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NOAO Long Range Plan National Optical Astronomy Observatories NATIONAL OPTICAL ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORIES LONG RANGE PLAN FY 1993 - FY 1997 March 17,1992 National Optical Astronomy HObservatories PP. Box 26732 Tucson, AZ 85726-6732 1 : <2(; i)AO; I..' i h ! r e ;-• i r. r TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 I. INTRODUCTION AND PLAN OVERVIEW 4 II. NIGHTTIME ASTRONOMY 6 A. Science at CTIO and KPNO 6 1. The Large-Scale Structure of the Universe 6 2. The Formation and Evolution of Galaxies 7 3. Stellar Structure and Evolution 10 4. Star-Formation 11 B. Initiatives for CTIO and KPNO 12 1. Gemini 12 2. WIYN 14 3. 4-m Telescopes at CTIO 15 4. The 2 um All Sky Survey (2MASS) 16 5. Beyond 8-m Telescopes 17 C. Instrumentation for CTIO and KPNO 17 1. Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 19 2. Kitt Peak National Observatory 25 a. KPNO Infrared 26 b. KPNO Optical-Ultraviolet (O/UV) 31 c. 3.5-m Mirror Project 33 in. SOLAR ASTRONOMY 34 A. Science at NSO 34 1. Internal Dynamics 34 2. Magneto-Convection 35 B. Initiatives for NSO 39 1. Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG) Project 39 2. Large Earth-based Solar Telescope (LEST) 42 3. Upgrade of the McMath Teleseope to a 4-m Aperture "The Big Mc" 43 4. Advanced Reflecting Coronagraph (ARC) 44 C. Instrumentation for NSO 46 IV. OBSERVATORY OPERATIONS 55 A. Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory 55 B. Kitt Peak National Observatory 58 C. National Solar Observatory 60 V. NOAO OPERATIONS 64 A. Scientific Staff 64 B. Computer Support 64 C. Facilities Maintenance 73 VI. BUDGET 79 Index of Tables Table 1 - CTIO Five-Year Instrumentation Plan Summary 19 Table 2 - KPNO IR Five-Year Instrumentation Plan Summary 25 Table 3 - KPNO O/UV Five-Year Instrumentation Plan Summary 30 Table 4 - NSO Five-Year Instrumentation Plan Summary 46 Table 5 - CTIO Telescope/Instrument Combinations 56 Table 6 - KPNO Telescope/Instrument Combinations 59 Table 7 - NSO Telescope/Instrument Combinations 63 Table 8 - NOAO/Tucson Schedule of Major Capital Expenditures 65 Table 9 - KPNO Schedule of Major Capital Expenditures 65 Table 10 - CTIO Schedule of Major Capital Expenditures 67 Table 11 - NSO Schedule of Major Capital Expenditures 67 Table 12 - NSO/T and NSO/KP Schedule of Major Capital Expenditures 68 Table 13 - Maintenance Requirements 74 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The mission of NOAO, according to a letter sent to the NSF by AURA in May 1988, is "to conduct world-class scientific investigations in exploring the universe at optical and infrared wavelengths. This includes building, operating, and conducting research with world-class facilities of a range of sizes and technical capabilities open to all US astronomers; and coordinating, participating in, and often leading the technology development programs essential to all optical/infrared efforts in the US." This mission statement translates into specific objectives for the observatory, many of which were summarized in the five-year renewal proposal, which was submitted to the NSF four years ago. These objectives include excelling in service to the community, in building and operating facilities and instrumentation, and in scientific research by the staff; working for the best interests of US astronomy by co-operating with, and complementing the capabilities and interests of, the US university community through joint programs and projects; completing and operating the GONG facilities; representing the US interests in the Gemini program to construct modem 8-m telescopes in both hemispheres; and modernizing the facilities at existing sites, both by upgrading the telescopes already in operation and by participating in joint projects with universities to build modern 4-m class telescopes. In translating these objectives into specific programs, we have defined the future role of NOAO to be broader than its traditional task of providing telescopes to those who do not have access to their own. We see NOAO as having a responsibility for enabling science not only through the telescopes it provides but also by disseminating both data and technology throughout the groundbased community. We plan to carry out this responsibility by: • Operating telescopes with a variety of instrumentation and a range of apertures so that the US community continues to have open access to world class facilities. • Making our sites available for facilities and projects carried out by university and other groups, with shared infrastructure leading to efficient and low cost operations for all of the participating groups. • Entering into agreements with universities to provide observing time in return for making university- built instrumentation available to the user community. • Assuming the responsibility on behalf of, and in partnership with, the community for executing major programs, with GONG and RISE (Radiative Inputs from the Sun to the Earth) being two examples. • Participating with universities in joint construction of 4-m class telescopes, one in the north and one in the south, thereby obtaining more observing time for the community, providing technical expertise to assist with construction and operation these telescopes, and assisting the participating universities with strengthening their instrumentation, graduate education, and research programs. • Becoming a focal point for the acquisition, characterization,optimization, and distribution of detectors. The combination of Gemini funding plus NOAO expertise provides an opportunity to negotiate effectively with manufacturers to optimize detectors for groundbased astronomy. It is NOAO's intention to compete to play this role for Gemini and to facilitate distribution of detectors and operating information to the partner countries and to instrument groups in the US. • Disseminating information on technology and instrumentation that is developed both by NOAO and the Gemini staff, including working more closely with other large telescope projects in the US. • Using the existing telescopes, both solar and nighttime, to test new instrumentation, including adaptive optics, to try out innovative observing techniques, and to experiment with flexible scheduling algorithms. • Making data products available to a broader segment of the community through archiving, initially of large data sets reduced to a uniform and common standard. Examples are the GONG data and maps of star-forming regions in the infrared. • Work with the community to define and carry out programs requiring commitments of large amounts of observing time. Such programs might include asteroseismology, deep imaging of galaxies, and redshift surveys of selected classes of objects, but the specific programs will be selected after review of proposals submitted by the community and NOAO staff. During the construction phase of both the Gemini and LEST projects, we expect NOAO to be the focal point for input from the US community into defining the scientific requirements for the new telescopes, for making sure that the US community participates in design reviews and in recommending priorities as budget constraints become defined, and for ensuring that the US community, including NOAO, submits strong proposals to build an appropriate share of the instrumentation required for these facilities. Since the US is the major partner in Gemini, we believe that the headquarters for the project should be in Tucson. While the purely administrative and scientific staff associated with the headquarters should be kept to a minimum, there should be sufficient technical resources available to the project to oversee contracts for fabrication of instrumentation, for upgrading the performance of the telescopes, and for continuing development of software, with the goal of maintaining a common set of standards and interfaces for both Gemini telescopes. The Gemini project should be able to share Tucson personnel with KPNO and NSO, so that it can have access to the range of expertise needed by the project, but with full costs for the staff used by Gemini paid for by the Gemini project. Beyond the projects currently underway, NSO is examining a variety of options, including construction of an All-Reflecting Coronagraph (the ARC) and upgrading the McMath to a 4-m equivalent telescope. The Big Mc would provide a unique facility for infrared solar astronomy and for solar-stellar observations. On the nighttime side, it is our judgment that the next major facility for groundbased optical/infrared astronomy will be an array of telescopes for interferometry. Many technical issues must be resolved before it is possible to define the optimum combination of number of telescopes, aperture of individual telescopes, and baselines over which they should operate. We believe it is best that the variety of developments needed to specify a national interferometric facility be carried out by the numerous interested university groups. NOAO can participate in some of these projects, provide sites for one or more of them, support and facilitate communication among the groups, and aid in planning the national facility. Some of the 8-m telescope engineers have the capability of designing such a facility and preparing a proposal for funding, and they will complete the Gemini telescopes at the end of this decade, which should be about the time the major technical issues involved in defining the national interferometric facility have been resolved. Over the past five years, NOAO has developed and made available to the community several instruments that greatly exceed in complexity what was previously available. Examples include fiber positioners plus spectrographs at both
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