2015B schedule, programs, and run summaries

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.