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EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY
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La Silla Observatory
SCIENCE OPERATION DEPARTMENT
Re-Engineering Project:
SciOp Plan
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Prepared |
Olivier Hainaut |
2002-06-09 |
Table of Content
- 1.- INTRODUCTION
- 2.- CLIENTS, SERVICES & PROCESSES
- 2.1- SERVICES PROVIDED
- 2.2- CLIENTS
- 2.3- PROCESSES
- 3- TECHNICAL STRUCTURE
- 3.1- INTRODUCTION
- 3.2- INSTRUMENT CORE
- 3.2.1- INSTRUMENT SCIENTIST
- 3.2.2- INSTRUMENT TIO
- 3.3.3- TELESCOPE SCIENTIST/TIO
- 3.3- INSTRUMENT FORCE
- 4- MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
- 4.1- INTRODUCTION and PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION
- 4.2- ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIGRAM
- 4.2.1 Introduction
- 4.2.2 Head of SciOp
- 4.2.2.1 Deputies
- 4.2.2.2 Safety officer
- 4.2.3 Operation Engineers
- 4.2.4- Astronomy Section
- 4.2.5- Operation Section
- 4.2.6- MET Operation
- 5- BUDGET STRUCTURE
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5.1- CURRENT SITUATION
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5.2- BUDGET STRUCTURE
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- 6- SCIOP STAFFING PLAN
- 6.1- INTRODUCTION
- 6.2- OPERATION ENGINEERS
- 6.3- ELECTRONICS
- 6.4- ASTRONOMERS STAFFING PLAN
- 6.5- TELESCOPE & INSTRUMENT OPERATORS
- 6.5.1- Steady State
- 6.5.2- Transition period
- 6.6- RE-ENGINEERING POSITIONS
- 6.6.1- Introduction
- 6.6.2- Documentation and web specialist
- 6.6.3- Data Handling Operator
- 7- OPERATION PLAN
- 7.1- NIGHT OPERATION
- 7.2- DAY OPERATION
- 7.2.1- TELESCOPE COORDINATOR
- 7.2.2- SUPPORT ASTRONOMERS
- 7.2.3- SHIFT LEADER
- 7.2.4- BACKGROUND TIO
- 7.2.5- OPERATION ENGINEERS
- 7.3. DAILY OPERATION SCHEDULE
- 7.4- SUMMARY TABLE
- 7.5- EMAIL
- 7.5.1- EMAIL LISTS AND ALIASES
- 7.5.2- EMAIL ACCOUNTS
- 7.5.3- EMAIL POLICY
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1.- INTRODUCTION
During the first half of 2002, a re-engineering effort took place at La Silla,
aiming at the creation of the La Silla Science Operation Department, which
groups the three formerly existing Telescope Teams, i.e. NTT, 360/CAT
and Medium-size Telescopes.
During meetings attended by many members of the telescope teams, most aspects
of the science operation were discussed. These discussions led to the production
of various re-engineering documents that were circulated among the staff for
review, resulting in new versions that were finally released. The collection
of these documents constitute the SciOp Plan. As the structure of these documents
reflect closely the re-engineering meeting structure, this document is provided
as a "wrapper" in order to provide an overview of the SciOp Plan. It is constituted
by "cut-and-pasted" sections of the various re-engineering documents. Obviously,
in case of discrepancy, the original documents are over-riding this one.
Also, this document reflects the re-engineering effort as of Jul.1, 2002.
It is expected that the individual documents will eventually be updated.
2.- CLIENTS, SERVICES & PROCESSES
Section 2. from SciOp Structure and General Operation Plan,
LSO-PLA-ESO-9000-1
2.1- SERVICES PROVIDED
SciOp provides astronomical data to its clients,
as well as the information needed by the clients
- to obtain these data (e.g. instrument
manuals, exposure time calculators, etc), and,
- to transform these astronomical data (i.e.
measurements in adu as a function of the x,y position on
a CCD) into astrophysical data (i.e. measurements in flux
units (erg/s/m2/A/arcsec2) as a function of other
physical quantities (wavelengths, RA, Dec,...)).
p>SciOp does not provide the scientific idea for
which the data are needed, and does not interpret astrophysically
the data, although the astronomers belonging to SciOp do it for
their own projects, and are therefore experts whose experience is
of great value when assisting the clients.
The data produced by SciOp (including those
produced by Visiting Astronomers) must be of the best achievable
technical quality (e.g. instrument always in focus), and must be
calibrated -or, more specifically calibratable, i.e. they must be
accompanied by a set of auxiliary data that allows the astronomer
to fully remove the instrumental signature of the instrument
(flat field, standard stars, etc.). These auxiliary data are
defined in the calibration plan of each instrument.
In more details, the scope of SciOp is:
Preventive maintenance of instruments, telescope and auxiliary equipment
Calibration Plan
Telescope and Instruments Statistical Process Control
(Performance)
Help desk for VAs (for pre- and post- observing run questions).
Assistance to P1PP/P2PP and during observations.
Environment Monitoring (Weather safety)
Reporting
Telescopes & Instruments Configuration control
(Optic, Mechanic, Software, Electronic, infrastructure...)
Provide full year coverage for all the above.
2.2- CLIENTS
The "clients" of SciOp are the members
of the international astronomical community at large, and in
priority the astronomers of the ESO member states.
More specifically, these includes:
- Visiting Astronomers (VAs, who will come to
la Silla to perform their observations) and "Service
Mode" Astronomers (SMAs), who don't come to la
Silla, their observations being performed by SciOp staff,
either in Service Mode (queue schedule) or as Delegated
Observation Mode (on fixed dates).
- Potential astronomers: who may submit a
project that would eventually get accepted, and who will
then become VAs or SMAs.
- The
Archive: the data produced by SciOp are archived in the ESO Science
Archive (cf archive.eso.org) for use by future astronomers. The role
of the archive is double: 1/ it constitutes a 100% reliable backup
of the data, 2/ it constitutes a mine of data that can potentially
be re-used for other purposes than those of the original project.
It is therefore important that the data be calibrated (calibratable) and
the instruments characterized.
- Projects and Technical Astronomers: SciOp hosts
some projects (new instruments, prototypes, experiements...). Some of the
SciOp astronomers can be deeply involved in these projects (e.g. as project
scientist or project manager). Their schedule and support load is to be adjusted
in order to accomodate these duties. Additionally, external astronomers attached
to project (e.g. an instrument scientist from Garching or other institute)
can be at La Silla for a fairly long time. These astronomers will be integrated
as guest to SciOp, in order to improve communication, training, info, and
to give them better support.
- Guest/Visitor instruments (such as SHARP, CIGALE...):
SciOp is not responsible for these instruments. It will provide support only
to the telescope-related aspects of the operation, i.e. Day + Night TIO,
support astronomer for generic astronomical support (e.g. hints and tips
on the telescope), but obviously no support for the instrument.
From an "ISO-9001" point of view, the
processes that belong to SciOp are the following:
- a-Production of Scientific Data: the
input is the scientific question, the output is the
corresponding observations replying to this question.
SciOp will deal with all aspects of this process, i.e. to help prepare a technically sound proposal that will get time (assuming
of course that it is a "good" question),
prepare his observations so that they optimally reply to
his question, help him performing the observations, or
perform them ourselves (all flavors of Service Mode), and
finally help him in the data reduction (not by
reducing the data for him). Basically, all the technical
aspect of his question are our job: with our help, he
should find trivial to reply to his astronomical
question.
- b-Operation of the instruments and
telescopes: the input is the tons of hardware and
software constituting the telescopes and instruments, the
output is a scientific instrument, fully understood,
certified and characterized. Obviously, this is an
internal process (i.e we provide the input and use the
output during the first process).
From Section 3, SciOp Structure and General Operation Plan,
LSO-PLA-ESO-9000-1
3.1- INTRODUCTION
The SciOp Department will be constituted of
Astronomers, Telescope and Instrument Operators (TIOs) and
Operation Engineers. The main differences with the current Team
structure are the following:
- SciOp will operate the 3 telescopes, while
each team was operating only one telescope. This gives us
a large potential of flexibility that was not available
with the individual teams. The way we use this potential
should increase both the overall efficiency, AND the
individual satisfaction (i.e. possibility to learn new
things, to teach things, to
remove the duplication of tasks that currently exists because of they are
done independently in each team, leaving more time for more interesting
tasks, etc.
- SciOp will not include Electronic Engineers
nor Electronic Technicians, who will belong to the LED, where a "Telescope
Support" sub-department will be formed to centralize direct support to the
telescopes. At least for the first year, this sub-department will be constituted
by some of the current Team Electronics, so that their expertise is not lost
by dilution in the Engineering Dptm. One senior engineer from the current
teams should be the head of that sub-department; he shall keep an overview of the system.
The main difference between La Silla SciOp and Paranal SciOp is that,
in La Silla, SciOp "owns" the telescopes and instruments, on which the support
teams and departments will perform work for us. In Paranal, the Engineering
Dptm owns the telescope and instruments, and lend them to SciOp for the night.
The main advantage of the La Silla scheme is that SciOp owns the complete
processes (c.f. previous section). The expertize to perform first level of
troubleshooting and basic preventive maintenance should be maintained within
SciOp. In that framework, each task will either be performed internally (according
to internal SciOp procedure), or externally (e.g. 3.6m top ring change will
be handled by LED). In case it is performed by an external provider, SciOp
will accept (or not) the job done. The main disadvantage of this scheme is
that most of the maintenance work will be "outsourced" to LED; to work properly,
it will require a very good coordination. This makes the role of the Telescope
Coordinator crutial.
3.2.1- INSTRUMENT SCIENTIST
Each instrument (e.g. EMMI, WFI...) will have an
INSTRUMENT SCIENTIST (astronomer) and an INSTRUMENT TIO.
Together, the Instrument Scientist and Instrument TIO form the
INSTRUMENT CORE that concentrates all the operation-related
expertise on the instrument: if there is some info or knowledge related to
the operation of an instrument, the Core should have it. Obviously, some
of the specialized experience will stay with the corresponding expert (e.g.
optical layout, cryogenics, electronics...).
The role of the instrument scientist will be very
similar to that of the current instrument scientist, i.e. more
specifically
- defining and implementing (possibly with the
support of EngDpt, SWC...)
observing modes
- defining and implementing the calibration
plan,
- writing and maintaining the relevant
documentation (user's manual, instrument web pages, etc).
- training other SciOp members on the use of
the instrument (e.g. coaching other astronomers in view
of them giving support to the clients, etc)
- track pending problems and action points
related to the instrument (e.g. give a few phone calls to
make sure that things keep moving)
- develop data processing recipes. Priority goes
to recipes to aiming at a fairly automatic processing of calibration plan
data to monitor the health of the instrument. Secondly, to process easilly
observations on-line (e.g. standard wavelength calibration for all fixed
modes (grisms), standard solution for echelle gratings, etc.)
It is important to note that the SciOp Operation Engineers will
be deeply involved in most of these points. Also note that it is not expected
that the instrument scientist will perform all the support on his instrument.
3.2.2- INSTRUMENT TIO
The instrument scientist will be assisted by a
TIO, who will be have expert knowledge of that instrument, both
for day and night operation. The role of the Instrument TIO can
be summarized as following:
- assist the Instrument Scientist in testing
observation modes,
- assist the Instrument Scientist to perform
the calibration plan (e.g make sure that the frames
needed are obtained, obtain more if needed).
- together with the Instrument Scientist,
define the best way to operate the instrument at night
- coach other TIOs on how to operate the
instrument in the best way,
- track pending problems and action points
related to the instrument (e.g. give a few phone calls to
make sure that things keep moving).
- together with the operation engineers,
define and improve the operation procedures and check
list related to that instrument (all TIOs should always
try to optimize operation procedures and check-list
-while respecting the strict conf.Ctrl-, but naturally,
as they know "their" instrument better than
anybody else, they will be most productive for that
instrument).
It is important to note that the Instrument TIO
does not have to work only on that instrument. The
"Instrument TIO" job is more a background task that he
can perform during his "background turno" (former
Mid-Day/Mid-Night, cf below), during the night (long exposures),
during the day (phone calls), etc... While it is desirable that
he keeps accumulating experience on the instrument (e.g.
operating it at night, performing set-up at day, etc), it is also
important that he spends some "background" time on the
instrument, e.g. when performing some tests while it is in the
lab. In summary, the actions related to the "Instrument
TIO" job have a time-scale of weeks/months (following up
problems, testing new modes) and not day-by-day.
Also, only one TIO is "Instrument TIO"
for a given instrument, not 2, in order not to dilute
responsibility. Of course, the Instrument TIO can appoint one or
various delegates, for instance in his contra-turno, or to tackle
with a specific issue, but he will remain the one
"officially" in charge.
To reach the level of full "Instrument TIO", it
is likely that some additional training will be required by the operation
engineer, electronics, optics, and/or whoever needed.
From the administrative point of view, the
"Instrument TIO" title will appear in the Goals and
Objective. The evaluation criteria will be (these are examples,
not an exhaustive list): efficiency in following up problem
reports (not in solving them, which is the task of the
person/deptm to whom the problem is assigned), efficiency in
performing the calibration plan, in coaching other TIOs, etc. For
the first year, there will of course be some real-time
adjustments to the G&O: the idea is definitely not to sack
anybody on this new responsibility, but to get the best out of
the system, and to get the system as good as possible.
3.3.3- TELESCOPE SCIENTIST/TIO
In a similar way, each telescope (NTT, 3.6, 2.2)
will have a Telescope Scientist and Telescope TIO, forming a
Telescope Core. The Telescope Core has the same role for
the telescope and related systems as the Instrument Core for
the instruments. For instance, pointing model, mirror model, active
optics, followup of action points and problems related to domes, hydraulics,
etc... are under the Telescope Scientist/TIO Core' responsibility.
3.3- INSTRUMENT FORCE
The various Instrument Nuclei are combined into
"INSTRUMENT FORCES"; the various Instrument Forces that
come into mind are:
- Imaging: WFI and SuSI
- Visible spectro imagers: EFOSC2 and EMMI
- IR: SofI and TIMMI2
- High-res spectro: CES/HARPS, FEROS,
EMMI/Echelle
- Telescopes
These forces should exchange expertise at all
levels: observation procedures, data reduction, hints and tips,
etc. Also, the Instrument Scientist of one of the instrument will
almost automatically be able to give basic support on the others
of the same instrument force. This should foster communication
between the current teams. One Core can belong to several
Forces. Other forces could be considered, eg 2p2 (=2p2 + WFI +
FEROS), NTT (= NTT+EMMI+SUSI+SOFI), 3p6 (=3p6+ EFOSC+ TIMMI +
CES/HARPS).
In addition to the Instrument Scientists of the
instruments constituting it, the Force will also include additional scientists,
i.e. "new" astronomers who are not yet Instrument Scientists, and "senior"
scientists (this includes Fellows who completed their first year) who fully
master all the instruments from one Force and are expanding to other Forces.
In that framework, the support of a given instrument will be provided by
the astronomers of its Force, not only by the Instrument Scientists. The
average nr of nights during which each instrument is scheduled must be taken
into account when constituting the forces and, to a certain extend, when
hiring replacement for leaving scientists.
At this point, the 5 above-mentioned forces
should meet briefly, but fairly formally (e.g. every 2 months),
with the following agenda:
- important news,
- new important problems (i.e. that could be
of interest for the other nuclei)
- follow-up of previous important problems
- new hints and tip.
Each of these meeting should be summarize briefly
in a "monthly instrument force report", which will
1/ diffuse the info to SciOp as a whole, 2/ document and archive
the problems, achievement, hints and tips..., 3/ provide input
for the bimonthly SciOp report that the head of SciOp has to
produce for the upper management (i.e. help me!).
In the future, the rhythm and scope of these
meetings will be adjusted depending of the usefulness of the
first ones.
It must be noted that the Instrument Core and Instrument
Force structure is a technical structure, which obviously overlaps with the
administrative structure (described in [2]) since the same people are
involved. It is not a problem, since these structures have well defined scopes
that are not overlaping. This is technically a "matrix" organization.
SciOp Technical Structure
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LS-Imaging IFo
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SuSI2 Core
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WFI Core
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LS-Spectro IFo
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EMMI Core
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EFOSC-2 Core
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LS-HighRes IFo
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CES Core
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HARPS Core
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FEROS Core
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LS-InfraRed IFo
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TIMMI-2 Core
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ADONIS Core
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SofI Core
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LS-Telescopes TFo
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NTT Core
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3.6m Core
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2.2m Core
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DIMM Core
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4- MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE
From SciOp Management and Administrative Structures, LSO-PLA-ESO-90000-5/1.0
4.1- INTRODUCTION and PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION
The current teams have a flat structure under the Team Leader. It is
not possible to keep a completely flat structure for the SciOp
department. Indeed, as it will be composed of 44 people in Jul.2002 (24 people in "steady state" operation beyond 2004), it
constitutes too large a group to be managed by one person. The SciOp
Department has to be divided in sub-departments, or Sections of about
10 people each. These Sections are lead by a "Section Leader".
In the discussion that lead to this document, two main structures
were considered.
- Model 1: SciOp be divided in
- an Astronomer Section which is composed by all the astronomers
of SciOp (Staffs, OpAs, Fellows...), lead by a senior
- two TIO Sections, each of them lead by a senior TIO. The two
sections are split along the natural division of the turnos.
Pros: Equally distributed work load.
Fairly well match the structure of PO SciOp, that is proven
to work. This is also an advantage in the eventuality of a merging.
Cons: there were some discussion about the need of a lead
astronomer; it was finally decided that the Head of SciOp cannot
manage all the astronomers, plus the other heads of sections.
- Model 2: the SciOp administrative division match the Instrument
Forces described in [1]. The head of each Instrument Force would
also be the administrative head of that group.
Pros: administrative structure matches the technical structure
(is it really a pro?)
Cons: work distribution uneven. Schedule would be a nightmare if
performed by the head of sections. Bad past experience: in the former
"IR group" (which existed before the Teams), the re-cycling of IR
staff attached to a decommissioned instrument proved
difficult. Structure incompatible with Paranal.
The outcome of the discussion was that Model 1 will be implemented.
4.2- ADMINISTRATIVE ORGANIGRAM
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Head of SciOp
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(till 2002-09-30)
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Astronomer Section Leader
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OpEng
(also deputy to HoSciOp)
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OpEng
(also deputy to HoSciOp)
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MET Section Leader
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Astronomers
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TIO-A Section Leader
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TIO-B Section Leader
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Documentation/Web Specialist
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Data Handling Operator
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1.52 ESO + 1.54 Dk Operation
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TIOs |
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WFI Operation
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4.2.1 Introduction
This section describes the administrative structure
of SciOp, taking into account the discussions outlined in the previous paragraph,
and the actual staff as described in the SciOp Staffing Plan [3].
4.2.2 Head of SciOp
The job description of the Head of SciOp (HoSciOp) is given in "Team Leader and Head of Deptm: Job Descriptions" [2].
4.2.2.1 Deputies
HoSciOp will be assisted by two Deputies. These deputies will be the two
Operation Engineers. As they work in contra-turno, HoSciOp and his
deputies will ensure a complete time coverage.
The responsibilities delegated to the Deputies include:
- Change of schedule of all members of SciOp except themselves and
HoSciOp,
- Leave requests for periods of less than 1 week
- Urgent PRs
4.2.2.2 Safety officer
SciOp will have a safety officer, who reports directly
to the HoSciOp, and whose duties include the monitoring of safety, prevention
of hazards and dangerous situation, and improvement of safety throughout
all SciOp activities. He shall also be the main interface with the La Silla
Safety officer, but does not report to him.
4.2.3 Operation Engineers
They report directly to HoSciOp. Their administrative duties are
- Deputies to the HoSciOp (cf above).
- Participate to recruitement boards for TIOs and OpEng
- Prepare a monthly report on their achievements, activities,
concerns and projects, for the Head of SciOp.
- Supervize the Documentation/Web Specialist and Data Handling Operator.
- Manage general operation budget (633) and Telescope Project budget (644)
4.2.4- Astronomy Section
The Astronomy Section is composed by all the La Silla astronomers
affiliated to the SciOp department (i.e. all LSO astronomers, except La
Silla Director, Head of SciOp and SEST/APEX astronomers), including
Staff, OpAs, Fellows.
This Section is leaded by the Astronomy Section Leader, who is
appointed by Head of SciOp of a period of 1yr, renewable. The duties
of the Astronomy Section Leader include:
- Distribute and follow-up the SciOp Goals and Objectives among the astronomers
- Performance Appraisal of the astronomers (yearly
performance review, and provide input for the Personal Action Forms
for contract renewal).
- Prepare the astronomer's schedule on a trimester bases.
- Approve trip changes for the astronomers (his own changes are
approved by HoSciOp or deputies).
- Participate to the SciOp recruitement processes:
- Participate to the Fellow Selection Committee, and nominate
another representative of SciOp among the Astronomers.
- Participate to the Staff/OpA selection boards.
- Participate to the TiO and OpEng selection boards.
- Prepare a monthly report on the achievement,
activities, concerns and projects, for the Head of SciOp. The achievement
section can contain metrix of the operation, but it must be noted that the
instrument metrics (shutter efficiencies) are technical matter, which belong
to the Leader of each Instrument Force, and not to the Head of Astro Section.
It must be noted that these are only administrative duties: this
document deals with administrative structure. Technical and scientific
issues are dealt with in the framework of the Instrument Forces
[1]. The Astronomy Section Leader can be head of one of the Instrument
Forces, but this is not linked to his appointment as Decurion.
4.2.5- Operation Section
The Operation Section is composed by all the La Silla TIOs
affiliated to SciOp (i.e. all TIOs of La Silla except those affiliated
to SEST/APEX and non-SciOp Telescope, if any).
This section is split in two sub-sections according to the turnos,
in order to form two more or less equally sized groups. Each of the
groups is lead by a senior TIO, appointed by HoSciOp for a period of 1yr, renewable. The duties of both TIO Section Leaders
include:
- Distribute the SciOp Goals and Objectives among the TIOs of their group.
- Performance Appraisal of the of their group (yearly
performance review, and provide input for the Personal Action Forms
for contract renewal). In case a TIO changes turno during the year,
the Leader of the turno in which he is at the end of the year will
consult with the Leader of the other turno for the appraisal. The PAFs
will be prepared by both Leaders.
- Prepare the TIOs' schedule on a trimester bases, including
inter-Force/Telescope training, and change of turno if needed.
- Approve trip changes for the TIOs (their own changes are approved
by HoSciOp or deputies).
- Participate to the SciOp recruitement processes:
- Participate to the TIO Selection boards.
- Participate to the OpEng selection boards.
- Prepare a monthly report on the TIOs' achievements, activities,
concerns and projects, for the Head of SciOp.
4.2.6- MET Operation
From Jul.1, 2002 (start of SciOp) until Sep.30, 2002 (end of 2x1.5m telescope
operations), the current MET will remain a separate entity within SciOp.
The current staff, structure and operation of MET will be preserved (except
the Electronics, who will be on the LED staff as of Jul.1) as one of the
SciOp Sections. During this transition period, the MET Leader will report
directly to HoSciOp.
However, in oder to start the implementation of SciOp within MET,
- some non-MET SciOp TIOs will already start getting trained at the 2.2m
- MET will start implementing SciOp reporting and operation system (i.e. daily meeting, monthly report, etc.)
- the astronomers and TIOs of MET will be integrated in the Instrument Forces.
5- BUDGET STRUCTURE
From SciOp Management and Administrative Structures, LSO-PLA-ESO-90000-5/1.0
5.1- CURRENT SITUATION
In 2002, the Telescope Teams used the following budget Work Packaged:
- 632 NTT Operations, LSO/LNT, O.Hainaut
- 633 3.6m Telescope Operations, LSO/CFT, M.Kuerster
- 634 Medium-Size Telescopes Operations, LSO/MET, R.Mendez
- 637 WFI Operations, LSO/MET, R.Mendez
- 642 NTT Maintenance, LSO/LNT, O.Hainaut
- 643 3.6m Telescope Maintenance, LSO/CFT, M.Kuerster
- 644 Medium-Size Telescopes Maintenance, LSO/MET, R.Mendez
- 694 NTT Upgrade, LSO/LNT, O.Hainaut
5.2- BUDGET STRUCTURE
The proposed Work Packages are the following. That structure was decided
in order to follow closely the technical struture of SciOp.
- 632 SciOp Management
- WP Manager: HoSciOp
- WP Approver: LSO Director
- Purpose: travel, training,...
- 633 SciOp Operation
- WP Manager: one of the OpEng
- WP Approver: HoSciOp
- Purpose: SciOp operation: computers, consumables, furnitures, small items...
- 634 Imaging IFo Projects
- WP Manager: Imaging IFo Leader
- WP Approver: HoSciOp
- Purpose: Projects and upgrades related to the instruments from the Imaging Instrument Force
- 637 Visible Spectro-Imagers IFo Projects
- WP Manager: Vis.Spectro-Imager IFo Leader
- WP Approver: HoSciOp
- Purpose: Projects and upgrades related to the instruments from the Vis. Spectro-Imager Instrument Force
- 642 IR IFo Project
- WP Manager: IR IFo Leader
- WP Approver: HoSciOp
- Purpose: Projects and upgrades related to the instruments from the IR Instrument Force
- 643 High-Resolution Spectrographs IFo Projects
- WP Manager: High-Res Spectro IFo Leader
- WP Approver: HoSciOp
- Purpose: Projects and upgrades related to the instruments from the High-Res.Spectro. Instrument Force
- 644 Telescope Projects
- WP Manager: an Operation Engineer
- WP Approver: HoSciOp
- Purpose: Projects and upgrades related to the instruments from the Telescope Force
- 694 Telescope Maintenance
- This WP should be passed on to LED, as that department will
be in charge of the maintenance of the Telescope. Items needed for daily
maintenance performed by SciOp are included in SciOp Operation, WP 633.
6- SCIOP STAFFING PLAN
From SciOp Staffing Plan, LSO-PLA-ESO-9000-6/1.0
6.1- INTRODUCTION
The ESO Long Range Plan is the main constraint on the SciOp Staffing Plan. It dictates the following:
-
The positions attached to the operation of the 1.5m telescopes disappear at the end of 2002.
-
The positions attached to the operation of the 2.2m/WFI operation disappear at the end of 2003-Q4.
The LRP FTEs from the ESO budget are listed in Table 1, exactly as in the 2002 budget (i.e. some names are already obsolete).
The second constraint on the SciOp Staffing Plan is the optimization
of available human resources, putting the emphasis on using the currently
available resources to prepare the steady-state period.
Finally, Paranal will recruit 2 TIOs and 1 Astro for VST operation. SciOp will aim at training the
TIOs to a level superior to the VLT requirements, i.e. impeccable night operation
(VLT requirement), impeccable day operation, and excellent "background" skill,
in such a way that SciOp TIOs would be by far superior to any external candidate.
Table 1: LRP according to the Budget
|
WP
PerID Personnel Name GRP-DIV Post ID Post
2002 2003 2004 2005
2006
Astronomers (50/50%)
WP633 3p6op MKU Kuerster,
M. CFT-LSO CSO402 Astro 0.5
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.5
WP633 3p6op STM Sterzik,
M. CFT-LSO CSO401 Astro 0.5
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.5
WP634 METop MER Mendez,
R. MET-LSO CSO502 Astro 0
0 0
0 0
WP637 WFIop MER Mendez,
R. MET-LSO CSO502 Astro 0.5
0.5 0 0
0
WP642 NTTMaint OHA Hainaut, O.
LNT-LSO CSO301 Astro 0.1 0.1
0.1 0.1 0.1
WP643 NTTop LVA Vanzi,
L. LNT-LSO CSO302 Astro
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.5 0.5
WP643 NTTop OHA Hainaut,
O. LNT-LSO CSO301 Astro 0.4
0.4 0.4 0.4
0.4
WP644 METMaint MER Mendez, R.
MET-LSO CSO502 Astro 0
0 0
0 0
WP694 NTTupgr oha Hainaut, O.
LNT-LSO CSO301 Astro 0
0 0
0 0
Total FTE Astro:
2.5 2.5
2 2
2 Total People Astro:
(Conversion: 0.5FTE/Person)
5 5
4 4
4
Fellows (50/50%)
WP633 3p6op BRK Brooks,
K. SCV-ODG FDG106 Fellow 0.5
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.5
WP633 3p6op RAT Athreya,
R. SCV-ODG FDG101 Fellow 0.5
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.5
WP634 METop ISA Saviane,
I. SCV-ODG FDG117 Fellow 0.5
0 0
0 0
WP637 WFIop HJO Jones,
H. SCV-ODG FDG105 Fellow
0.5 0.5 0
0 0
WP637 WFIop LGE Germany,
L. SCV-ODG FDG110 Fellow 0.5
0.5 0 0
0
WP643 NTTop MBI Billeres,
M. SCV-ODG FDG103 Fellow 0.5
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.5
WP643 NTTop MBI NN to
be hired SCV-ODG FDG10x Fellow 0.5
0.5 0.5 0.5
0.5
Total FTE Fellows:
3.5 3
2 2
2 Total People Fellows:
(Conversion: 0.5FTE/Person)
7 6
4 4
4
OpAs (80%/20%)
WP633 3p6op NAG LoCurto
G. CFT-LSO PSO003 Astro 0.8
0.8 0.8 0.8
0.8
WP634 METop JPR Pritchard,
J. MET-LSO PSO006 OpA 0.8
0 0
0 0
WP637 WFIop JSE Selman,
F. MET-LSO PSO004 OpA
0.8 0.8 0
0 0
WP643 NTTop PLE Leisy,
P. CFT-LSO PSO005 OpA
0.8 0.8 0.8
0.8 0.8
Total FTE OpAs:
3.2 2.4 1.6
1.6 1.6 Total People OpAs:
(Conversion: 0.8FTE/Person)
4 3
2 2
2
TIOs (100%)
WP633 3p6op EAR Araya,
E. CFT-LSO LSO404 TIO
1 1
1 1
1
WP633 3p6op EWE Wenderoth,
E. CFT-LSO LSO414 TIO 1
1 1
1 1
WP633 3p6op GOA Gonzalez,
A. CFT-LSO LSO405 TIO 1
1 1
1 1
WP633 3p6op GRO Roman,
G. CFT-LSO LSO413 TIO
1 1
1 1
1
WP633 3p6op MAE Matamoros,
E. CFT-LSO LSO407 TIO 1
1 1
1 1
WP633 3p6op N.N. Replacement
CFT-LSO LSO412 TIO 1
1 1
1 1
WP634 METop ATO Torrejon,
A. MET-LSO LSO508 TIO 1
0 0
0 0
WP634 METop RVE Vega,
R. MET-LSO LSO513 TIO
1 0
0 0
0
WP637 WFIop FLA Labraña,
F. MET-LSO LSO509 TIO
1 1
0 0
0
WP637 WFIop RCA Castillo,
R. MET-LSO LSO507 TIO 1
1 0
0 0
WP637 WFIop COJ Cortes,
J. LNT-LSO LSO511 TIO
1 1
0 0
0
WP637 WFIop FSA Sanchez,
F. MET-LSO LSO510 TIO
1 1
0 0
0
WP637 WFIop MMR Martinez,
M. LNT-LSO LSO512 TIO 1
1 0
0 0
WP637 WFIop JAR Araya,
J. MET-LSO LSO506 TechEng 1
1 0
0 0
WP643 NTTop ASA Sanchez,
A. LNT-LSO LSO314 TIO
1 1
1 1
1
WP643 NTTop DCA Castex,
D LNT-LSO LSO310 TIO
1 1
1 1
1
WP643 NTTop JMI Miranda,
J. LNT-LSO LSO308 TIO
1 1
1 1
1
WP643 NTTop KAU Aubel,
K. LNT-LSO LSO309 TIO
1 1
1 1
1
WP643 NTTop MAP Pizarro,
M. LNT-LSO LSO313 TIO
1 1
1 1
1
WP643 NTTop MOC Castillo,
M. LNT-LSO LSO312 TIO 1
1 1
1 1
Total TIOs:
20 18 12
12 12
Operation Engineers (100%)
WP633 3p6op EBA Barrios,
E. CFT-LSO LSO406 OpEng 1
1 1
1 1
WP642 NTTMaint PLS Le Saux, P.
LNT-LSO CSO303 OpEng 0.2 0.2
0.2 0.2 0.2
WP643 NTTop PLS Le Saux,
P. LNT-LSO CSO303 OpEng. 0.8
0.8 0.8 0.8
0.8
Total OpEngineers:
2 2
2 2 2
|
6.2- OPERATION ENGINEERS
Two Operation Engineers are needed; their duties are described in the SciOp General Operation Plan [2].
6.3- ELECTRONICS
The 6 Electronics will not work on the SciOps staff, but will be integrated
into other teams and departments. This section is therefore only for information,
and is not formally part of the SciOp staffing plan. The current agreement
with LED is that it will include a "Telescope Support" sub-department, lead
by R.Parra, and including J.Vilaza on a long term (> 1yr)
bases, and other Electronics technician to be trained and certified by the
current Teams' Electronics. This training and certification process is critical
in the concept of the ISO-9001 documentation and training, in order to ensure
that their in-depth knowledge is not dispersed. In that framework,
J.Santana will remain full time in LED/Telescope Support till October, and J.Fluxa ~50% in LED/Telesc.Support until October (the other ~50% in APEX). R.Olivares will move to APEX project, but he shall complete his job on the FEROS project. H.Kastowsky will retire in 2002.
6.4- ASTRONOMERS STAFFING PLAN
The steady-state staffing level required to operate the 3 telescopes is 4 staff astronomers, 3 OpAs and 3 Fellows,
implying the transfer of one of the Fellow FTEs to an OpA FTE (i.e.,
instead of 4 Fellows and 2 OpAs as planned in the original La Silla 2000+
long range plan).
This ensures that SciOp will operate with an average of 2.7 astronomers per night,
including training, which is considered to be the minimum to provide support
to the 3 remaining telescopes, provided that the schedule recommendations
outlined in the Astronomy Operation Plan [3] can be implemented (in summary,
an increase of the mean length of the "Visiting Astronomer" observing runs
to >3n, a more strict control of the programs that are accepted in Service
Mode for the NTT and 3.6m, and, as often as possible mount instruments of
the same instrument force simultaneously on the different telescopes). If
these recommendations cannot be implemented, the staffing level will have
to increase, or the services provided decreased.
For the transition period, the strategy is not to cut any contract
and to reach the number of FTEs available by renewing only selected contracts.
As of today, all the SciOp-to-be astronomers have fixed term contracts.
The table below summarizes the current contract situation, as well as the staffing plan.
- Colored boxes represent the extension of the existing contracts:
- 2F is a fellow on a 2+1 yr contract (2yrs with 80n+35d duties, +1 yr in a Chilean institution OR 1yr with 40n+17d duties).
- 3F is a fellow on a 3+1 yr contract (3yrs with 80n+35d duties, +1 yr in a European institution OR 1yr with 40n+17d duties).
The contract extensions of M.Billeres, L.Germany and L.Schmidtobreick (from
2F to 3F, cf Memo from B.Leibundgut) are taken into account in this table.
- fl is a Fellow during his last year (3dr or 4th, depending upon whether
he is a 2F or 3F). During that year, the FTE of the Fellow is not charged
to SciOp budget, but to Science.
- O is an OpA, considering that their basic 1yr contract is to be renewed for a total of 3yr.
- A is an Astronomer, considering a 3yr contract.
- Boxes with a letter but no color background corresponds to the replacement of the person listed after the end of his contract.
- Empty box means that that position is closed.
The section "Actual Nr" counts the positions of each type, and "FTEs from LRP" is the LRP budget.
Table 2: Astronomer staffing plan, transition period and beyond
|
![ASTRO LRP](/sci/facilities/lasilla/sciops/doc/astro_LRP.gif)
|
This plan is balanced (i.e. using the allocated number of FTEs)
when considering complete years. For instance, in 2003, there is an excess
of OpAs during the first half of the year, which is compensated by a deficit
of Fellows during the 2d half.
6.5- TELESCOPE & INSTRUMENT OPERATORS
6.5.1- Steady State
The Long Range Plan considers 12 TIOs for steady state SciOps. Considering
that full coverage of a position corresponds to 2.4 FTE, this ensures 5 fully
covered positions. Following the Operation Plan [2], these will be distributed
among day, night and background operation. The actual distribution will depend
on the daily operation needs, with 2 day TIOs, 2 night TIOs and 1 background TIO
being the typical distribution.
This implies that
- the maintenance is performed by LED,
- as many as possible of the operation and daily maintenance (monitoring) tasks
are highly optimized and automated.
- the telescope scheduling constraints described in [3] --more specifically, fraction
of service observing on the 3 telescopes and average run length > 3night
(to minimize the set-up changes)-- can be implemented.
- telescope operation from the Common Control Center is fully implemented
6.5.2- Transition period
For the transition period:
- 2 positions are needed to operate the two 1.5m telescopes
until Dec. 31, 2002.
- 15 positions are needed, i.e. 3 telescopes * [Day + Night] * 2.4 (full coverage factor) = 14.4,
Therefore, a total of 17 positions until Sep.30, 2002, and 15 till Dec.31, 2003
(end of WFI operation). These positions are strictly for telescope/instrument
operation, so their number relies on
- the agreement with LED+APEX concerning the Electronics (cf Sect. 3.3),
- the documentation and web restructuring not being performed by TIOs (documentation and web operation can still be performed by TIOs, as described in the General Operation Plan [2])
- the data packaging (preparation of CDs for visiting astronomers) is not performed anymore by the TIOs.
6.6- RE-ENGINEERING POSITIONS
6.6.1- Introduction
In order to optimize human resources use during
the transition period, the vacant TIO positions will not be filled with TIOs,
as hiring and training a TIO for a period of 1.5yr would be a waste of resources.
These positions will be used in the framework of restructuring as a Documentation
and Web specialist, and a Data Handling Operator, in order to enable the
optimal use of the TIOs as described in 3.5.2.
6.6.2- Documentation and web specialist
SciOp's documentation is
largely complete, the majority of which in electronic form. However, each
Telescope Team has developed its own standards for archiving, leaving no
unique repository. All these standards have two points in common: they all
require considerable manual handling of files from one machine to another
and none have acceptable version control system. These points are addressed
by the SciOp Documentation and Communication Plan [4], which describes
a uniform standard to handle documentation based on the VLT Software Documentation
System and the currently available Remedy Documentation Database. Creating
that documentation repository will be a time consuming task, but, when completed,
it will stand alone without further support.
Similarly, each Telescope Team's Web site contains an enormous amount
of well organized information. However, the unification of the teams in SciOps
will require a large amount of systematization and rationalization of the
current pages to bring them into a common framework.
A Documentation and Web specialist will be hired for the restructuring
of the SciOp documentation and web system. At the end of the transition period,
this work will be fully completed, leaving SciOp with a uniform documentation
and web system that will be maintainable during the Steady State period.
6.6.3- Data Handling Operator
The Telescope Teams currently prepare
all the "Data Packages" for the visiting astronomers, and all programs
in Service Mode (except WFI SM programs, which are dealt with by the
Archive/Garching). For Visitor Mode programs, data packaging is done
entirely by the TIOs, while for service mode, the data selection is performed
by the staff astronomers, with the actual packaging (CD production) is performed
by the TIOs.
Data packaging is a time consuming
and critical task. At Paranal, the Data Flow Back-End (Archive) software has tools
to prepare these data packages, with
CDs and DVDs routinely distributed to the visitor. We propose to implement
these tools at La Silla. ensuring an improved quality and reliability
of data packages compared to the current situation.
We shall therefore hire a Data Handling Operator to prepare these Data
Packages for visiting astronomers, thereby removing a large workload from
the TIOs. In order to provide continuous data packaging services, the SciOp
Data Handling Operator will work closely with the La Silla Archive specialists
(Anton Schmerll and Saul Vidal), participating in the archiving of the data,
while the Archive specialists will also participate in data package production.
It is noted that the production of data packages for the NTT and 3.6m Service
Observation will still be performed by SciOp, as an astronomer is needed
to assemble and check the completeness of these packages.
Considering the rate of development of Archive tools over recent years,
we expect that, by the end of the transition period, these will have progressed
sufficiently so that data archiving and data package production for visitors
can be dealt with by the Archive Specialists alone.
From SciOp Structure and Operation Plan, LSO-PLA-ESO-9000-1/1.1
7.1- NIGHT OPERATION
No major change with respect to the current
system:
- A Night TIO is in charge of the night
operation. He has FULL RESPONSIBILITY on the telescopes,
its instruments, and its user. This includes:
- Decision to close the telescope
because of weather conditions (i.e. no formal
need to call the La Silla Coordinator)
- Decision to re-open (i.e. no need to
call the La Silla Coordinator)
- Decision to call standby SciOp or
Support Teams (LED, SWC...). Head of SciOp will approve overtime or whatever other
administrative stuff related to emergency night call..
- decision to shut-down the telescope
because of un-recoverable problem, etc
Of course, the night TIO can always call
whoever he things can help in his decision, or whoever he
things can help make his decision enforced (i.e. if the
Visiting Astronomer wants to get explanation on the
humidity rules by an astronomer, get the Support
Astronomer, Shift Leader (see below) or head of SciOp to come
to help). In particular, for weather matters, an
unexperienced Night TIO should call a more senior Night
TIO.
- The Support Astronomer will assist
the TIO and the Visiting Astronomer for all astronomical
aspects of the observations. The Support Astronomer is
supposed to give an extended introduction to the Visitor
(i.e. hold his hand at least till the first successful
science exposure is read out), and is supposed to be on
"stand-by" (available in the control room, in
his office, or anywhere else till ~2AM, then on call
later for important questions/problems that should not
wait till the next day). The Suppport Astronomer must be
"certified" (cf SciOp Internal Training Plan)
for the telescope and instrument he supports, meaning
that he will be able to perform some troubleshooting
(e.g. diagnoze and fix or work-around a crashed
template).
After Dec.2003 (when SciOp will have lost the current
2p2/WFI staff), this scheme will have to be condensed, sharing TIOs and/or
Support Astronomers among telescopes, e.g. no night TIO for the 2p2 when
in FEROS mode, or no astronomer in WFI/Service Mode. Priorities will have
to be defined in case a person has to attend 2 telescopes at the same time,
eg. Visitor Mode has priority over service, and/or larger diameter over smaller
one.
7.2- DAY OPERATION
7.2.1- TELESCOPE COORDINATOR
As maintenance will be mostly performed by
"outsiders" (i.e. from Engineering Dpt and SWC),
coordination will be of critical importance.
For each telescope, the Day TIO will be in charge
of that coordination (and be TELESCOPE COORDINATOR). His role is
equivalent to that of the Paranal's UT Manager. On a day-to-day
basis, he will
- Coordinate with Eng.Dept and SWC the
maintenance actions
- Coordinate with outsiders and insiders the
various actions to be taken
- Accept (or not) the work performed on the
telescope by other teams or internal teams
- Coordinate with the support
astronomer/visiting astronomer the time of start-up and
the time of the hand-over.
- Keep a log of the actions taken
- Finally, deliver the telescope in perfect
condition to the Night TIO. (in summer time, the
telescope can be handed over to the "Background
TIO" who will receive it on behalf of the Night TIO
arriving later).
- On Tuesdays, he will check the pending
problems and action points, and call the responsible
person (or have them called) for a status report
- On Wednesday, he will 1/ chair the weekly
operation meeting during which the problems and action
points are discussed 2/ issue the internal and external
week reports.
One of the Telescope Coordinators (typically a
"senior" one) will be SCIOP COORDINATOR, i.e. in
addition to coordinate his telescope, he will also coordinate the
actions that affect SciOp as a whole. He will be in charge of
representing SciOp at the Action Point Meeting on Thu, and -if
needed- invite additional SciOp members to be present at that
meeting. He is also the person who mans the lasilla@eso.org account (cf [1])
7.2.2- SUPPORT ASTRONOMERS
Durning the day (starting at a decent time
considering the time he went to bed the night before), the
Support Astronomer will
- Get informed about the end of the previous
night, if relevant
- Check that the day calibrations taken were
successful and that all required calibrations were
obtained.
- Give off-line (P2PP and Co) intro if
required
- Background work
7.2.3- SHIFT LEADER
One of the support astronomer (most senior) is the Astronomer Shift Leader
(which corresponds very closely to the former La Silla Coordinator). He is
in charge of taking astronomy-related decision, as to schedule ToO requests
(checking that they are approved/pre-approved), approve ToO Requests in case
of emergency (eg WE if Director not available), etc. He is also in charge
of formally "closing" ToO tickets in the Remedy system (cf [1]). The Shift
Leader can also enforce the authority of the TIOs for weather and safety
related matters (e.g. in case of recalcitrant Visitor).
It is suggested that the task of closing the Library curtains during the
WE be passed to SWC, as they will become the most numerous users of the Admin building.
7.2.4- BACKGROUND TIO
The third TIO will either
- perform some background work (e.g on his
instrument, on documention, etc), or
- be on training.
It should be noted that if the 3rd TIO is needed
for on-line work, this has priority on any background task. For
instance, if he is needed for urgent trouble shooting, problem
solving, or to ensure the day/night transition, he should stop
his background activities.
7.2.5- OPERATION ENGINEERS
They participate to maintenance plan, and on-line
operation. Most of their time should be devoted to configuration control and operation developments, as described above
7.3. DAILY OPERATION SCHEDULE
- 08:00 Telescope coordinators get the reports of the night and
assign the new problems/request to the relevant department. In case of urgent
item, make sure that the corresponding people get the info and act. Adjust
the operation plan of the day to cope with that emergency (note that this
should be an exception).
- 08:00--12:00 Troubleshooting of previous night pending problems,
Calibrations and set-up for night, maintenance Plan, in that order of priority.
Note that in normal operation (i.e. not in technical time, there is no "installation/test
of improvement" - this should go to technical time).
- 13:30--14:00 Dayly Coordination meeting: Attendance compulsory
for the 3 telecope coordinators, OpEng, a coordinator from Eng and a coordinator
from SWC. Coordinators can also "invite" specific specialists (eg. instrumentation,
mechanics) or other departments (ISG, Hotel...). Support astronomers are
expected to attend unless they are on full night schedule. It must be noted
that this is an open meeting, everybody is welcome. This meeting will also
be the base for the Coordinators to prepare the weekly report on a day-by-day
bases.
- Brief report of the night, its problems and what is being done to solve them.
- Brief report of actions under way
- Coordination of the next 24h, esp.
- actions to be taken in the afternoon
- time of the startup for each telescope, and time of start of observations.
Here should come a very brief summary of the observing program and of its
technical implication.
- scheduled maintenance actions for the next morning.
- 14:00--16:30: Operation, complete what is left from the morning
- Wednesday only: 14:00-15:00: Weekly coordination meeting. All
the pending problems are reviewed, as well as the action points. New action
points are dicussed. At the end of that meeting, the Coordinators should
enter the final comments in the Remedy system, and prepare the weekly reports,
both the external one (generated by Remedy) to be sent to astro, and the
internal one, which includes the summary of the week for the next turno.
It is important to note that this coordination meeting must be prepared in
advance: at the latest on Mon. or Tue., the Coordinators should contact the
provider for each problems for feedback (unless that feedback appears in
the problem report).
- ~16:30: Startup (time to be adjusted depending on the season and the need). All maintenance actions stop.
- ~17:30: Start of calibrations, then observations.
- Just before twilight: "hand
over" from the day TIO to the night (or mid/day/night) TIO, with the Supp.Astro:
pass the information of the day to the night people.
7.4- SUMMARY TABLE
The table below summarizes the operation and background tasks of the various members of SciOp
Functions
|
Operation Engineers
|
Day TIO
|
Night TIO
|
Background TIO
|
Astronomers
(Faculty
OpAs Fellow)
|
Head of Department
|
TASKS
|
Deputy to Head of SciOp
Operation Management
Configuration Control
Operational Tools Development (OPS)
OTM/MTM templates maintenance
Projects and Commissioning
Maintenance Plan Control
Technical Document WebMaster
Training
Day Coverage
Night Technical Support
|
Day-to-Day Telescope Coordination and Configuration Control
Weekly Report
Instruments Setups
Detector refilling
Archiving
Instruments Calibrations
Performance Monitoring
Troubleshooting
Daily Startup
Overlap Night Operation
|
Telescopes and Instruments Night operation and Safety
Night Report Submitting
Carryout Service Observing
Make Users Happy
Be the SciOp Face projection
|
Assist Instruments Scientist
Perform Instrument Calibrations regarding the data Quality Control
and Calibration Plan needs
Installation and Setup Procedure definitions and Check List maintenance
Instrument technical web page maintenance
Commissioning of new features
Instrument Metric and Configuration Control
|
Science Support Deputy
Supporting visiting/service astronomers
Service Observations (SM, ToO, DDT, etc.)
Tel&Inst performance monitoring
Instrument Scientist
Create and maintain User's Manuals
Develop Pipelines and Data quality controls
Train Instrument TIO
|
Management and administrative tasks, described in LSO-SPE-ESO-00100-0004
|
7.5-EMAIL
7.5.1- EMAIL LISTS & ALIASES
The following email lists are available as majordomo mailing lists (TOBE IMPLEMENTED)
- Instrument forces:
- ls-imaging@eso.org,
- ls-infrared@eso.org,
- ls-spectro@eso.org,
- ls-hires@eso.org and
- ls-telescopes@eso.org
- Generic lists:
- ls-sciops@eso.org: all SciOp staff, this is an alias joining the 3 following lists:
- ls-astro@eso.org: all the astronomers
- ls-tios@eso.org: all the TIOs
- ls-openg@eso.org: all the op.Eng.
The leader of each group
is in charge of the maintenance of these majordomo lists (i.e. adding new
users, removing obsolete ones). Email to these lists will be distributed
to
- all the members of the Force or group, for info or action,
- an email repository on kayu (or other TBD) (imaging@kayu.ls.eso.org, etc), see below.
7.5.2- EMAIL ACCOUNTS
The only allowed email browser is Netscape, as implemented on kila.
- lasilla@eso.org:
front end to sci-ops, to be used as generic entry
point and helpdesk. This will be made clear on the SciOp webpages. By default, any generic request should arrive at lasilla.
During the day, La Silla is manned by the SciOp Shift Leader (change
as v-1.1, 2002-07-11), who should
- frequently check for new mails (several times per day)
- forward every mail (possibly making the subject line more descriptive) to
- one of the Instrument Forces, or
- one of the Telescopes, or
- head of SciOp for emails of "political" or managerial nature, or
- another department (LED, SWC, management...) if that email was not meant for SciOps
- with CC to lasilla@eso.org, and
- delete the original message as soon as the CC of the forward has arrived back.
This must trigger a reply with CC to lasilla@eso.org by someone
in the Department. When a reply is received, both the original and the reply
are deleted (ie that email is processed).
So, at any given time, the lasilla email should countain only
- i) just arrived emails
- ii) CC'ed emails from lasilla to the Department, awaiting a reply.
In the future, lasilla@eso.org could possibly evolve into a more automatic helpdesk (remedy?).
A more detailed procedure is now (2002-07-11) available on the SciOp intranet.
Special case:
DDT proposals. Currently, all DDT proposal (Urgent ToOs and not urgent DDT,
for La Silla and Paranal) arrive at on lasilla@eso.org. At the time of SciOp
implementation, these will be filtered and stored in a DDT subfolder for
reference. Changes are being requested on the DDT procedure, so that the
emails sent include the urgent/not urgent nature of the proposal, and the
telescope(s) requested, so that proper filtering can be implemented.
- ls-ntt@eso.org, ls-360@eso.org ls-220@eso.org (which should be connected
to the current team addresses for continuity). Telescope specific. This is
the email of the telescope coordinator. He should either deal with it (e.g.
urgent information about something happening at the telescope), or forward
to one of the Instrument Forces. As soon as a mail is dealt with (or forwarded),
it is deleted, so that these account should be always almost empty. The home
directory of these accounts should (and will)
be kept empty: they are used only for email. As the lasilla account is manned
by one of the TIOs, emails received on lasilla should be forwarded on the
corresponding telescope account only if it is of interest for the other TIO
of that telescope.
- ls-imaging, ls-infrared, ls-spectro, ls-hires, ls-telescopes, ls-ntt, ls-360, ls-220, lasilla @kayu.ls.eso.org: email repositories. They just store the mails received on the ls-imaging@eso.org, etc, mailing lists for long term history
(say, 1year). (TOBE IMPLEMENTED)
7.5.3- EMAIL POLICY
- Incoming emails
- in all the SciOp accounts (lasilla, ntt, 360, 220), mail should be read exclusively using Netscape, as implemented on kila.
- lasilla, nttt, 360 and 220 (i.e. the day-to-day operation account)
should be kept "empty", i.e. contain only the "active" messages. A message
is deleted as soon as is processed (i.e. dealt with, or forwarded to one
of the forces).
- incoming email of "political" nature will be forwarded to and dealt with by Head of SciOp.
- Outgoing emails:
- reply
to emails that was forwarded by lasilla, or CC'd to lasilla must be CC'd
to lasilla so that the original message can be deleted on lasilla.
- inside sciOps: all sciop-related email must be CCd to at least one
of the account SciOp accounts (lasilla, Telescopes or Instrument Forces)
above. Use common sense to select which, e.g. urgent stuff related to instrument
problem should be sent to the corresponding telescope and to the corresponding
instrument force. SciOp emails that are not of general interest must be CC'd
to the head of the corresponding Force, or to the head of SciOp in case of
administrative or political emails.
--oOo--