The QSO Project QSO Manager: Nadine Manset ESPaDOnS Main Coordinator: Nadine Manset System Programmer: Tom Vermeulen Database Specialist: Billy Mahoney Senior Service Observer: Todd Burdullis Service Observers: Mary Beth Laychak, Peter Forshay, Adam Draginda, Rachael Zelman

Welcome to the QSO Page! This section presents the most recent news regarding the QSO mode with MegaCam, WIRCam and ESPaDOnS! Come back often and stay informed on the progress made in our QSO endeavor...

Last update: 11/28/2008

• PH2 is open for 2009A - PH2 is now open for 2009A.
  The closing date is December 16 2008 at 14h HST.
  The telescope schedule will be prepared after PIs have all entered their PH2; if not knowing the telescope schedule in advance causes problems for your PH2, please email qsoteam -=at=- cfht.hawaii.edu for further instructions.
  NEW for 09A: we now offer non-sidereal tracking with all 3 instruments. Please consult the Tutorials for a few helpful tips.
  

• Minor schedule change - The December ESPaDOnS run has been lengthened by one night, and the following MegaCam run shortened by one night.

• Minor schedule change - The November WIRCam run will be shortened by 1 night, and the following MegaCam run extended.

• Minor schedule change - The f/8 aluminization that was planned for Sep/Oct (with an engineering night to re-align the f/8 mirror on Oct 13) has been postponed. The schedule was adjusted: the Oct ESPaDOnS run is shifted by 1 night and the following MegaCam run is extended by 1 night; the Nov/Dec MegaCam run is shortened by 1 night, and the engineering night will take place on Dec 3. The Dec ESPaDOnS run has not been touched.

• Updated priorities! For MegaCam, the 54 hours of CFHTLS are in top priority above all C and F other allocations (PI or LPs or other CFHTLS time). This means that the LP, remaining CFHTLS allocation (100hr), C and F Agencies (PI programs) are all competing for time with equal priorities.

• PH2 for 2008B is now closed! The QSO Team will review all programs and contact PIs if clarifications or modifications are needed.

• IMPORTANT NOTE (II): For communicating with the QSO Team, it is very important to use the alias qsoteam@cfht.hawaii.edu (or better, use the PH2 Helpdesk). In the past, a large fraction of emails have been only sent directly to QSO Project Scientist, Pierre Martin. However, Pierre has left CFHT Aug 1st, and will not be checking his CFHT email address for long! Thanks for your cooperation!

• The QSO Schedule for MegaCam, WIRCam and ESPaDOnS for 2008B is given below.
  

• The report for semester 2008A with MegaCam, WIRCam, and ESPaDOnS is now available.
• Reports from previous semesters are available in the Documentation and Reports section.

• 08BQ10 - No major technical issues with WIRCam. The run was affected by weather (frequent thin cirrus, overcast skies, high humidity) but observations were carried on most nights. We are progressing slowly but surely on a few programs with a large number of allocated hours.
• 08BQ09 - Slightly more than half of the run had good weather, the rest was affected by high humidity or overcast skies, and it even snowed a little bit. There were no major technical issues, and we continued to make progress on high priority programs.
• 08BQ08 - The majority of this 7-night ESPaDOnS run was affected by thin cirrus to overcast skies, but we never stopped observing. Some exposures do not have enough flux to be reduced, but we tried anyway. Despite the difficult conditions, all highly ranked programs requesting strict time scheduling were executed as best as the conditions permitted. A few hours were taken on the sky to measure the cross-talk with a new triplet lens (new materials, new design). The cross-talk has decreased by a factor of 4, which is excellent! Some engineering was also executed to test the non-sidereal tracking, but more work remains.

  Data from June 2007 were indicating the following cross-talk:

    crosstalk from v to q: -2.8% 
    crosstalk from v to u: -2.9% 
  implying a total crosstalk from circular to linear of 4.03% 
  

  The new lens, currently installed, shows:

    crosstalk from v to q:  0.98% 
    crosstalk from v to u: -0.25%
  implying a total crosstalk from circular to linear of 1.01% 
  

• 08BQ07 - Weather more typical of winter affected this short 6-night WIRCam run. All nights were affected by thin or thick clouds. Only 28 hours of data were validated, and 21 hours were lost to clouds. There were no technical problems with WIRCam, but a telescope hydraulics leak cost 2 hours of cirrus-filled sky.
• 08BQ06 - The weather was good for a Fall run, with 20 hours lost to high humidity or clouds. Time lost to technical problems was similar to the previous run, about 5 hours. A couple more hours were taken to characterize in more details the non sidereal tracking capabilities of the telescope. Because of the time lost to weather, we were only able to validate 6.5 hours per night on average. The 54 hours of high priority CFHTLS observations have been completed.
• 08BQ05 - The second WIRCam run was blessed with 14 nights of photometric conditions, and very good Image Quality (around 0.6" in Ks in general, with a few hours of variable seeing). Some time was taken on the sky to do engineering for the non-sidereal tracking mode that we plan to offer for 2009A. A little less than 3 hrs were lost to technical problems, which did not impact science too much since we were able to obtain a little over 8 hrs of validated data per night, an excellent performance.
• 08BQ04 - The second MegaCam run was exceptionally good weather-wise: all nights were photometric, and the Image Quality histogram peaks below 0.75 arcsec! The average exposure + readout time was 8.2hrs per night, despite a few technical problems which cost about 5.5 hrs. Among those problems, there was condensation in MegaPrime; the few affected images are clearly marked as so. A few more exposures are affected by slight vignetting from the Guide Probes. Under 1.5hrs were spent on on-sky tests of non-sidereal tracking.
• 08BQ03 - The first ESPaDOnS run of 2008B went very well. The 7 nights were all photometric, and had in general sub-arcsec seeing. A few exposures were affected by or could not be executed because of high winds. For the first 3 nights, an oil leak problem with the F/8 secondary mirror caused focus problems, but the observer was manually adjusting the telescope focus whenever necessary. Four programs requesting specific time constraints, time delays, or requiring long blocks of uninterrupted observing were successfully started or even completed.
• 08BQ02 - The first WIRCam run also went very well, with only a bit more than 1 night lost to fog and high humidity. The Image Quality was in general excellent.
• 08BQ01 - The first 2008B QSO run, with MegaCam, was very productive. Some time was lost to high humidity or thick clouds, but overall a lot of data were acquired, with good IQ in general. A few exposures were lost to condensation on the dewar window right after a fast peak in high humidity; the air flow was increased the following day. Other than that, there were no technical problems with MegaCam at all!

QSO Run summaries for previous semesters are available starting with 2004A.

As with all the other types of CFHT observing programs, the first step for applying for time in a queue mode is to submit a proposal to the Time Allocation Committee. For the Canadian, French and Taiwanese communities, this must be done through CADC's Web interface, Poopsy. All the necessary information for queue proposals with MegaPrime, WIRCam and ESPaDOnS for the semester 2009A can be found in the Web documents below. It is STRONGLY recommended to carefully read the relevant document before starting to work with Poopsy Investigators should spend some time to familiarize themselves with the QSO concept, the characteristics of the instruments, and the general procedures.

New for 2009A:

• CFHT will likely offer non-sidereal tracking in QSO mode for all 3 QSO instruments . With this option, targets defined with ephemeris will get their non-sidereal rates calculated and sent to the Telescope Control System. Non-sidereal guiding is not offered; only tracking with non-sidereal rates will be available. If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact the QSO Team at qso-=at=-cfht.hawaii.edu .
• The minimum exposure time for WIRCam has been lowered to 2.5s.

For more information concerning the QSO Project and for any help during the preparation of your queue proposal, contact the QSO Team.

2008B information still available: [ MegaCam programs ] [ WIRCam programs ] [ ESPaDOnS programs ]

The phase 2 period for accepted proposals for 2009A with MegaCam, WIRCam and ESPaDOnS is OPEN!
The deadline is December 16 2008 at 14:00 (HST). Please note the following new information:

1. The telescope schedule will be prepared after PIs have all entered their PH2; if not knowing the telescope schedule in advance causes problems for your PH2, please email qsoteam -=at=- cfht.hawaii.edu for further instructions.
2. NEW for 09A: we now offer non-sidereal tracking with all 3 instruments. Please consult the Tutorials for a few helpful tips (about guiding, maximum length of exposures, disabled options, etc).
3. If you have any question or comment, please email the QSO Team (qsoteam -=at=- cfht.hawaii.edu). Do NOT email individual members of the team, because this can delay answers depending on each member's schedule.

QSO MegaCam Programs for 2009A.The following table presents all the approved QSO proposals for MegaCam for the semester 2009A.

QSO WIRCam Programs for 2009A. The following table presents all the approved QSO proposals for WIRCam for the semester 2009A.

QSO ESPaDOnS Programs for 2009A. The following table presents all the approved QSO proposals for ESPaDOnS for the semester 2009A.

PH2 is a sophisticated Web based tool designed specifically for the Phase 2 submission of observations with CFH12K, MegaCam, WIRCam, and ESPaDOnS. It is available from the CFHT Web site, with also a replicated backup site installed at the summit, through an UserID/Password system. Although it is simple to use, we suggest that you spend some time reading the respective tutorials below. The tutorial is basically divided into two parts: an overview and a detailed description. Most of the questions related to the tool can probably be answered by first looking at these sections. However, any questions related to PH2 or the QSO program in general can be sent to the QSO Team by emailing qsoteam -=at=- cfht.hawaii.edu.

You need to contact the QSO Team? Please send an email to qsoteam -=at=- cfht.hawaii.edu. During a QSO run, communication between the investigators and the QSO Team will be done exclusively through the QSO Coordinator, not the QSO observer. For the status of your program, please refer first to the Web night reports (below).

HelpDesk

HelpDesk

The QSO mode is well-adapted for target-of-opportunity programs. If you want to submit unpredictable TOO observations to be carried out in a queue mode with the MegaCam, WIRCam or ESPaDOnS during the current semester, you must fill up a special Web form. Following this information, the CFHT Executive Director will review your proposal. If telescope time is allocated, the QSO Team will extract the necessary information from the Web form, prepare the observations and include your program in the queue database. If you have already received telescope time from the TAC for your TOO program, you do NOT have to fill this form...

The complete CFHT TOO policy and the proposal submission form are available below:

During a semester, night reports are available from this page, after data evaluation performed by the QSO Team (done following each observing night).  The night report page allows the user also to extract the current status on the QSO programs. Thus, you will not have to contact us to know what's happening with your observing program.  We are also publishing some statistics on the QSO mode during a given semester (see next section). More information, notably regarding the weather conditions and data distribution, have also been added to these reports. Suggestions are also welcome!

QSO Night Reports

The current statistics on the QSO mode are now available on this page. This includes the time distribution for the different Agencies as well as some global numbers on the programs.

Current Statistics (MegaCam)

Current Statistics (WIRCam)

Current Statistics (ESPaDOnS)

The proprietary period of QSO data extends by default to 1 year + 1 month starting at the end of the QSO semester. For instance, data taken for the 2008A semester (February 1 - July 31) will have a default release date set to 08/31/2009. The extra month is allowed because of possible delays in the data reduction distribution of observations carried out near the end of a semester. If an extension is requested in Poopsy during the Phase 1 period and is approved by TAC, a new date will be set for this program through the QSO system. This release date for the QSO data is indicated in the fits headers by the keyword REL_DATE.

Note: Since data can be taken at almost any time during a semester in a queue mode, it will not be possible to change the release date after the beginning of a semester. For snapshot programs, the proprietary period is three months following the end of the semester. The CFHTLS data have a different release date, regarding the proprietary period system supported by the Board of Directors.

QSO Project Technical Documentation

QSO reports for semesters: 2007B 2007A 2006B 2006A 2005B 2005A 2004B 2004A 2003B 2003A 2002B 2002A 2001B 2001A