Minutes of DRAGON meeting, 6 September 2005.

Present:  Art Olin (AO), Chris Ruiz (CR), Dave Hutcheon (DH), Dave Ottewell (DFOT), 
Dieter Frekers (DF), Goetz Ruprecht (GR), John D'Auria (JDA), Jonty Pearson (JEP),
Lothar Buchmann (LB), Peter Machule (PM), Mike Trinczek (MT) - recorder.


1.  Previous minutes were approved.


2.  DRAGON Hardware:

DH - Controls group has "fixed" FC bias problem.  An earlier "fix" to address another
problem could cause the FC bias of one cup to trip off when another cup is moved.
This has now been rectified.

DH/DFOT - The iris to be placed upstream of the gas target is now in the detailed
design phase.  It is somewhat complicated, allowing for translation in (x,y) as well
as radius adjustment.  Shipping has slipped to 6 weeks (!!) on some parts as they
are not available off the shelf.  Investigating if design will allow hand adjustment
after venting chamber in the case that all parts are not available in time for the
anticipated mid-October beam; though more cumbersome and time-consuming, we could
still benefit from its non-remote use.

PM - FCM was resoldered to hopefully remove flakey readback of the bias.

JDA - New DSSSD has arrived.


3.  Experimental Reports:

CR - No way to extract "good" events from 199 keV/u data set.  See eLog for details.


4.  Fall Schedule:

26Mg pilot beam for 26Al starts 10 October.
26Al has ~3 weeks starting 12 October.
22Na has 3 shifts starting 31 October.

40Ca beam setup starts 17 November.
40Ca has ~2 weeks starting 21 November.

Si charge state distributions for 26Al will be done starting 14 December.

There is concern about the setup for the 26Al campaign since most people will not
be around (conflicting TUDA meeting across The Pond...).  We will need to seek 
outside help and make sure we are well organized.  As CR will not be here, JAC
(in absentia) was volunteered to coordinate the effort.


5.  DRAGON Meeting Time:

JDA suggested the meeting be switched to 14:00 on Mondays.  Please forward
objections to him.


6.  Nuclear Physics Town Hall Meeting:

Schedule for Friday and Saturday, 9 and 10 September is attached.

Need to generate 2 plans:  One glitzy sound-bite type for the politicians and
another, more detailed plan for NSERC.

There are no (!?!) astrophysicists on the committee.

JDA presents at 8:30 Saturday morning.  He must convey the importance of nuclear
astrophysics and why DRAGON needs substantial, sustained funding.

JDA gives pre-practice talk and solicits input.  Will practice again on Thursday.

Much discussion ensues.