NOAO Newsletter NATIONAL OPTICAL ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY ISSUE 105 — MarCH 2012 Science Highlights Phoenix Returns to Kitt Peak ...................................................... 19 The Role of NOAO in the Discovery of the Accelerating Universe...... 2 Instruments Offered at KPNO in 2012B ........................................ 19 Seeing Double: Using Gemini to Measure the Prevalence of The Arrival of pODI at the WIYN 3.5-m and Its Impact on Dual AGN .................................................................................. 3 2012B Scheduling ................................................................... 19 A Nearby Type Ia Supernova .......................................................... 4 System-Wide Observing Opportunities for Semester 2012B: Sleeping Giants: Record-Breaking Black Holes Discovered .............. 6 Gemini, MMT, and Hale ............................................................ 20 Direct Evidence for Helium Variations in Omega Centauri ............... 7 CTIO Instruments Available for 2012B ......................................... 22 The Near-Earth Fly-by of Asteroid 2005 YU55 ................................. 9 Gemini Instruments Available for 2012B ..................................... 23 KPNO Instruments Available for 2012B........................................ 24 System Science Capabilities MMT Instruments Available for 2012B ......................................... 25 Preparing for the Installation of the Dark Energy Camera ............ 11 Hale Instruments Available for 2012B ......................................... 25 Mock Observing with DECam ...................................................... 12 Co-I Access Management and Other New Features BigBOSS Passes DOE Review with Flying Colors ............................ 13 in the NOAO Science Archive........................................................ 26 The WIYN One Degree Imager Comes to the Telescope (Soon) ....... 14 TORRENT Controllers Begin Observatory Service .......................... 15 NOAO Operations & Staff KOSMOS and COSMOS Updates .................................................... 16 Kicking It Up a Notch .................................................................. 27 Message from the Director of KPNO ............................................ 28 System Observing: Telescopes & Instruments NSF Director Subra Suresh’s Visit to 2012B NOAO Call for Proposals Due 29 March 2012 ...................... 17 Cerro Tololo and Cerro Pachón .................................................. 29 Update on Blanco 4-m Availability: 2012A Shutdown and REU Student Makes PhAst Work .................................................. 30 DECam Commissioning and Science Verification in 2012B ......... 18 CTIO Summer Student Program for 2012 ..................................... 31 Availability of the CTIO 1.0- and 0.9-m Telescopes in 2012B ......... 18 Staff Changes at NOAO North and South ...................................... 31 The international science community is invited to participate in the 2012 Gemini Science Meeting in San Francisco, California, July 17–20, where current Gemini results and future plans will be discussed. The scientific focus will be on exoplanets, supermassive black holes, high-redshift galaxies, and future Gemini capabilities. Additional topics will cover a broad range of subjects, from the solar system to stars, Galactic structure and the Local Group, and transient events. A Gemini Users’ meeting will also be part of the program. For meeting details and to register, go to www.gemini.edu/gsm12/. Late-Breaking News about Blanco On 20 February 2012, an accident occurred at the CTIO Blanco 4-m telescope involving the telescope ƒ/8 secondary mirror. Two CTIO staff were injured, and the mirror was damaged. Thankfully, our staff members are expected to fully recover. An analysis of The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) is a the damage to the ƒ/8 secondary is in progress. liquid nitrogen cooled, 520-megapixel digital camera that is housed inside a As of this writing (February 21), it is not clear if the secondary mirror is repairable or high-vacuum Dewar; here, it poses in not. We will continue to update our community as the recovery process continues. For front of the CTIO Blanco 4-m telescope more information and updates, visit: on which it will be mounted. For more www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/blanco-f8-secondary-incident. information, see the related article on p. 11. (Image credit: Tim Abbott/ NOAO/AURA/NSF.) We do not expect the incident to significantly delay the installation and commissioning of the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) as the ƒ/8 is not required for the installation or operation of the DECam system. Katy Garmany, Editor Tod R. Lauer Science Highlights David Silva NOAO Director’s Office Jane Price, Ken Hinkle NOAO System Science Center Betty Stobie Science Data Management Nicole S. van der Bliek CTIO Timothy C. Beers, Elizabeth Alvarez KPNO The NOAO Newsletter Katy Garmany Education & Public Outreach is published semi-annually by the Dave Bell, Mia Hartman System Observing David Sprayberry NOAO System Technology Center National Optical Astronomy Observatory Victor Krabbendam LSST Project P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, AZ 85726 [email protected] Production Staff Barbara Fraps Managing Editor Publication Notes Peter Marenfeld Design & Layout This Newsletter is presented with active Kathie Coil Production Support links online at If you are receiving a paper copy but would prefer not to, please let us know at www.noao.edu/noao/noaonews.html [email protected]. NOAO Newsletter March 2012 1 Science Highlights The Nobel Prize in Physics for 2011 was awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian that would further enable investigation into the mysterious dark energy. Schmidt, and Adam Riess for their discovery of the acceleration of the The Dark Energy Camera (DECam) is no longer in the “near future,” but Universe. Facilities at NOAO and members of the NOAO staff played a key rather is being assembled and installed on the Blanco at CTIO now. NOAO role for both teams in their quest to find high-redshift supernovae. In honor continues to foster other projects that will contribute to the study of dark of this revolutionary work, it is fitting to rerun the following article from energy, including the BigBOSS multi-object spectrograph for the Mayall the September 2007 Newsletter that describes the contributions NOAO and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, both of which will continue the made to these programs. The article pointed out several upcoming activities ongoing effort at NOAO to facilitate great science. Tom Matheson The Role of NOAO in the Discovery of the Accelerating Universe Tom Matheson & Chris Smith he discovery of credible evidence for acceleration in the expansion rate of the Universe is certainly one of the more Tsurprising cosmological results in modern astronomy. The fact that two independent groups using Type Ia supernovae as distance indicators— the High-z Supernova Search (High-z SN) team, founded by Brian Schmidt of Australian National University and Nicholas Suntzeff of Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO), and the Supernova Cosmology Project (SCP) led by Saul Perlmutter of the University timing the observations to catch SNe soon after SNe early in their development. These early of California at Berkeley—both arrived at the explosion. Most of the photometry of the newly runs often shared fields with other programs same conclusion helped to speed the acceptance discovered SNe was obtained with the CTIO to extend the utility of the data, a practice of such an unexpected result. 0.9-meter telescope, while the CTIO 1.5-meter continued with many later SNe searches. and Blanco 4-meter telescopes provided most Subsequent data from ground-based and of the spectroscopy. In order to find large numbers of SNe at high space-based programs, including studies using redshift, both teams employed the wide-field tools other than SNe, have confirmed the initial Analysis of this well-observed and well- imaging capability of the Blanco 4-meter results, although the nature of the “dark energy” calibrated SNe sample showed that the peak telescope at CTIO. Initially, they used the that is apparently driving this acceleration brightness of a Type Ia SN was correlated with prime-focus CCD camera, switching to the Big is still uncertain. The first reports, though, the light-curve shape. Using the light curve, Throughput Camera when it became available. were the product of essentially ground-based one could transform a relatively diverse set Previously obtained template images were programs that relied heavily on the resources of of Type Ia SNe into “calibratable” standard subtracted from frames during SNe searches. the National Optical Astronomy Observatory. candles. Without this calibration, neither team Promising new objects could then be observed could have obtained luminosity distances to spectroscopically to securely identify the new At the time when the two groups were high-redshift Type Ia SNe with the precision object as a Type Ia SN. Multiple epochs of developing their programs, new observations necessary to detect the subtle effect introduced photometry (often with the Blanco 4-meter) of Type Ia SNe showed that they were not by the acceleration of the expansion. These SNe produced light curves that could be anchored homogeneous standard candles. Early CCD also provided the low-redshift anchor for the using the calibration provided by the Calan/ observations of SN 1986G obtained at CTIO cosmology derived from