SALT Status Update for July 2013

Lots and lots of updates in this SALT Status Update for July!  Quick
reminder that 2013-2 proposals are due on 1 August and HRS science
verification proposals are due on 15 August.  Please see
http://salt4scientist.salt.ac.za/ for more details.

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Recent Science Results
======================

Strum et al. included SALT observations of their study of the
interesting X-ray binary SXP 1062.  The neutron star in this source
has a large spin rate and spin down rate, and this makes it an
interesting candidate to study accretion physics.  Comparing the
properties of the SALT spectrum to previous observations indicated an
increasing size or density to the disc around the star.  For more
details, please see: http://arxiv.org/abs/1304.6022


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SALT Astronomer Vacancy
=======================

A new SALT astronomer position is currently being advertised following
Tim Pickering's resignation to take up a position at STScI.  The
deadline for applications is 31 August and for more details, please
see: http://www.saao.ac.za/salt-astronomer/

=======================
SALT Talks
=======================

There have been a wide range of talks given about SALT recently.  Here
are links to some of them:

Science talks at the Warsaw board meeting:
http://pysalt.salt.ac.za/meetings/board_20130521/

Lisa Crause's updates on the HRS and Collimator upgrade (lots of
pictures): http://pysalt.salt.ac.za/talks/SALT_Spectrographs.pdf

Steve Crawford's talk to the ThunderKATs group (with audio recording
of the talk):
http://pysalt.salt.ac.za/talks/salt_thundercat_20130711.mov

If you have given a talk recently about SALT or your SALT observations
and you would like us to host a copy, please let us know about it at
salthelp@salt.ac.za.

=======================
SALT HRS Update
=======================

At the end of this week the HRS is being shipped to SALT following its
dismantling after the last finishing touches and testing. Although the
throughput measurements in the lab were not as straightforward to do
as anticipated, the results seem to indicate values fairly close to
the predictions. One task completed just before disassembly was the
gluing of small thin anti-reflection coated glass disks to the fibre
inputs, to improve throughput and focal ratio degradation and mitigate
against dust.  With the High Resolution Spectrograph's imminent
migration from Durham to Sutherland, there has been a wide range of
activities in preparation for it.  Please see Lisa Crause's blog posts
to get all of the updates including first light for the fibre feed!

http://saltastro.blogspot.com/2013/07/coming-soon-to-telescope-near-us.html
http://saltastro.blogspot.com/2013/07/installing-fibre-instrument-feed.html
http://saltastro.blogspot.com/2013/07/first-light-for-fif.html

As a reminder, the call for HRS science verification proposals closes
on 15 Aug (see
http://salt4scientist.salt.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/SALTHRS-SV-Call.pdf).


========================
SAMS (edge sensor) update
========================

Due to a combination of factors, the factory acceptance testing of the
first batch of edge sensors has had to be postponed from mid-July to
late September. The encouraging news is that the behaviour of all the
sensors tested to date, in terms of temperature and humidity
insensitivity, is within specification. The first subarray tests (the
7 central segments) are now due to begin in the latter part of the
year.



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Abstracts for SALT Proposals
============================

Interested in what science other partners are doing?  SALT abstracts
are now available via the WebManager for all members of the SALT
consortium.  Click on the 'Abstract' tab in the WM menu to access the
abstracts for the last three semesters.

============================
Data Downloads
============================

Principle contacts for a proposal can now request to download data of
past observations as well as observations of spectrophotometric
standard stars from the WebManager.  From the 'Summary of executed
observations' table on the proposal page, check the box for 'Request
data' or 'Request spectrophotometric standards', click on submit, and
the data should be staged for you to download within 24 hours.  The
principle contact will receive an email with the link to the data as
soon as it is ready for you to access.


============================
RSS Simulator Update
============================

To improve the performance of the RSS, the zeropoint for the
articulation angle will be reset for the 2013-2 Semester.  This should
result in an increase in the throughput for observations done in
littrow, however, this will result in the predicted wavelength of the
observations shifting.  This change will only come into effect on 1
November for the 2013-2 semester, but please use the most recent
version of the RSS simulator (v4.0) for the most up to date
simulations.

===============================
Analysis of Velocity Stability
===============================

Alexei Kniazev has provide a report on the velocity stability of RSS
spectroscopy as measured for emission line sources.  The report has
been posted on the Science Wiki and is accessible here:
https://sciencewiki.salt.ac.za/index.php/RSS:_Radial_Velocity_Accuracy_using_Emission_Lines


=============================
Director's Discretionary Time
=============================

At the last board meeting, the Board decided to allocate 5 hours of
discretionary time to the SALT Science Operations Manager (David
Buckley) starting in 2013-2.  Details of how this will be managed
still need to be finalized by the SSC, but if you are interested in
applying for this time at some point, please contact
salthelp@salt.ac.za.

============================
Website Questionnaire
============================

Want to help improve the quality of the SALT website?  Please take a
moment to complete the following questionnaire by August 1 and
provides some insight on how we are doing:
http://salt4scientist.salt.ac.za/salt-website-questionnaire-2013/

The SALT Board Meets the mayor of Armagh

After the science workshop, the participants were invited to the Palace Demesne for a reception with the mayor of Armagh. We were all personally greeted by the mayor as we entered the Palace for the reception.

Mark Bailey, our host at Armagh Observatory, gave a very stirring welcome about SALT and the impact that astronomy has on the development of modern society, not only in South Africa but for all the SALT partners.

After the science workshop which presented a number of early results based on the commissioning of the telescope, board members, SALT team, and other SALT consortium members were all smiles at the reception:

Eric Wilcotts (U. of Wisconsin), Darragh O'Donoghue (SALT), David Buckley (SALT), Larry Ramsey (Penn State/HET), Ted Williams (Rutgers), Chris Cotzee (SALT), and David Bramall (Durham)

Romuald Tylenda (CAMK), Marek Sarna (CAMK), and Wolfram Kollatschny (Gottingen)

Simon Jeffries (Armagh), Phil Charles (SAAO), Mike Shara (AMNH), and Nazli Mohammed (SALT)

Ellen Nordsieck, a frequent blog-follower, is happy to be re-united with Ken Nordsieck, after his long commissioning run of RSS in Sutherland.

Christian Hettlage (middle) meets with Aswin Sekhar and Shengu Yu, two graduate students working at Armagh Observatory.

The full SALT board along with the mayor of Armagh and the Minister of Arts, Culture, and Leisure.

Highlights from the Science Workshop

On Tuesday, we had a series of presentation on some of the early results from the commissioning of the science instruments. First, David Buckley presented the overall status of SALT and the commissioning of various sub-systems. Even though not all the sub-systems are fully commissioned yet and the telescope will become more efficient with refinement of these systems, the main result is that SALT is back and producing science again.

Next up was Darragh O'Donoghue presenting imaging results from SALTICAM and the newly realigned SAC. The before and after images are really astonishing. Here, we can see Darragh presenting some slotmode observations for Marissa Kotze that is looking at X-ray binaries.

Early RSS results were produced by Ken Nordsieck and Ted Williams. RSS is a multi-mode spectrograph and they have already tried out many of those modes including long slit, spectra-polarimetry, Fabry-Perot, and slotmode observations. The UV throughput looks good although more testing is needed before claiming the fix a complete success. Here is an example of some spectra of OB stars reduced by Alexei Kniazev for his proposal.

Finally, Mike Shara presented some early results of the SALT consortium project investigation into the bursting nova T Pyx. This has already led to the astronomical telegram, but SALT has continued to regularly monitor the object since its outburst. If you are interested in more details about these observations and in participating in the project, please contact Mike or see the T Pyx commissioning wiki.

In addition, the status of the pipeline software and the proposal tools were presented by Steve Crawford and Christian Hettlage. Look for future posts on these subjects or contact us if you are interesting in arranging a tutorial. Overall, it was a great first science workshop and we look forward to the next one in Cape Town where hopefully there will be even more results to present! Thank you Armagh for hosting!

The participants in the SALT science workshop before the board meeting at Armagh Observatory.

The Science with SALT Workshop

With the 29th SALT board occurring this week at beautiful Armagh Observatory this week, a planned 'Science with SALT' workshop was included in the meetings agenda. Today, members of the commissioning teams along with other SALT partners are presenting science results from the newly re-commissioned SALT.

Here's todays Agenda with links to the talks as they become available:

1. Introduction (David Buckley )

• Overview of telescope performance
• Status of telescope commissioning

2. SALTICAM (Darragh O'Donoghue)

• Slotmode photometry examples
• Photometry examples
• Deep imaging examples

3. RSS (Ken Nordsieck)

• Performance of RSS against FPRD
• Longslit spectroscopy examples
• MOS examples
• F-P examples (Ted Williams)

4. T Pyx (Mike Shara)

5. Future Large/Key/Joint Science Programs (all)

6. Partner Science Reports (all)

7. Pipeline Reductions (Steve Crawford)

8. PIPT tools (Christian Hettlage)

I'll try to add some updates during the meeting and add the talks as they are uploaded.

Updated: PDFs for all of the talks have been added.