The yellow duck surrounding the Primary Mirror is distributing the cool air over the mirror surface. The first project milestone, to blow microscopicaly filtered air into the mirror cell, was realized by the first week of November. This now gives us the capability to effectively control dust from entering the mirror cell during telescope non-operational hours. The second phase of the project, to complete the programmable controller installation, software programming, configuring the quick disconnect for ease of daily operation, and finally blowing chilled air is progressing rapidly. We are in the process of acquiring many new detectors which will be commissioned during calendar year 1995.
Observers can expect a major improvement compared to the initial release.
K CCD is now 160 seconds, an improvement by a factor of 2. This is not the limit of the system, and the detector group has some ideas in reserve for improving this figure further. These dewars have a liquid nitrogen hold time in excess of 24 hours. The first one contains an engineering chip identical to Loral3, and the second Tek3. CFHT plans to order another batch of 3 dewars imminently.