, focus model, and other basic tests. |
15BQ17 | MegaCam | Dec 30 - Jan 07 | 9 | Done | The run was cut short to insert the Sitelle Science Verification run. |
15BQ18 | Sitelle | Jan 8 - 12 | 5 | Done | The Sitelle Science Verification run was very successful. Thanks to the excellent weather, and to the dedication of the technical staff and the Sitelle science team, almost all the time was dedicated to science. About 5 hours were dedicated to some engineering tests right at the beginning of the first night, and only 4 hours were lost to high winds. The Science team is reducing data and checking the performance of CFHT's newest instrument. |
15BQ19 | ESPaDOnS | Jan 13 - 28 | 16 | Done | An excellent long run with only 5 hours lost to weather (high winds), about 4 hours of engineering time to test the Olapa 2amp mode, and 5 mornings of daytime Venus observations. The outstanding conditions allowed us to get a head start on 2016A program and obtain on average 10h05 of validated observations per night. |
15BQ20 | MegaCam | Jan 29 - 31 | 3 | Done | This run is used for a mix of 15B and 16A programs. MegaCam observations continue into February. |