From rayner@galileo.ifa.hawaii.edu Wed Oct 23 08:01:56 2002 Date: Sat, 12 Oct 2002 14:42:27 -1000 (HST) From: John Rayner To: onaka@jeans.ifa.hawaii.edu, tokunaga@jeans.ifa.hawaii.edu Cc: techgroup@jeans.ifa.hawaii.edu Subject: needed SpeX work Peter and Alan, I'd like to request one to two weeks of Tony's time for much needed work on Guidedog to support remote observing and remote support. This work has been held up for over a year now. SpeX gets 50% of telescope time and it's currently getting zero software support. The priorities are set at the Managers meeting. Needed work: 1. Upgrade of Guidedog computer from 110MHz SparcII to 360Mhz SparcIII allowing multiple copies of DV. The new Sparc has been sitting on the shelf for over a year now. 2. Software improvements to Guidedog and DV. 3. Add commands to safe SpeX on quitting. Observers often forget to do this leaving window exposed (anything dropped from above by the day crew and the daily dust and debris). 4. Add the 'z' focus command to the SpeX GUI which will allow autofocus whenever this is implemented. I think we're the only telescope on the mountain which still has a 'turn- the-knob-and-see-what-it-looks-like' focus. I'm planning 3-4 weeks of SpeX downtime for maintenance (including new filters if they finally arrive) early next semester (February or March). This work needs to be done no later than then. It would help if Tony had time to do some preparation. Thanks, John --------------------------------------------- John T. Rayner Institute for Astronomy, University of Hawaii 2680 Woodlawn Drive Honolulu, Hawaii 96822 Phone: (808) 956-9846 Fax: (808) 988-3893 rayner@ifa.hawaii.edu