RPPR - Preview Report - National Optical Astronomy ...National Optical Astronomy Observatories and the National Solar Observatory,” dated July 19, 2001. • Be responsible for the

Major Activities:

Specific Objectives:

Federal Agency and Organization Element to Which Reportis Submitted:

4900

Federal Grant or Other Identifying Number Assigned byAgency:

0244680

Project Title: Cooperative Agreement for the Management,Operation and the Maintenance of the NationalOptical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO)

PD/PI Name: William S Smith, Principal InvestigatorDavid R. Silva, Co-Principal Investigator

Submitting Official (if other than PD\PI): William S SmithPrincipal Investigator

Submission Date: 02/01/2014

Recipient Organization: Association of Universities for Research inAstronomy, Inc.

Project/Grant Period: 10/01/2002 - 12/31/2013

Reporting Period: 10/01/2013 - 12/31/2013

Signature of Submitting Official (signature shall be submittedin accordance with agency specific instructions)

William S Smith

Cover

Accomplishments

* What are the major goals of the project?

The management, operation, and maintenance of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) inaccordance with proposal No. AST-0132798, “AURA Management and Operation of the National Optical AstronomyObservatories and the National Solar Observatory,” dated July 19, 2001.Be responsible for the overall welfare of NOAO and maximize the benefits to the astronomical community of theresources within NOAO.Be responsible for the planning, initiation, and execution of programs and activities designed to serve the optimalinterests of the US scientific community involved in optical and infrared astronomy and shall accomplish this byutilizing recommendations such as those provided by the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee of theNational Research Council, by interacting with the affected scientific community, with NOAO, and with the NSF toassure a mutual integration of the respective needs and priorities.Ensure that NOAO maintains its character as an institution which primarily enables first rate visitor research, while alsohaving strong internal research programs and leading community-based initiatives in the relevant disciplines.

* What was accomplished under these goals (you must provide information for at least one of the 4categories below)?

• Staff, manage, operate, maintain, and develop NOAO in accordance with ProgramPlans approved inwriting by NSF.• Develop new instruments, techniques, and software for astronomical observations,data analysis, anddata utilization which exploit existing NOAO telescopes.

Please see attached pdf for further project details.

RPPR - Preview Report https://reporting.research.gov/rppr-web/rppr?execution=e1s2

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Significant Results:

Key outcomes orOther achievements:

* What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Nothing to report.

* How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Nothing to report.

Supporting Files

Filename Description Uploaded By Uploaded On

SPO-1 Final Report_final.pdf SPO 1 Final Report William Smith 02/01/2014

Products

JournalsNothing to report.

BooksNothing to report.

Book ChaptersNothing to report.

Thesis/DissertationsNothing to report.

Conference Papers and PresentationsNothing to report.

Other PublicationsNothing to report.

Technologies or TechniquesNothing to report.

PatentsNothing to report.

InventionsNothing to report.

LicensesNothing to report.

WebsitesNothing to report.

Other ProductsNothing to report.Supporting Files



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Images for SPO-1 Final Report Upload.pdf Image file William Smith 02/01/2014

Participants

Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) fundingNothing to report.

REU Comments: None

What individuals have worked on the project?

Name Most Senior Project Role Nearest Person Month Worked

William S Smith PD/PI 1

David R. Silva Co PD/PI 1

See attached PDF - Other 0

What other organizations have been involved as partners?Nothing to report.

Have other collaborators or contacts been involved? N

Impacts

What is the impact on the development of the principal discipline(s) of the project?Nothing to report.

What is the impact on other disciplines?Nothing to report.

What is the impact on the development of human resources?Nothing to report.

What is the impact on physical resources that form infrastructure?Nothing to report.

What is the impact on institutional resources that form infrastructure?Nothing to report.

What is the impact on information resources that form infrastructure?Nothing to report.

What is the impact on technology transfer?Nothing to report.

What is the impact on society beyond science and technology?Nothing to report.

Changes


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Changes in approach and reason for changeNothing to report.

Actual or Anticipated problems or delays and actions or plans to resolve themNothing to report.

Changes that have a significant impact on expendituresNothing to report.

Significant changes in use or care of human subjectsNothing to report.

Significant changes in use or care of vertebrate animalsNothing to report.

Significant changes in use or care of biohazardsNothing to report.


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NOAO Final Report

for

AST-0244680

1 October 2013 – 31 December 2013

Submitted to the National Science Foundation Pursuant to Scientific Program Order No. 1 (AST-‐0244680), Article 5-C

Awarded Under Cooperative Agreement No. AST-‐0132798

NOAO is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy under cooperative agreement with the National Science Foundation

Support of the Management, Operations, and Maintenance of the

National Optical Astronomy Observatory

1

1 ACCOMPLISHMENTS

MAJOR GOALS OF THE PROJECT

• The management, operation, and maintenance of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories (NOAO) in accordance with proposal No. AST-0132798, “AURA Management and Operation of the National Optical Astronomy Observatories and the National Solar Observatory,” dated July 19, 2001.

• Be responsible for the overall welfare of NOAO and maximize the benefits to the astronomical community of the resources within NOAO.

• Be responsible for the planning, initiation, and execution of programs and activities designed to serve the optimal interests of the US scientific community involved in optical and infrared astronomy and shall accomplish this by utilizing recommendations such as those provided by the Astronomy and Astrophysics Survey Committee of the National Research Council, by interacting with the affected scientific community, with NOAO, and with the NSF to assure a mutual integration of the respective needs and priorities.

• Ensure that NOAO maintains its character as an institution which primarily enables first rate visitor research, while also having strong internal research programs and leading community-based initiatives in the relevant disciplines.

MAJOR ACTIVITIES

• Staff, manage, operate, maintain, and develop NOAO in accordance with Program Plans approved in writing by NSF.

• Develop new instruments, techniques, and software for astronomical observations, data analysis, and data utilization which exploit existing NOAO telescopes.

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES The expenditure of the NSF funds carried forward from FY 2012 for the support of the management, operations, and maintenance of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory under award SPO-1 AST-0244680. This includes funding for ReSTAR projects (see below) and non-NSF-funded grants to NOAO scientific staff handled through interagency transfers carried forward from FY 2012. The period of activity for reporting purposes is 1 October through 31 December 2013.

ReSTAR Funding Carried Over to FY 2013 and FY 2014

This section describes the activities and expenditures on the still-in-progress instrument projects funded under the ReSTAR Funding Supplement granted under SPO-1 and received near the end of FY 2009 (FY09). These are the KOSMOS project (Kitt Peak Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph, being carried out in partnership with The Ohio State University (OSU) and the Hydra-South Upgrade project that is to implement a new CCD and controller hardware for the existing Hydra-South spectrograph.

At the beginning of FY13, the only remaining SPO-1 funds were $608 in the KOSMOS account and $12,576 in the Hydra-South Upgrade account. Based on the decision to cancel the Hydra-South Upgrade project as described in the Key Outcomes or Other Achievements section below, the balance in the Hydra-South account was transferred to the KOSMOS account during FY13 and used to compensate OSU for part of the additional costs incurred in resolving the camera lens mounting issues (Changes in Approach and Reason for Change section). By the end of FY13, all SPO-1 funds had been fully expended and both the KOSMOS and Hydra-Upgrade accounts were at zero balances.

AST-0244680 NOAO SPO-1 Final Project Report

2

Non-NSF-Funded Programs

All non-NSF grants funded through interagency transfers were spent down to a zero balance by the end of FY13. There was no change to that during this reporting period.

Title Principal

Investigator Funding Agency NOAO

Account Unexpended

Funds X ray Investigation in the LMC II

Sean Points NASA (NNGO6EQ01I)

NZC009005 $0

Transition Objects and the Diversity of Planetary Systems

Joan Najita NASA (NNH07AG51I)

NZK017001 $0

TOTAL: $ 0

SIGNIFICANT RESULTS KOSMOS

None to report.

KEY OUTCOMES OR OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS KOSMOS

KOSMOS was delivered to Kitt Peak on 3 October 2013 and installed on the Mayall 4-m telescope. The first commissioning run for KOSMOS was October 7–10. Its second commissioning run was 12–17 December 2013. During the two commissioning runs, all major modes of instrument operation—imaging, long-slit spectroscopy, and multi-slit spectroscopy—were successfully demonstrated (see uploaded images). NOAO accepted the instrument at the conclusion of the second commissioning run, and the contract with OSU was closed by 31 December 2013.

Hydra-South Upgrade

The NSF Astronomy Division’s Portfolio Review report was released in late FY12. In that report the NSF made clear that significant reductions would be made in NOAO’s overall budget over the next three years. In the interest of reducing operations costs, NOAO South is moving toward a model of supporting fewer instruments and, hence, needing fewer instrument changes. In addition, the advent of DECam observing by both the general community and the DES survey team has significantly decreased the amount of telescope time available for science with other instruments such as Hydra. Finally, CTIO has begun a program of time trades with the Australian Astronomical Observatory whereby Australian astronomers get access to non-DES time on DECam, and US astronomers get access to the wide-field 2df spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). Because of all these deep changes in the surrounding circumstances, NOAO has decided that there is no remaining benefit to pursuing the Hydra-South upgrade. The project was cancelled near the end of FY13, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) CCD purchased for the upgrade will instead be used as a spare for the identical detectors being deployed on KOSMOS and COSMOS (the Cerro Tololo Ohio State Multi-Object Spectrograph). This outcome was previously reported in the FY 2013 Annual Fiscal Report for SPO-1, and there have been no further developments with respect to the Hydra Upgrade since then.

NOAO SPO-1 Final Project Report AST-0244680

3

OPPORTUNITIES FOR TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT KOSMOS

Rebecca Stoll, a graduate student at The Ohio State University, worked on the KOSMOS project under the direction of Dr. Paul Martini, her dissertation advisor and Project Scientist for the KOSMOS project. She carried out modeling of certain aspects of instrument performance and analyzed data from as-built components to verify the results of her modeling. She completed her dissertation defense and received her PhD degree during FY13.

DISSEMINATION OF RESULTS TO COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST KOSMOS

Updates on project status and performance of as-built components have been given to the astronomical community representatives through regular presentations to the NOAO Users Committee and the AURA Observatory Council. In addition, NOAO has disseminated information about KOSMOS through its booths and presentations at meetings of the American Astronomical Society. Descriptions of KOSMOS and updates on its status have appeared in many editions of the NOAO Newsletter. Finally, updates have been posted on the project website as described in the Websites subsection of the Products section below.

PLANS FOR NEXT REPORTING PERIOD KOSMOS

As this is the final report on SPO-1, there will be no reporting period after this one. KOSMOS is complete and the contract is closed, so there are no further covered activities planned. For observing semester 2014A (February–July 2014), some users of the older Ritchey-Chrétien (R-C) Spectrograph will be offered KOSMOS as an alternative for their observing projects. KOSMOS will enter routine service as a facility instrument with the 2014B observing semester.

2 PRODUCTS Journal Publications:

None to report.

Books or Other Non-Periodical, One-time Publications:

None to report.

Book Chapters:

None to report.

Thesis/Dissertations:

None to report.

Conference Papers and Presentations:

None to report.

Other Publications:

None to report.

Technologies or Techniques:

None to report.


4

Patents:

None to report.

Inventions:

None to report.

Licenses:

None to report.

Websites:

A website, http://www.noao.edu/nstc/kosmos/, provides links to documentation and progress related to the KOSMOS project.

Other Products:

The principal product resulting from the work is the KOSMOS instrument itself; all the hardware and software needed to provide this significant improvement in science capability has come into being only because of the support provided through SPO-1.

3 PARTICIPANTS

PROJECT PERSONNEL Name: William Smith E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: PI Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: AURA President Funding Support: AURA Inc. Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: David Silva E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Co-PI Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: NOAO Director Funding Support: NSF AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: David Sprayberry E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: Management and oversight of ReSTAR projects


5

Funding Support: NSF AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: Verne Smith E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: Associate Director for the NOAO System Science Center Funding Support: AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: Nicole van der Bliek E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: Interim Associate Director for NOAO South Funding Support: AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: Robert Blum E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: NOAO Deputy Director Funding Support: AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: Tod Lauer E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: Head of Program for Office of Science Funding Support: AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay:


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Name: Stephen Pompea E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: Manager of Education and Public Outreach Funding Support: AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: Timothy Abbott E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: NOAO South Engineering & Technical Services Head of Program Funding Support: AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: Lori Allen E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist Nearest Person Month Worked: 0 Contribution to the Project: KPNO Director Funding Support: AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: Jay Elias E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist Nearest Person Month Worked: 1 Contribution to the Project: KOSMOS Project Manager, NOAO North Engineering & Technical

Services Head of Program Funding Support: AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay: Name: Sean Points E-mail Address: [email protected] Most Senior Project Role: Doctoral level staff scientist


7

Nearest Person Month Worked: 2 Contribution to the Project: KOSMOS Project Scientist Funding Support: AST-0950945 Collaborated with Individual in Foreign Country? Yes If Yes, Country(ies) of Foreign Collaborator: Chile Traveled to Foreign Country? No If Yes, List Which and Duration of Stay:

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVED AS PARTNERS Organization Name: The Ohio State University

Type of Partner Organization: Academic Institution Location (include country, if foreign): Columbus, OH Contribution to the Project: ReSTAR Phase 1 implementation partner Y/N Type of Contribution to Project

Y Financial Support Y Facilities (e.g., project staff use the partner’s facilities for project activities) Y Personnel exchanges (e.g., project staff and/or partner’s staff use each other’s facilities,

work at each other’s site) Y In-kind support (e.g., partner makes software, computers, equipment, etc., available to

project staff) Y Collaborative research (e.g., partner’s staff work with project staff on the project) N Other

Organization Name: California Institute of Technology Type of Partner Organization: Academic Institution Location (include country, if foreign): Pasadena, CA Contribution to the Project: ReSTAR Phase 1 implementation partner Y/N Type of Contribution to Project

N Financial Support Y Facilities (e.g., project staff use the partner’s facilities for project activities) N Personnel exchanges (e.g., project staff and/or partner’s staff use each other’s facilities,

work at each other’s site) Y In-kind support (e.g., partner makes software, computers, equipment, etc., available to

project staff) N Collaborative research (e.g., partner’s staff work with project staff on the project) N Other


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4 IMPACTS

ON DEVELOPMENT OF PRINCIPAL DISCIPLINE(S) KOSMOS will provide a greatly enhanced and more powerful spectroscopic capability for the entire US astronomical community. Research conducted with KOSMOS will address frontline questions across all fields of astrophysics.

ON OTHER DISCIPLINES Nothing to report.

ON DEVELOPMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES The KOSMOS project has supported a graduate student at OSU, Rebecca Stoll, through the completion and defense of her PhD dissertation. Because of this project, an early-career astronomer has gained valuable experience in a real instrument project of significant scale. Such experience is becoming much more difficult to get as funding sources for instrument development become more constrained.

ON PHYSICAL RESOURCES THAT FORM INFRASTRUCTURE KOSMOS will become part of the suite of facility instruments at Kitt Peak National Observatory, thus enlarging the physical infrastructure available to support astronomical research by the broad US community.

ON INSTITUTIONAL RESOURCES THAT FORM INFRASTRUCTURE Nothing to report.

ON INFORMATION RESOURCES THAT FORM INFRASTRUCTURE Nothing to report.

ON TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER Design solutions found to resolve the complex challenges of building KOSMOS, in particular the design for the oil-filled compound lens cells, will be published in peer-reviewed journals to ensure that the ideas are accessible to other instrument teams facing similar challenges.

ON SOCIETY BEYOND SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Nothing to report.

5 CHANGES/PROBLEMS

CHANGES IN APPROACH AND REASON FOR CHANGE KOSMOS

The basic approach and design of the instrument did not change. It did become necessary to change the assembly process for the camera barrel because the cemented compound lenses called for in the original design could not survive over the required temperature range. The assembly process was changed to employ liquid oil as the optical couplant, which in turn required a new design for the cells to hold these compound lenses. The new cell design had to seal the oil within the inter-element spaces while still providing a means for the oil to expand and contract with changing temperatures. This new design was


9

developed at OSU, tested in a prototype cell there, and fabricated at NOAO. The new cells were assembled at NOAO by the combined OSU-NOAO team and successfully tested before incorporation into the instrument. This outcome was reported previously in the FY 2013 Annual Fiscal Report for SPO-1. Hydra-South Upgrade

The project was cancelled because of changes in surrounding circumstances. First, deep permanent cuts in NOAO funding make supporting Hydra at CTIO financially untenable for the long term. Second, community demand is shifting more toward use of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), and two other new instruments will be arriving at the Blanco over the next two years (COSMOS and TripleSpec4). Third, the implementation of time trades with the Australian Astronomical Observatory gives the US community access to a wide-field, multi-object, fiber-fed spectrograph in the Southern Hemisphere via 2df on the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). This outcome was reported previously in the FY 2013 Annual Fiscal Report for SPO-1.

ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED PROBLEMS OR DELAYS AND RESOLUTION ACTIONS OR PLANS KOSMOS

The only significant problem was the failure of the cement bonds in the camera doublet and triplet lenses to survive over the specified temperature range. This problem was resolved through the implementation of liquid coupling of the compound lenses as described in the Changes in Approach and Reason for Change section above. This outcome was reported previously in the FY 2013 Annual Fiscal Report for SPO-1.

Hydra-South Upgrade

Problems were encountered with the NOAO budget being sufficient to provide for long-term support of Hydra, with shifts in community interest, and with the need for Hydra in the face of new access to a more capable spectrograph on the AAT. These problems were resolved by cancellation of the project and conversion of the detector to a spare for KOSMOS and COSMOS. This outcome was reported previously in the FY 2013 Annual Fiscal Report for SPO-1.

CHANGES WITH SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON EXPENDITURES KOSMOS

The implementation of liquid coupling for the compound lenses in the camera required an amendment to the subaward to OSU of $39,609 to cover part of the total costs for designing and testing the liquid-filled cells. OSU agreed to cover a portion of the costs itself, some of the remainder was covered by a reduction in payments to the optics vendor in return for OSU’s acceptance of the individual lens elements instead of the completely assembled camera, and the balance was covered by a contract amendment providing an additional payment to OSU. The additional payment was largely covered by a transfer of SPO-1 funds from the Hydra-South account with a minor contribution from other (base budget) funds. This outcome was reported previously in the FY 2013 Annual Fiscal Report for SPO-1.

Hydra-South Upgrade

Cancellation of the project did not affect the expenditure of SPO-1 funds. Those funds were intended to cover only the LBNL CCD and the controller hardware, both of which have been paid for and set aside. Cancellation will result in a reallocation of NOAO base budget (non-SPO-1) funds in the approximate


10

amount of $115,000, because the labor required to perform the upgrade will now be used on other observatory priorities. This outcome was reported previously in the SPO-1 “Annual Fiscal Report FY 2013.”

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN USE OR CARE OF HUMAN SUBJECTS Nothing to report.

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN USE OR CARE OF VERTEBRATE ANIMALS Nothing to report.

SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN USE OR CARE OF BIOHAZARDS Nothing to report.

AST-0244680 SPO-1 Final Report Uploaded images pertaining to “Key Outcomes or Other Achievements”

Figure 1: False-color KOSMOS image of the planetary nebula M57, created by combining monochrome

images taken in B, V, and Hα filters. The red line shows the position of the slit for the spectrum illustrated

in Figure 2. Figures 1 and 2 were taken during the first commissioning run of KOSMOS in October 2013.

Figure 2: Spectrum of M57 taken with the blue grism on KOSMOS. Spectral resolution (λ/Δλ) is about

2200 Å.

Figure 3: Measured total system throughput for KOSMOS with the blue and red grisms. These curves

show total throughput from the top of the atmosphere through the CCD detector, including the telescope

optics. For reference, the older R-C Spectrograph on the Mayall telescope has a peak efficiency of <20%.

Documents

RPPR - Preview Report - National Optical Astronomy ...National Optical Astronomy Observatories and the National Solar Observatory,” dated July 19, 2001. • Be responsible for the