Queued Service Observations 2013A

2013A schedule, programs, and run summaries

List of 2013A programs for: MegaCam, WIRCam, ESPaDOnS.

QrunID	Instrument	HST Dates	Number of Nights	Status	Run Summary
13AQ01	MegaCam	Feb 1 - 18	18	Done	This first MegaCam run of the semester was plagued by bad weather (almost 40h lost) and a few technical issues with MegaCam and the telescope (about 5h lost). In addition, an unusual number of nights was affected by high IQ, well above 1.2". Progress has been poor for a lot of highly-ranked programs.
13AQ02	ESPaDOnS	Feb 19 - Mar 3	13	Done	The equivalent of 7 nights was lost to bad weather (clouds, ice, snow, high humidity). Two nights were also affected by high Image Quality, up to 2arcsec. Despite this, most highly-ranked programs that were observable this run got observations.
13AQ03	MegaCam	Mar 4 - 18	15	Done	The first 5-6 nights saw good sky conditions, but most of the rest of the run was lost to clouds, fog, snow, ice, or high winds. Around 90h were lost to bad weather, which is the equivalent of about 9 nights.
13AQ04	WIRCam	Mar 19 - 31	13	Done	Most of the run was lost to clouds, high humidity, snow, or high winds. Almost 100h were lost to bad weather, which is the equivalent of about 9 nights.
13AQ05	MegaCam	Apr 1 - 18	18	Done	Progress has been very slow this run, due to cloudy conditions, issues with the telescope's hydraulics system, and MegaCam computer crashes. The completion rate of A and B program is quite low, around 20%. On the bright side, the QSO team performed the first ever "SNR-mode" observations where the number of exposures or the exposure time is adjusted to reach a certain S/N according to the sky conditions.
13AQ06	WIRCam	Apr 19 - 30	12	Done	The time loss was entirely due to cloudy conditions. The QSO Team concentrated its efforts on A programs first. The completion rate of A and B programs is around 20%.
13AQ07	MegaCam	May 1 - 14	14	Done	The weather has finally started to improve! Thanks to a trouble-free run and very good weather, the QSO Team was able to make progress on A programs and also some of the B programs.
13AQ08	ESPaDOnS	May 15 - 30	16	Done	The run was affected by periods of high humidity, sometimes lasting a full night. Completion of programs requiring regular monitoring of targets were therefore affected. Network and computer problems also affected data reduction and distribution to PIs.
13AQ09	MegaCam	May 31 - 13	14	Done	The run was affected by bad weather and above normal Image Quality. Fewer than half the nights were partly or completely photometric. The rest of the time, the clouds were either thin enough to do some observations, or too tick to observe anything.
13AQ10	ESPaDOnS	Jun 14 - 30	17	Done	Despite a few unproductive hours affected by thick clouds, and 2 full nights lost to unrelated telescope and dome shutter issues, excellent progress was made for A and B-ranked programs. The 13A semester statistics are significantly poorer than usual, with A programs completed at 88%, and B programs completed at 58%. Typical completion rates are usually much closer to 100%. Bad weather during the first part of the semester and very difficult time constraints to juggle both explain these numbers.
13AQ11	MegaCam	Jul 1 - 14	14	Done	The equivalent of about 7 nights had photometric skies, but some of those photometric nights had poor IQ above 1 arcsec. Very little time was lost to technical issues. Semester 13A has been poor overall, and only 45% of A and B programs have been completed.
13AQ12	WIRCam	Jul 15 - 29	15	Done	The weather has been poor for this last WIRCam run of the semester; only the equivalent of about 4.5 nights saw photometric skies, over 6 nights were lost to either thick clouds or high humidity, and the rest of the nights was affected by thin cirrus. Only 65% of A-ranked programs have been completed, and only 30% of B programs have been completed, rather poor statistics.
13AQ13	MegaCam	Jul 30 - 31	2	Done	Due to the expected arrival of tropical storm Flossie on Jul 29, the exchange from WIRCam to MegaCam has been postponed to Tuesday Jul 30. This run continued into 2013B.