Murison continued researching the literature on refraction through the Earth's atmosphere. Apparently, a few well-known references have used incorrect versions of the expressions for refractivity as a function of temperature, pressure, and humidity.

Murison, Brad Behr, and Alex Paige (USNO summer student) performed laser measurements in the optics lab to determine the skew angles of the adaptive optics module of the dFTS guider box. The angles, amounting to 2-3 degrees, are small enough that we think we can just tilt and shim the AO module to compensate. Meanwhile, the same three individuals have been working on a new guider box design. The new guider box will put a direct start image in addition to the fiber image on the video camera CCD, and it will thus be able to operate at fainter magnitudes.

Murison designed another back-end lens for the dFTS. This time, a smaller bandpass necessitated by the use of a 1k detector along with our particular diffraction grating allowed a six-element design using only catalog lenses (that is, no custom lenses were needed). The project had barely enough money to purchase the various catalog lenses. When they arrive we shall breadboard and test the new back-end lens before fabricating a permanent mounting to hold the elements in place. The new lens, along with a new pupil slicer design for the instrument, will likely allow a sensitivity improvement of at least several magnitudes.

Murison gave a professional seminar on the dFTS guider box and the recent dFTS observing trip to the Steward Observatory 90-inch on Kitt Peak.