2017A schedule, programs, and run summaries

List of 2017A programs for: MegaCam, WIRCam, ESPaDOnS, SITELLE.

QrunID Instrument HST Dates # Nights Status Run Summary
17AQ01 MegaCam Feb 1-2 2 Done
17AQ02 ESPaDOnS Feb 3-16 14 Done The detector has been switched to the Olapa 2amp mode, and the readout time is now shorter by 50%. The run was severly impacted by weather: 7 consecutive nights were lost to high winds, sometimes accompanied by fog or clouds.
17AQ03 MegaCam Feb 17 - Mar 2 14 Done The weather was a chanllenge this run, especially during the second half of the run. We lost 75h to clouds, snow, ice, and high humidity.
17AQ04 ESPaDOnS Mar 3-13 11 Done This 11-night run was affected by high humidity, mostly during the second half of the run. Three full nights were lost to weather, and we were closed for a few hours on four other nights.
17AQ05 WIRCam Mar 14-19 6 Done This short WIRCam run was very productive. Only one night was affected by thin cirrus, and about 1h to lost to a technical issue with the Telescope Control System. Image Quality was better than 1", and at times, as good as 0.5" in J band.
17AQ06 MegaCam Mar 20 - Apr 3 15 Done This was a very good run for MegaCam: the equivalent of about 1 night was lost to weather, and only one hour was lost to technical issues. The seeing was above 1 arcsec for a little over one night, forcing us to use different programs.
17AQ07 WIRCam Apr 4-17 14 Done An excellent run, with no time lost to technical issues and only 11h lost to weather. Almost 80% of the hours in A and B programs have been validated, and we still have 45% of the nights remaining!
17AQ08 MegaCam Apr 18 - May 3 16 Done Roughly half of the nights were photometric, and the rest was affected by clouds (thin or thick), fog, or high winds. The summit received a few inches of snow in early May!
17AQ09 ESPaDOnS May 4-15 12 Done This was an excellent run for ESPaDOnS, with a little more than 2 nights lost to weather (high humidity). The Image Quality was most of the time around 0.6-0.8 arcsec.
17AQ10 MegaCam May 16-30 15 Done This long run was quite successful. Only 9 hours were lost to weather (thick clouds), although a few other nights were also affected by thin cirrus. There were no major technical issues.
17AQ11 ESPaDOnS May 31 - Jun 6 7 Done Observations were performed every night, despite the presence of clouds on some nights. This was the last ESPaDOnS run of semester 2017A. Overall, 88% of A and B ranked programs have been completed.
17AQ12 WIRCam Jun 7-14 8 Done This relatively short WIRCam run was successful, despite about 2.5h of sky time lost to weather (high humidity mostly) and 2.5h of data significantly affected by extinction. The completion rate of 2017A program is already very good to excellent.
17AQ13 MegaCam Jun 15-27 13 Done This was a successful run despite 22h lost to clouds and precipitation, especially in the first half of the run. The seeing was quite variable at times, but there were a few instances of 0.4-0.5" seeing.
17AQ14 SITELLE Jun 28 - Jul 5 8 Done The weather was very good during this run, with only 5 hours lost to high humidity. Thin cirrus affected some of the observations. The new C4 filter was used. Metrology was lost a few times, requiring 1h30 in total to perform re-initialization of the instrument. A few technical issues with SITELLE remain, and will be addressed after the run.
17AQ15 WIRCam Jul 6-13 8 Done The completion rate of WIRCam programs is excellent for 2017A. A and B programs have been completed to 99%. Two thirds of the hours available for C programs have also been validated.
17AQ16 MegaCam Jul 14-31 18 Done A few nights were lost to weather or affected by clouds. The completion rate of A and B programs is excellent or very good in most cases.