Telescope Manual - National Optical Astronomy Observatory
Contents
1. 200 M 42 B m OAs amp narh e 6 Autoguider Image CCD Image 6 Camera Control Expose Guide Setup TDI Autoguider Image Seconds Fiter Wheel Scope Dec 2 Epose 2 I No Fiters 2 40 E 7 Mv j Guide Star WA Jp Pier Fip x Camere ide Start V Watch Star Palsa xpo 910 9 Goon Options gt 6 Camera 1 Camera 2 Settings Move Alarms Less lt lt Camere 1 Information Camera 2 Information Camera Camera Idle Cooler power 89 Cooler power 84 Sensor Temp 1 9 Sensor Temp 5 6 Setpoint 2 0 Setpoint 6 0 Roll mouse wheel up to pan right or down to pan left 255x170 200 132 99 i 144 000 If you get a message that there are no guide stars available you will need to try taking a longer exposure or shifting the field slightly You can change the length of the exposure by using the up and down arrows below Exposure on the Guide Menu Recommended exposure times are between 3 and 5 seconds To shift the field you will need to jog the telescope slightly via the ACE SoftPad on the TCS If you are having trouble finding suitable guide stars you can use the Guide Star Search program on Sage to search for stars nearby see section below for guide star searching 27 After2. 14 5 ska valk 15 FHE c X A eS 15 TCS INSERUMENT COMMUNICATION 17 OBSERVING ELE 18 WEATHER 18 DATA ACQUISITION COMPUTERS 19 HOW TO CHECK AND ZERO TELESCOPE POINTING eere 19 How to Check Telescope Pointing iit rere eee t tide 19 How to Zero the Telescope PONS skinne EN RUE QUU ia vk 19 CHANGING FILTERS edo tore bed ide aada 20 DOME ELATS Arra told dut all iet 21 UN Ge Rm 22 GUIDING FOR HDI MaximDL 24 K VEM Eel adeniin J ata Gare wets maal ras ec Das 24 EM 24 on coolt ST A EAT 26 IDEE 27 FOCUS Si 28 Switching guide cameras Db MORE retta Can dde petu d s 20 GUIDESTAR SEARCH WITH ek eese aaa 30 HDI CCD INFORMATION cinsi hapinata CH alamaa 30 WIYN 0 9m Frequently Asked 3l WHAT TO DO WHEN PROBLEMS OCCUR eee ones tnnt te
3. 0 9M TELESCOPE OPERATIONS MANUAL October 2 2015 By Heidi Schweiker Revised By Flynn Haase 2015 WIYN 0 9M TELESCOPE OPERATIONS MANUAL eene enne 1 October 2 LOOD cotra icit meti dM abi mech ta eg die cs 1 HEAL SOW CIEE alailma lunimas eda 1 Revised Flynn 2015 taani tahtel ee S NES 1 LOCATION OF THE 0 9M TELESCOPE etatis stet to tan ates 4 SAFETY WALKTHROUGH s di aa 5 SIARTUPQEHECRLIEUST 5 SEHUTDOMNEHBEKEBT us assault imaami ta 6 INTERLOEKS uusimaid 7 S 8 EXHAUST FAN OPERATION 8 WIND SCREEN TU PESE UAE ARD 9 TELESCOPE DOME 222 211 11 212 neenon etn enne nennen tastes nennen 9 Detailed Manual Operation of the Vents 10 ACE DS onte 11 OVERVIEW 11 STAR TING UP pese teta d is icto teadke 12 TLELESEOPE PARK POSELIONS 5 existe nuits Menus m aedi 12 COORDINATE ACA EAL OGG saci acco ines eee ne ooh LUN 13 ACQUIRING AN OBJECT iiri tee p NR PATRE SERI
4. 9550 button Or you can use the JOG JOG buttons to S2KB Mosaic setup jog the focus a specified amount The current focus is displayed on the toolbar of the Focus GUI on the main TCS screen near the middle left and at the bottom of the SoftPad JOG ES The range of focus is from 0 to 60000 One step is 5 approximately 0 5 microns You always want to Drive to Zero STOP increment the focus to larger numbers to remove Drive to In Reset backlash Nominal focus for HDI is around 32700 d Servo iv Backlask Once your focus exposures have read out you can use IRAF and DS9 to determine the best focus Change with Filters Once you have a good idea of where focus should offi Bias 21049 be a good step size to use is 50 units Otherwise use a step size of 100 units The smallest step size you will be able to detect is 25 units You should always move the focus in the positive direction ie your focus seguence steps should be 50 units When changing the focus make sure to watch the focus values so a it reaches the desired focus value and b you will notice if the focus value starts to run away A runaway can result in hitting the focus limit and restoring the system may result in the focus being significantly off from the previous value 23 GUIDING WITH HDI the MaximDL software Overview Setting up the Guider Software Guiding Focusing the guider Guide
5. INIT Wheel button within the Filter Wheel GUI Auxiliary Instruments 1 Filter Wheel Power Outlets m Wheel 1 Wheel 2 CUu Stromgren v CB educ INIT Wheel 1 INIT Wheel 2 Stromareny OR C Empty old C Empty C Empty C Empty C new Empty 20 Currently filters are listed in the headers with numbers as opposed to names Beware of changing filters while slewing the telescope This may result in a filter wheel lockup DOME FLATS Send the telescope and dome to the flat field position by selecting from the pulldown menu Telescope gt Dome Flat Park on the TCS A box will appear with HA Dec and Dome azimuth The correct positions should be HA 03 28 Dec 13 00 Dome az 74 Press Park to move the telescope and the dome to the correct positions It s a good idea to go upstairs and sight along the telescope tube to check the telescope dome alignment You may need to bump the dome via the control panel The Flat Field lamp control is in the computer room It is located in the middle of the first electronics rack as you enter the computer room Control for the High lamps is on the left and control for the Low lamps is on the right Each has a toggle switch to turn power on off and a rheostat to change the voltage to the lamps To turn on a bank of lights turn the voltage to 0 by turning the rheostat counter clockwise Turn the power on with the toggle switch
6. Pine which is a keystroke driven mail program Pine is recommended over mail man Invokes the UNIX MANual pages allowing you to get help on any UNIX command Format man lt Unix command gt e mkdir MaKe a new DIRectory Format mkdir lt directory name gt MoVe an existing file to a new file which is the same as renaming the original file Format mv lt existing file gt lt new file gt ps Displays the currently running ProceSses Format ps x e rm Delete ReMove a file Format rm lt file name gt e sftp Secure FTP e 5512 Stands for Secure SHell Allows you to log into another computer using a secure connection which protects the privacy of information passed between the two computers Format ssh2 lt host computer IP address gt e tar Stands for Tape ARchive Allows you to make a backup of your data onto a magnetic tape Format tar cvf tape device name files to be backed up 41 Useful web page http www nmt edu tcc help unix unix_cmd html APPENDIX IRAF CHEAT SHEET Common IRAF commands e display Displays an image in ximtool window Stands for flush process It is recommended that be issued anytime ctrl c is used to interrupt a process imexamine allows the user to use certain keystrokes to operate on the currently displayed image in the ximtool window Useful keystrokes include r plots a radial profile and outputs profile di
7. an individual vent o Together Include this vent as part of the ensemble Off Remove this vent from the ensemble and disable it from manual open close operations o Separate Remove this vent from the ensemble and enable it to be opened closed manually by its individual open close manual switch see next major bullet e Open Close row of 11 If the individual vents Together Off Separate switch is set to Separate then it can be opened closed by its individual open close switch from this row towards the bottom of the control panel 10 THE ACE TCS RCS at WIYN 0 9 m Teles itt Peak E p x User Setup Observatory Dome Telescope Instruments Toolkit Scripting Network mmm e E soe reste ea na anew Zenith Park A Dec Epoch r DOME Dome 05 2436 2000 00 Shutter Pinter Cover Pan 031233 2000 00 104709 200000 Slit Azimuth so set Encoders 430350 2000 00 sms 294600 2000 00 TELESCOPE 723143 2000 00 R A Track r SYSTEM CLOCKS amp TELESCOPE POSITION JULIAN DATE 2453500 42759 JD 129 365 CIVIL DATE 15 15 44 0 MST Mon May 09 2005 UT DATE 22 15 44 0 UTC Mon May 09 2005 SIDEREAL 06 00 37 6 Positions RA Dec Instrumental 02 32 38 18 00 00 Refracted 17 45 13 4 5 265 Apparent 17 45 11 1 001 6125 1801
8. and then turn the voltage to the desired setting When turning off the lamps be sure to turn the voltage all the way down before turning the power off Ramping of the lights like this will help preserve the lifetime of the lamps 21 Suggested lamp settings and exposure times for each instrument are listed below igh 100 Es Low 100 210 Us Low 100 23000 fas Low10 24 000 low 22000 9s 9s 95 5 FOCUSING Due to the mechanics of secondary system there is some inherent focus drift 50 units To try to eliminate this drift there is a routine that keeps the telescope at the last commanded focus position If you would like to use this routine simply check the box beside Servo in the Focus GUI Each time you change the focus the system will automatically keep the focus at this new position It is highly recommended to keep this box checked WARNING Only click buttons in Focus GUI once and wait until action has taken place WARNING Do not perform other tasks in TCS while changing focus Currently the only way to focus the telescope is to run a focus sequence manually We are working to get some degree of automated focus routine You will be taking focus 22 exposures with an HDI sequence but setting the focus on the TCS manually at each step while images are being read out You can enter a desired focus into the box beside Go To Focus and then hit the Go To Focus To Focus
9. level These are typically taken in the afternoon before the dome flats Be sure the inside of the dome is dark You will probably want to obtain 9 bias frames which will later be combined with the zerocombine task in IRAF It is advisable to intersperse a few bias frames throughout the night as you obtain your program observations in order to track any temporal variations in the bias structure Q What do I need to know about taking dome flats A Dome flats are used to correct for pixel to pixel sensitivity variations in the CCD They are usually taken in the late afternoon 1 to 2 hours before you open the dome slit to begin your evening of observing If it is not possible to obtain the dome flats in the late afternoon they can also be procured in the morning after your night of observing is done Making sure the lights in the dome are off position the dome at an azimuth of 73 1 degrees and point the telescope at HA 3 28 and Dec 13d this is usually done using the flat field park position selection in the TCS GUI Go to the computer room and turn on the flat field illumination lamps high intensity for the U filter or narrow band filters low intensity for BVRI and other broad band filters then ramp up the rheostats to achieve the proper level of intensity usually 100 You will need to expose the CCD to achieve a mean level equal to about half the saturation of the A D converter 30 000 ADU making sure that the CCD itself
10. on the right side of the TCS screen labeled S T Select one that 15 close to the sidereal time and near a Declination of 32 A 5th magnitude star works best Once you ve selected a star double click anywhere on that line in the catalog to send the coordinates to the appropriate RA boxes Confirm the coordinates in the boxes are reasonable and click the Go To button How to Zero the Telescope Pointing If telescope pointing needs to be re zeroed please contact the Site Manager CHANGING FILTERS There are two filter wheels in the Filter Shutter Assembly associated with HDI Each wheel contains 8 slots giving the capability to house up to 14 filters at any one time The filter wheels are stacked meaning both filter wheels are in the light path at all times For this reason it s important to make sure that at least one of the filter wheels is in an empty position when taking data To change filters you need to bring up the Filter Wheel GUI displayed below e From the Instruments menu select Filter Wheel Move the desired filter into the light path by selecting the radio button to the left of it s name Do this for both wheels After selecting a filter in one wheel you should see all the names in that wheel turn gray while the filter wheel moves Once it has reached the desired position the names will reappear as usual If the filter names do not reappear black you may need to reinitialize that wheel To do this click on the appropriate
11. temperature is higher than inside Selective operation of the vents is done by setting the switches on the control panel located near vent 7 opposite the dome shutter as described in the detailed operation section below If the air is very calm less than about 5 mph you may wish to open additional vents Detailed Manual Operation of the Vents In this mode one can open or close any or all of the 11 vents individually The vent control panel consists of four types of switches as described below The term ensemble of vents refers to those vents whose Together Off Separate switches are set to Together e Auto Off Manual this is the main control switch at the top of the control box o Auto Enables automatic open close of the ensemble of vents when the dome shutter 15 opened closed This disables manual open close operations from Open Close main switch see next major bullet o Off Disables both automatic and manual open close operation of the ensemble of vents o Manual Disables automatic open close of ensemble of vents when the dome shutter is opened closed Enables manual open close of the ensemble of vents with the Open Close main switch e Open Close This switch operates on the ensemble of vents It is a momentary switch which must be held while the vents continue to open or close Together Off Separate This is a row of 11 switches each having 3 positions to control the detailed operation of
12. the guide star has been chosen you must set the exposure time to at least 3 Click on Track and then click Start You re not guiding yet You need to then turn guiding ON via the TCS Autoguider GUI Menu Control Status OFF ON N xS Focus Encoder 22500 J Eg Ou EU r Corrections E 00 00 TS 0 5 Bring up the Autoguider GUI from the main toolbar Select Instruments gt Autoguider Select or 5 for the guide camera you are using Click On When the guider 15 on you should see numbers changing in the boxes below Corrections Make sure these numbers are changing and that your star is not wandering before starting your exposure Focusing The guide camera focus 15 controlled via the TCS Autoguider GUI displayed above The focus range 15 between 0 and 28000 with typical focus values around 0 for the North camera and 20000 for the South camera The current focus 15 indicated in the yellow box beside Encoder To change the focus enter a desired focus value into the box beneath the current focus setting and click on GO TO The easiest way to focus the guider is to turn guiding on with the MaximDL software but not the TCS and change the focus values in the Autoguider GUI until you reach a desired focus 28 Switching guide cameras e Switching guide cameras is as simple as clicking the radio button for the other camera in the guide tab e Mak
13. 00 195000 10HD22686 33618 70 2360700 1950 00 11HD38921 5454100 381451 00 195000 12HD40335 55537 60 1510900 1950 00 13HD44612 6210970 43343500 1950 00 Optional Fields 1480 0 1694 e5207 31 0005200 1950 00 Magnitude 1564299 80914 00 8562801 195000 16HD75223 8452980 393654 01 1950 00 mumew 17HD77280 8590541 11645 00 1950 00 E 18 61347 92625 00 70857 00 1950 00 pee Tess 19 HD 84800 945 35 90 435356 00 1950 00 2061390 022 42 00 958 32 00 1950 00 w Cancel Process gain Save Save Catalog xi Proper Motions optional Enter the R exactly as is appears Enter the DEC exactly as is appears 13 Click on Open Catalog and select your file Enter the RA and Dec of the first object in your catalog exactly as it appears You will also need to note an Epoch you can select the J2000 00 default or enter a different one If you ve included magnitudes and proper motions in your catalog you ll need to also enter those exactly as they appear for your first object Once you ve entered the above information click on Process and you should see your processed catalog appear on the right Edit the original file or modify your entries in this Catalog Import Wizard until you are satisfied with the result Click on Save Catalog and then open your catalog within the TCS to see that it has indeed been processed correctly Add Replace and Delete but
14. 00 2000 00 624925 2000 00 092447 2000 00 145040 2000 00 064420 2000 00 550242 2000 00 0 051 0 003 3 27 ES Track Enable Track Rates Preload Motors Center CCD Dec Track O Focus 29632 RA Limits JOK Dec Limits JOK Instrumental Sec a E m DOME FLAT PARK 200535 082800008 1 592 AZ ALT MAGNIFY 260 38 03 38 54 18 rACE Flex pointing corrections DAACE Current ReleasetWIYNOS 03101 7 Flx MIRROR COVER PARK Autoguider OFF Go To Focus Menu 29630 LI _ 29630 180 Grid Points Grid Point 4 neighbors OFF C ON Setup E 1 CN Cs IR es JOG Drive to Zero stop Drive to Max Reset Servo Backlash out Init STOP Corrections dg e with Filters et 29365 Gain uM INTERACTIVE OVERVIEW The ACE TCS program runs via the computer named Olive a Windows 7 machine The autoguider runs on a computer named Moss The TCS Telescope Control System is a Windows based system Dome and Telescope status are on the left Time and date stamps such as UT date Sidereal time and current RA and Dec are all displayed on the right side The center of the screen is where the coordinate catalogs will load Below the co
15. 33 TELESCOPE PROBLEMS piinasi ciin ha n EO X D da CHA 33 TGS PROBLEMS a i alamaa unt ocn 35 DOME PROBLEMS august etma 36 COMPUTER PROBEEMS 38 APPENDICES maika aial a 39 APPENDIX LIGHTNING SHUTDOWN AND RECOVERY PROCEDURES 39 duo tn aa lates 39 Recovery e E oa 40 APPENDIX B UNIX CHEAT SHEET oit peqeceteieee qae esta eieipe ated 41 APPENDIX RAF CHEAT 5 12 2 1211 0 24 1 0 0 46 61 42 APPENDIX D USING SFTP Urea aaasta 42 APPENDIX E EMACS CHEAT SHEET eesevnasvantonnsenes tae netten ennt thee enne 43 APPENDIX E 5 tete citt v ide eles 43 APPENDIX A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR TAKING SKY FLATS 44 APPENDIX TAKING A SEEING MEASUREMENT eene 45 LOCATION THE 0 9M TELESCOPE 0 TUCSON RYAN AIRFIELD MISSION Location 56 miles southwest of Tucson via State Route 86 in the Quinlan Mountains of the Sonoran Desert in the Tohono O odham Nation The 0 9 m telescope is located on the southern ridge of Kitt Peak in the Quin
16. 4 SMALL TELESCOPE MOTIONS If you need to jog the telescope to center up on your object you can either type in offsets into the offset window just below the coordinate catalog area or you can use the black jog buttons on the ACE Soft Pad the software hand paddle To enter offsets click on the E Fus of Offset tab and enter your offsets in the appropriate boxes You can enter either arcseconds or seconds and 1 25 E arcseconds by selecting the appropriate units in the 6 Guide pulldown box to right Click on to move telescope The underlined zero to the left of the entry boxes is a button that allows you to clear any entries NH The ACE Soft Pad is a software hand paddle This comes E up automatically when you log in You can also bring it up by clicking on the dark blue SoftPAD button on the ie Bx toolbar or by selecting Telescope Soft Paddle on the 5 m 3 main toolbar BEZE Moving under computer control Although the dome can be controlled either via computer control or manually from the control panel on the platform throughout the night you will want to use the dome tracking program AutoDome to keep the dome slit aligned with the telescope To turn dome tracking on on the TCS select Dome gt AutoDome A box will pop up asking you to confirm turning dome tracking on You can also send dome to a specific azim
17. EMACS CHEAT SHEET Common Emacs keystrokes e Ctrl x Ctrl s Save changes to the current file e Ctrl x Ctrl c Quit emacs e Ctrl b Back one space e Ctrl f Forward one space e Ctrl k Delete entire line e Ctrl xu Undo last change e Previous page e Ctrl v Next page Useful web page http www stanford edu group dcg leland docs emacs html APPENDIX F VI CHEATSHEET x Delete a single character 2x deletes two characters e j Move the cursor down one row e h Move the cursor left one space e k Move the cursor up one row e l Move the cursor right one space e W Save changes to the current file Wq Write and Quit Save changes to the file and quit vi e q Quit vi without saving changes e i Insert e u Undo last change e D Delete from character to end of line dw Delete word e Ctrl b Previous page e Ctrl f Next page Useful web page http www uic edu depts accc software unixgeneral v1101 htmlttstartvi 43 APPENDIX G A REFERENCE GUIDE FOR TAKING SKY FLATS The following describes a method that provides useful twilight sky flats at the 0 9m telescope using either the MOSAIC or S2KB setups Philosophy If you want to use twilight sky flats instead of dome flats to correct for pixel to pixel sensitivity variations then you need at least 5 well exposed sky flats in each filter each night If you want to use twilight sky flats in conjunction wi
18. UI click INIT Wheel 1 or INIT Wheel 2 depending on which wheel is not responding o Go upstairs and move the faulty wheel by hand to check for any mechanical obstructions if you don t know how to do this call the Site 35 Manager If it does not move stop and call the Site Manager immediately If the wheel moves freely Exit ACE TCS under User select Exit Then restart the ACE TCS via the icon on the desktop you will also need to restart the ACE socket server under Network select Start Socket Server DOME PROBLEMS e The dome runs away Select Dome gt Stop from the pulldown menu or click the dome stop button on the toolbar The dome position 15 lost Select Dome gt Home from the pulldown menu This will rotate the dome until it finds its home position This may take a few minutes so be patient while the dome moves If the dome never seems to find home you may need to reset the dome home position manually To do this you need to go upstairs and align two sets of duct tape turn off Dome tracking first The dome home position 15 at 90 degrees which 15 close to dome Flat Field position of 73 From the control panel on the platform move the dome either Left or Right to the approximate dome flat field position There are two strips of duct tape low on the wall left of the dome vent control There are two matching strips of duct tape on the dome wall that you will need to align with them If the dome i
19. about 1 3 of the full well in a 5 minute exposure e About 15 to 20 minutes exact time varies considerably based on your specific circumstances into astronomical twilight begin the process of taking morning twilight flats e Point the telescope at Dec 30 and HA 4h east e Perform the above steps in reverse order making sure to begin with the longest exposure time and progress to the shortest times and moving the telescope west again to move away from the rising sun 44 APPENDIX TAKING A SEEING MEASUREMENT We are seeking to track the seeing guality of the 0 9m telescope As such we would like each observer to measure the seeing toward the end the night using the following procedure We need an uncrowded star field with airmass less than 2 preferably less than 1 5 A standard star field or one that you are currently observing are fine as long they fulfill these criteria Atthe end of the night before morning twilight begins take a short 2 to 5 seconds unguided exposure of the star field with the V filter e Use IMEXAMINE in IRAF to measure the FWHM for 3 well exposed peak counts between 5 000 and 20 000 ADU stars in the image and report the average value in the nightlog Note that having the dome vents open and the telescope exhaust fan on weather permitting helps to improve the seeing 45
20. agnostics a only gives the profile diagnostics c plots a contour plot and s plots a surface plot e imhistogram Plots a histogram of the pixel intensity values Note that the ordinate is a logarithmic scale This is useful for checking the distribution of pixel values looking for a stuck bit which would manifest itself as a sequence of intensities with no pixels e implot Plots pixel intensities along row and columns APPENDIX D USING SFTP Why use sftp instead of ftp e sftp is a more secure way to transfer files as compared to ftp Many sites that hide behind firewalls and no longer support ftp will support sftp How does one use sftp Using sftp is similar to but not identical to using ftp Here is a sample session e gt sftp 36inch emerald kpno noao edu e Connecting to emerald kpno noao edu 36inch emerald kpno noao edu s password e 5 gt put test e Uploading test 1 to datal 36inch test 1 e Uploading test 2 to datal 36inch test 2 e Uploading test 3 to datal 36inch test 3 e Uploading test 4 to datal 36inch test 4 e sftp gt quit Comments 36inch is the userid and emerald kpno noao edu is the address After the password is typed in correctly you get the sftp gt prompt A simple put not mput 42 will transfer all the files indicated by the wildcard character in this case the four test files shown Additional info can be found from man sftp e g on taupe APPENDIX E
21. camera Note Each camera cooler behaves a bit differently If switching between cameras a proper setpoint will probably not be the same between the two Itis best to picka setpoint that makes the cooler work at about 80 power once the cooler temperature has stabilized usually after a minute or two ofany changes to cooler temperature A setpoint that overworks the cooler 90 or above can actually create heat and be counter productive The ideal cooler temperature also depends on ambient air temp warm summer months the cameras may only be able to be run at 5C whereas in cold winter months they can be run at 25C or even a bit cooler Please do not exceed 30C in cooler setpoint temperature Camera Control Expose Guide Setup Camera 1 NE Setup Camera Setup Camera Cooler SBIG Universal Cooler power 100 Sensor Temp 16 4 Setpoint 2 0 Setpoint 6 0 26 Guiding Select the Guide tab again Choose an integration time 2 3 sec is suitable and select the Expose radio button Click Start to start exposing A star field should soon appear The program will pick a suitable guide star and place its coordinates into the Guide Star X and Y boxes You can select a star manually by entering different coordinates into these boxes or by double clicking on the star of your choice DL Pro 5 Autoguider Image File Edit View Analyze Process Fitter Color Plug in Window Help
22. e sure to disable any guiding TCS or tracking MaximDL first Expose Guide Setup Seconds Filter Wheel eme Start 5 No Fiters 22 Caibrat Step x M Auto Scope Dec EE Star Tak stop Pier X 53 0 eene Auto Pier Flip 7 Watch Star E T Camera 1 C Camera 2 29 GUIDESTAR SEARCH WITH HDI If you are having trouble locating guide stars when using HDI you can run a search for guide stars near your field To search for guide stars e Open a terminal on Sage Type setup_s2kb sh e interactive GUI will appear Enter your RA and Dec in the appropriate boxes If you need assistance use the help menu under the help tab Note The guide cameras are sensitive to V magnitude of 14 5 HDI CCD INFORMATION e Technical Specifications 4 07 15 CCD NAME HDI PIXEL SIZE 15x15 microns PIXEL SCALE 0 43 arcsec pixel CHIP SIZE 4096 x 4096 NOISE e RMS 9 GAIN e ADU 1 3 e The quantum efficiency of HDI is given in this figure at 300 nm 35 5 350 50 400 75 450 80 500 80 650 75 750 70 850 55 950 25 30 WIYN 0 9m HDI Frequently Asked Questions Q What do I need to know about taking bias frames A While the overscan or DC offset region records the absolute value of the bias level as each observation is taken zero exposure images i e bias frames are used to correct for two dimensional structure in the bias
23. er starts whenever the ACE RCS is brought up Make sure another Socket Server is not running before starting the program It may be minimized on the bottom toolbar e From the main toolbar on the ACE RCS select Network gt Start Socket Server e A smaller window will pop up and should read 0 0 0 0 On Emerald e Select The Ace of Spades icon ACE Client on the desktop and double click e Inthe xterm window that pops up you should see numbers no words start to populate the window If so the TCS Instrument connection is up e Ifthe connection breaks the ACE client will let you know in this window e When the connection breaks usually a restart of the TCS side is all that is needed 17 OBSERVING WEATHER Conditions for observing At the start of every night the Observing Assistant at the 4 meter telescope should send out a weather status report This will show up in a large red window on Emerald as Domes are open or Domes are closed due to etc This statement is only guideline you are ultimately responsible for the decision to open or close due to weather You can check the weather status at any time by directing a browser to http www kpno kpno noao edu Info Mtn_Weather There are several criteria that have to be met before the dome may be opened These criteria have been set with the safety of the equipment and the telescope in mind and are not flexible The humidity may not exceed 90 e Wind speeds may
24. ff o From the control panel upstairs move the dome in the opposite direction close to the desired position o Turn dome tracking back on from the ACE TCS The dome status says sleeping and the dome will not track o Most likely you have adjusted the dome pointing while AutoDome is on o Toggle the dome tracking off and then on again Select Dome gt Smart Dome Acknowledge turning the tracking off Select Dome gt Smart Dome Acknowledge turning the tracking on HDI GUIDER PROBLEMS e Stars trail or bleed when expose is selected but not when track is selected o Our guide cameras are small CCDs We do not operate the shutter on these CCDs under normal guiding conditions and so you may see star trails in you images due to the shutter being open upon readout e Cannot connect to the guiders o If you try connecting and get an error of Could not initialize guider output exit MaximDL and open up the Windows Task Manager In there you will see an instance of MaximDL already running Kill this process then restart Maxim and reconnect to the cameras No stars are seen on either guide camera and there should be lots of guide stars in this field o 1 the mirror cover off and the dome shutter open o Is it cloudy o Are you pointed at the side of the dome o Sometimes this is due to the temperature of the guide camera being too warm On the Setup tab in the CCD control window within MaximDL check what your setpoi
25. for pixel to pixel sensitivity variations Q Do I need dark sky flats A Generally speaking the answer to this question is However if you feel particularly uncertain about the quality of the dome and twilight flats you have obtained you are encouraged to also take dark sky flats The direct imaging manual lists the locations of blank sky fields on page 16 to be used for this purpose Q Is there a significant shutter correction A The HDI shutter moves linearly across the field of view As a result any shutter correction will be an additive offset that is applied to the requested exposure time On two separate occasions this correction was measured to be 0 016 0 002 sec Thus a requested exposure time of 1 second will actually be 1 016 seconds This means that requested exposure times of 2 seconds and longer will incur errors of less than 1 Q When should I call Flynn A The problem you have encountered is not covered in the manual the troubleshooting guide or this FAQ Telephone numbers are on the whiteboard 32 WHAT TO DO WHEN PROBLEMS OCCUR If you should run into problems during the night first look through the on line manual and the Troubleshooting section below for possible solutions If you still can not solve the problem and it s before 22 00 call the Site Manager for assistance phone numbers are on the white board If it is after 22 00 you have exhausted all other possibilities and you are
26. fore resuming observing e Focus is stuck at a limit o Click the STOP button on the Focus Inspector GUI o Click the Drive to Zero or Drive to In button to drive the focus to a limit o Ifthe focus still does not move you will need to reset the Telescope Control Crate in the Computer room by unplugging the crate and plugging it back in again Only do this if you have been shown how o Be Warned the focus may be drastically off from what you expect after this Recheck focus before resuming observing The focus runs away when changing filters HDI only o Make sure the Change with filters box is not selected on the focus GUI o recover from a focus runaway see above o Be Warned the focus may be drastically off from what you expect after this Recheck focus before resuming observing e Can t enter a specified Declination o There is a known bug that will not allow you to enter in only the degrees for Declination when hitting the GoTo button the units you have entered will have been overwritten o You must also type in the minutes and seconds instead of 75 enter 75 00 00 e Problems with the TCS Instrument Communication o See the Troubleshooting Flow Chart e The Filter Wheel is not responding If the filter wheel is grayed out and will not move to the desired position try the following steps in order o Inthe filter wheel GUI check which filter wheel is grayed out wheel 1 or wheel 2 On the right hand side of the filter wheel G
27. ger if pressure is lt 500psi 10 Open the inline valve on the outlet side of the dry air system 11 Turn on dry air system 12 Turn on the breaker for the HA Dec motors Control Room 1 Make sure that Moss and Olive boot up 2 Turnon Sage if you will be using it 3 Start the data taking programs on Emerald a Start Google Chrome for HDI control b Start the Bash script for data transfer from HDI to Emerald You will also need to check the following systems 1 Take several biases prior to taking any science data 2 Resetthe dome position from the TCS by selecting Dome gt Home an Pw 40 APPENDIX B UNIX CHEAT SHEET Common UNIX commands e cp CoPyan existing file to a new file Format cp lt existing file gt lt new file gt e df Stands for Disk Free and shows the amount of disk space available on the currently mounted disks Format df k e ftp Stands for File Transfer Protocol Allows you to transfer files back and forth between the 0 9m and your home institution Format ftp lt host computer IP address gt Once you are connected you can use the get and put commands to manipulate files e kill KILL a currently running process Format kill 9 lt PID gt where PID is the process identification obtained from the ps command e lpr PRint a file on the Laserprinter Format lpr lt file name gt e 15 LiSt the files in the current directory Format Is mail Allows you to check your email You can also use
28. has not become nonlinear which occurs at 210 000 electrons the limit of the A D converter for a gain of 3e ADU Recommended exposure times for the UBVRI filters are given in the manual You will probably want to obtain 5 dome flats in each filter which will later be combined with the flatcombine task in IRAF Q How many dark current exposures should I take A The dark current in HDI is low 5 10 e hour pixel which means that there is no need to obtain dark current exposures 31 Q Do I need twilight sky flats A Twilight sky flats are taken just after sunset before the sky is completely dark The idea in taking these is to correct for any illumination differences between the dome flat white spot and the actual sky Since time is limited one usually tries to acquire at least 3 twilight sky flats in each filter to be used for the program You should aim to expose each flat to a mean level equal to about half the saturation of the A D converter 30 000 ADU making sure that the CCD itself has not become nonlinear If enough twilight sky flats are obtained in each filter i e gt 4 on each night with the appropriate mean intensity levels and no stars then they can be used to flatten the program images in place of the dome flats However if less than 3 twilight sky flats have been obtained on a given night it is better to use them as an illumination correction if one is needed after the dome flats have been applied to correct
29. ion Urge NOP Note After all systems are shutdown HDI the Pixelserver and the coolant compressor will still be powered and operating These items are on a separate UPS This UPS is expected to have a run time of around 8 hours Please try to get power restored to the observatory within this 8 hour window RECOVERY UPS Room 1 Switch the main disconnect breaker to the on position 2 Turn the UPS on by turning the key switch to the on position Confirm the UPS is NOT running on battery If the UPS still runs on battery power turn off and contact the Site Manager 3 Switch the compressor disconnect breaker to the on position 4 Plugin the auto drain 5 Turnon the compressor by toggling the red switch on the power box Computer Room 1 Pressthe big green reset button on the south wall 2 Enable the room monitor a Press Run Standby b Press Set C Press Code d Enterthe security code which is listed on the left hand side of the unit e Unit will respond with OK Turn on the two computer racks closest to the door at the bottom back Plug in the gray ribbon strip on the back of Olive Plug in the power cord on the back of Olive Turn on Moss and Olive Second rack from door Power switched on the front inside the doors 7 Turn on computer rack for Taupe and Emerald switch at top rear Emerald should boot automatically 8 Turn gray N2 box on wall next to room monitor to Dry Air 9 Close valves to N2 tanks Notify Site Mana
30. it area o Stow the hand paddle back on the railing and resume operations from the TCS telescope is in a hard limit 3 degrees above horizon o You must contact Site Manager to recover from this Telescope wont move in either RA Dec or both o First check to see if the safety interlock is visible in the TCS Clear the interlock by clicking the reset button If the interlock will not clear see instructions below under TCS problems for what to do when the interlock wont clear o Are youin a limit See instructions above o telescope drives may need to be reset Exit out of the ACE TCS Go to the computer room and locate the telescope drive circuit breaker located high on the wall above the HDI compressor on your immediate left as you enter the computer room Be extremely careful of the silver coolant lines for HDI 34 Turn breaker off wait 30 seconds then turn it on again Restart the TCS and resume observations TCS PROBLEMS e When sending the focus to a specified number the focus takes off o Hit the Stop button on the focus inspector GUI and try again o If it continues to take off select the Go to Zero button the focus GUI This will reinitialize the focus motor by taking to a limit o Gradually back it out of the limit by moving in small steps 30 units until the focus readout is no longer red o Be Warned the focus may be drastically off from what you expect after this Recheck focus be
31. lan Mountains about 50 miles southwest of Tucson STARTUP CHECKLIST DOWNSTAIRS Turn off the white light at the entrance Make sure the bathroom door is closed Make sure the interior door to the loading dock is open Check the dry air in the back of the computer room to make sure the machine is on Turn on the fan above the dry Nitrogen bottles Turn off the light in the loading dock area Make sure the door to the control room is closed UPSTAIRS Check cables around telescope make sure none are strained pulled out Check the area around the telescope for obstructions Check to make sure the ladder is stowed to the north of the telescope along the railing The platform should be at its lower limit Make sure the crane is fully stowed Make sure the hand paddle is properly stowed CONTROL ROOM Bring up the control system on Olive if not already up Select ACE from the desktop Login and password are on the whiteboard ACE TCS Olive Slew the telescope to the mirror cover park position UPSTAIRS Use the ladder to remove the mirror cover Be careful not to bump the flat field lamps Stow the mirror cover in the blue holder on the south side of the platform IF DOING DOME FLATS Move the telescope to the Dome Flat Park position via the ACE TCS computer The dome will also move to the correct position IF OPENING FOR OBSERVING Open the dome shutter via the control panel on the platform Turn on the dome fa
32. leaving the building please make sure the outside door closes fully behind you If this is the last night of your run see the End of Run Checklist for additional shutdown items INTERLOCKS For safety reasons there are a couple of interlocks in the dome that will disallow slewing of the telescope when people are in the dome or the platform is raised The telescope will also stop slewing if an interlock is tripped during a slew This only affects a slew all other functions telescope tracking guiding dome tracking etc will still function normally when an interlock has been tripped 1 Motion sensor A motion sensor is located below the upper stairwell in the dome Someone walking on the platform will trip this sensor 2 Platform interlock When the platform is raised it will trip the interlock The platform must be stowed at its lower limit in order to slew the telescope When an interlock has been tripped a small window will appear on the TCS SAFETY INTERLOCK Slew inhibited xj Platform Raised People neartelescope The platform interlock is automatically reset when it has been fully lowered To reset the interlock caused by the motion sensor click the Reset button in the small window Keep in mind that you will need to reset this each time you walk onto the platform DOME CAMERAS To Be Updated EXHAUST FAN OPERATION To help improve the seeing at the 0 9m an exhaust fan has been installed along the pola
33. lect Telescope gt Preload Motors gt DEC preload to turn the DEC preload off Remember to turn the preload motors back on when moving away from this area If the stars trail North South and you are using S2KB there may be a problem with the CCD shutter Check the section titled S2KB problems below e telescope is in a soft limit one of the limits boxes is red on the TCS o Note which limit you have run into On the TCS the box that is red should read either E W N or S o Visually inspect the telescope to make sure no damage has occurred by running into the limit o Move the telescope in the opposite direction with the hand paddle Go upstairs and remove the hand paddle from it s stowed position near the liquid nitrogen fill line stowed on the chain railing The toggle switch on the top of the hand paddle controls the speed at which you move the telescope slew speed fastest is engaged when pushing the toggle switch to the left guide speed slowest when the toggle switch is in the center position and set speed medium when the toggle switch is pushed to the right Push the toggle switch to the left to use slew speed Note that while near the limit slew speed is reduced to set speed but when clear of the limit the speed increases to nominal slew speed Push the button related to the opposite direction from your limit e g if you have hit a West limit push the East button Move the telescope well out of the lim
34. m component to these errors Anyone doing all sky photometry should check the dome telescope alignment after every slew by going to the telescope floor stand behind the telescope and sight along the tube Move your eye around the entire circle of the back of the telescope and find the two places where the dome is closest to the cylindrical beam of the telescope If it is occulting move it using either the control panel or the hand paddle See the above paragraph for further instructions on using the hand paddle Opening Closing the dome shutter Before opening or closing the dome shutter make sure that either the mirror cover is on or the telescope is titled over e g at the white spot to prevent junk from falling onto the mirror You should only operate the dome shutter from the control panel upstairs To operate it from the control panel push and hold the appropriate button open or close until the limit switches are hit and the motors turn off See the Troubleshooting Tips section if you are having trouble moving the dome 16 TCS INSTRUMENT COMMUNICATION We currently need to manually setup the communication between the instrument control computer and the TCS This will allow pertinent telescope telemetry to be placed into the image headers On Olive 2018 view Setup ToolKit Help Socket Message 2002 Mar 04 17 05 16 UT 0 0 0 0 Connected Communications olive pipe ACE pipe e The ACE Socket Serv
35. n the telescope tracking off Mirror cover operation 15 manual at the 0 9m You will need to move the telescope to this position in order to be able to remove or replace the mirror cover Stow Telescope The Stow position is identical to the Zenith park position It will send the telescope to zenith and turn the telescope tracking off COORDINATE CATALOGS Format Any text file that is column delimited can be imported into the ACE TCS regardless of format Note coordinates must have the same epoch Importing a catalog First you must transfer your cache in text format to Olive To import a catalog select the Tool pulldown menu and select Import Catalog This opens the Import Catalog program where you can manipulate the spacing in your file to the appropriate TCS format Catalog Import wizard Itis only assumed that your catalog is in a tabulated or column Name RA Dec Epoch Open Catalog ID VACE Current Release EliasFaint EE 000 11 80 353214 01 1950 00 26158 27 004 10 00 74904 00 1950 00 3HD 1160 013 23 10 358 24 00 1950 00 Enter the R exactly as is appears 00 11 80 40281 02853 00 435258 02 1950 00 Enter the DEC exactly as is 321400 5HD 3029 03102 30 200929 99 1950 00 r Tell me about the FIRST object in your catalog 661105 5 2380800 05906 01 11950 00 7 18881 3002049 28125300 1950 00 Enter the EPOCH exactly as is 8 HD 19904 308 49 10 391424 00 1950 00 9677 31 31045 00 43518
36. not exceed 45 mph 20 25 m s Dome surfaces must be dry and free of ice e Skies must be free of threatening clouds and rain e must be free of blowing dust snow fog or dripping water e The outside temperature must be above 10C As an added protection measure whenever the sky is too overcast to observe through the mirror covers and preferably the dome shall be closed Also please note that the humidity limit applies to dome flats as well We need to keep the mirror cover in place to prevent that moisture from reaching the telescope optics There are a couple ways to check the humidity and wind speed e There is a hygrometer mounted on the wall in the dome It is located on the wall at the top of the stairway e Kitt Peak site information at http www kpno kpno noao edu Info Mtn_Weather e The Kitt Peak all sky camera internal access only http kpasca db tuc noao edu 18 e Kitt Peak all sky camera external access http www kpno kpno noao edu Info Mtn_Weather allsky kpasca html Weather Links e Kitt Peak Lightning Strike data http bordeaux kpno noao edu lds lds html e Intellicast Jetstream http www intellicast com Local USNationalStd asp loc usa amp seg LocalWeath er amp prodgrp SurfaceMaps amp product JetStream amp prodnav none e Intellicast Surface Analysis http www intellicast com Local USNationalWide asp loc usa amp seg LocalWeat her amp cprodgrp SurfaceMaps amp product SurfaceAnalysis amp p
37. ns Open the dome vents Be sure to turn off the circuit breaker when done Plug in the exhaust fan if humidity is below 70 Turn off the dome lights CONTROL ROOM Slew the telescope to zenith Remember to Reset the slew interlock Move the telescope to a bright star near zenith to check the pointing or simply turn on the telescope tracking if taking sky flats Turn AutoDome on Go to your first object and check focus SHUTDOWN CHECKLIST CONTROL ROOM Stop your exposure and guiding Quit the guider software on Moss Turn off AutoDome and send the dome to the home position Under Dome gt Home Move the telescope to the mirror cover park position UPSTAIRS Use the ladder to replace the mirror cover Close the dome shutter via the control panel on the platform Turn off dome fans Unplug the exhaust fan Close the dome vents remember to switch off the circuit breaker From the control room bring the telescope to zenith CONTROL ROOM Log out of the TCS control system on Olive Select User gt Logoff from the top tool bar Turn off the hand held radio and stow it in the charger Turn off the heater or A C and the coffee pot Fill out the nitelog form at http www noao edu cgi bin 09m nlog cgi Fill out Observing Run Evaluation if it s your last night If there were problems during the night send an email to the Site Manager fhaase noao edu DOWNSTAIRS Turn off the fan in the loading dock When
38. nt temperature and your current temperature are for the currently connected camera If the temperature is well above the setpoint temperature the stars will be drowned out by noise on the 37 camera Wait until the camera comes down to nominal temperature takes only a couple minutes and try again Also the guider software automatically subtracts a dark from the guide camera image Another way you can solve this issue is to tell the software to not subtract a dark frame from the image To do this select the Settings button on the Guide tab and uncheck the box at the top next to Autodark COMPUTER PROBLEMS e For problems with Olive please see the TCS problems section e For problems with Moss please see the guider problems section 38 APPENDICES APPENDIX A LIGHTNING SHUTDOWN AND RECOVERY PROCEDURES If you need assistance or have questions call Hillary numbers are on the whiteboard SHUTDOWN Control Room 1 LIGHTNING SHUTDOWN RECOVERY PROCEDURES Oct 10 2015 If there are problems contact the Site Manager Shutdown the TCS a Logout of the TCS on Olive From the User menu in the upper left hand corner select Exit b From the Start menu at the bottom left on Olive select Shutdown Shutdown the rest of the computers a On Moss close all windows and shutdown via the Start menu for the windows boot b On Sage close all windows and shutdown via the K window c Shutdown Emerald via the System menu at
39. ordinate catalog area is a field with RA Offset and HA tabs at the top This is where you enter coordinates and offsets The Go To button is self explanatory it will send the telescope to the coordinates in the boxes above This Go To button will change to a Cancel Slew button when the telescope is slewing and back to the Go To button when the slew is completed The Stop button is an emergency stop button It will stop all axes ra dec focus dome etc 11 The main toolbar is at the top of the window It contains pulldown menus such as User Setup Dome etc The menus you will use most freguently are Dome Telescope and User Shortcut buttons are available for freguently used tasks such as moving the telescope to the Zenith park position These buttons are blue and located on the main toolbar just below the pulldown menus You can find out what each button does by holding the mouse over a button A short description of the button also appears at the bottom of the window STARTING UP At the end of every night the observer should log off of the TCS program This will disallow anyone from operating the telescope from the TCS but will not close the program A login box should be in the center of the screen If the program does not appear to be running you will need to start it before you can do anything Check on the bottom of the screen to make sure the program or the socket server is not currently running you would see an icon enti
40. r axle This will draw air across the primary mirror alleviating pooling of hot air on the mirror If the outside humidity is greater than 70 this exhaust fan should not be used For more on how to check your humidity see the weather section Currently operation of the fan is done manually Weather permitting the fan should be turned on when opening the dome for the evening and turned off when closing in the morning The fan is located on the observing level behind the telescope pier You will need to plug in the electrical into the socket on the wall to turn it on and unplug it to turn it off In order to determine the effects this fan is having on seeing we request that observers closely monitor seeing throughout the night noting the seeing in the nightly observing report In addition we request that observers check the seeing near the end of the night on a very short unguided exposure e g on a standard star field on a field that is at less than 2 airmasses This seeing measurement should be noted in the comments section of the nightly observing report WIND SCREEN In cases where the wind has not reached the closing limit of 45mph but the telescope shake is affecting science a wind screen is available for use The controls are located to the left of the dome slit In order to reach the controls the dome must be rotated to face the slit west Make sure to turn the power on for the controls before use and turn it off after moving
41. rodnav none Real Time Satellite images http www rap ucar edu weather satellite National Weather Service http www wrh noaa gov twc Arizona forecast discussions http iwin nws noaa gov iwin az discussion html Weather Underground Tucson http www wunderground com cgi bin findweather getForecast query tucson DATA ACQUISITION COMPUTERS Data acquisition is done on the computer Emerald via a browser window Emerald has 2 monitors to ease observing Please see the HDI user s manual for instruction on it s operation http www noao edu 0 9m observe hdi hdi manual html HOW TO CHECK AND ZERO TELESCOPE POINTING How to Check Telescope Pointing It s best to check your pointing with a bright star at zenith The first thing to do is load the Bright Star Catalog into the TCS To do this right click anywhere within the TCS and select the first option Open Existing Database This should take you to the file containing all of the coordinate catalogs The path is ACE Control System D gt ACE gt CurrentRelease The bright star catalog is labeled ACE BSC5 cat Select this and click Open The catalog will open up into the center of the TCS 19 Now find a star near zenith You can sort the catalog by clicking on the title of any column Clicking that same column title a second time will sort the catalog in descending order Scroll down until you find the stars around the current Sidereal Time this can be found
42. s approximately in the flat field position you will need to move dome 20 degrees to the right If you have aligned the pieces of tape well the dome will have reset this position as 89 degrees Go downstairs and look at the dome azimuth readout It should now read 89 0 HOME If not you will can tell the TCS that the dome is at 90 degrees On the pulldown menus select Dome gt Reset Encoders Enter 90 in the box and click RESET If the above procedures do not fix the positioning problem you may need to reset the dome encoder a different way To do so Take hand paddle and move the dome due south Stand at the far north point of the dome so you are under the polar axle Check that the dome slit is bisected by the polar axle If not move dome until that condition prevails The amount you moved was the error in the system Then in the TCS pulldown menu select Dome gt Reset Encoders Enter 180 in to the box and click RESET e turned Dome tracking on and the dome moved but not to the correct position Toggle the dome tracking off and then on again Select Dome gt Smart Dome Acknowledge turning the tracking off 36 Select Dome gt Smart Dome Acknowledge turning the tracking on o Ifthe dome is still lost see the above procedure for resetting the dome position e The dome is making a lot of noise but is not moving Sometimes the dome gets stuck in one position If this happens o Turn dome tracking o
43. star Search Switching guide cameras Overview In October 2006 new SBIG guide cameras were installed and are now the permanent guide cameras These SBIG cameras are controlled through MaximDL Simple clicks of radio buttons allow the observer to switch between guide cameras Field of view 3 3 arcmin x 2 2 arcmin Offsets e The North guide camera is 0 arcsec West and 2610 arcsec North of the main CCD field e The South guide camera is 25 arcsec West and 2410 arcsec South of the main CCD field Setup MaxIm DL To launch the MaximDL software click on the icon on the desktop After launching the program select View gt CCD Control Window 24 ro n om 1 Edit View Analyze Process Fitter Color Plug in Window Help oc majas eel Miaka B BOO Dee eem open For Help press FL Click on the Setup tab in the CCD control window Camera 1 Camera 2 Setup Camera Cooler Setup Camera Cooler BIG Universal SBIG Universal Disconnect Coolers On Off Warm Up Less lt lt Camera 1 Information Camera 2 Information No Camera No Camera Make sure the boxes below Camera 1 and Camera 2 read SBIG Universal 25 On the same Setup menu now select Connect and wait for the mouse to return to an arrow Then select Cooler to set a temperature for the guide
44. still unable to observe feel free to call the Site Manager Do Not Call Kitt Peak Electronic Maintenance or the WIYN operator unless told to do so Telescope problems TCS problems Dome problems HDI problems HDI Guider problems IRAF problems Facility issues TELESCOPE PROBLEMS e There are star trails in images o There are several possible causes for star trails in your images Try the following in this order telescope takes several seconds to settle down after any move offsets or slews Be sure to wait 10 15 seconds after moving the telescope before beginning an exposure Check to see if your preload motors are on Located in the computer room the power supply for the preload motors is housed in the first set of racks as you walk in the door same one that contains your flat field lamps The second rack from the bottom is your preloads power supply First check the front panel to see if there is current If not you will need to turn this on On the back of this rack there is a small toggle switch Put the switch in the On position Be careful not to disturb any of the other wires at the back of this rack There is a spot in the sky where the telescope is known not to track well This spot is in the northwest If you suspect this is the problem you can try turning off the preloads to see if it helps On 33 the ACE TCS select Telescope gt Preload Motors gt HA preload to turn the HA preload off Then se
45. th dome flats to do an illumination correction twilight flats will be smoothed then you need at least 3 flats per filter approximately every other night The following describes how to obtain 5 twilight sky flats in each filter The aim is to expose the CCD to between 1 3 and 2 3 of the full well If the level is not optimum adjust the exposure times appropriately Begin a few minutes after sunset e the telescope at Dec 30 and HA 4h east and make sure tracking is ON e Take a very short exposure lt 0 5 sec using the filter where the system throughput is lowest e g U This image is likely to be saturated Keep taking short exposures with the same exposure time until the CCD is exposed to about 2 3 of its full well e Move the telescope a few degrees west following the setting sun e Take an exposure with twice the exposure time as the previous one Repeat steps 5 and 6 for the next 4 exposures adjusting the exposure time appropriately Move the telescope about 10 to 20 degrees west e Change filters to the one with the next highest throughput e g B e Take an image with the same exposure time as the last image in the previous filter Move the telescope a few degrees west e Take an exposure with twice the exposure time as the previous one Repeat steps 8 through 12 for the next 4 exposures e Continue until the sky gets too faint to provide enough illumination to give you a mean level of
46. the screen into place Be conscious of the lower limit for the windscreen Lowering the screen past this limit could cause the cable to become unstrung potentially shutting the observatory down for the night until it can be placed back in its guides by daytime maintenance personnel TELESCOPE DOME VENTILATION The 0 9 m at sunset with 7 of the 11 ventilation louvers visible In August 1994 dome vents were added to the 0 9 m dome to provide much improved flow through ventilation as part of an image quality improvement project The 11 individually controllable vents are located opposite the dome slit to allow the dome air to flush several times per minute under typical wind conditions Rapid flushing helps eliminate warm air pockets from forming in the dome which in turn reduces convection that would otherwise compromise image quality that is seeing Normally some complement of vents will be opened at the beginning of the night around sunset and closed when the telescope is closed If the dome is iced up the vents may need to be broken free Based on limited testing the dome flushes adequately with about half the vents open during mild wind conditions You may wish to open every other vent Under the following conditions the observer should restrict the air flow by closing some or all of the vents e High gusting winds that cause the telescope to bounce e The dome shutter is opened during the day and the outside
47. the upper right of the screen Computer Room 1 WP wn Disable the room monitor a Press Whatis b Press Code The unit will respond with enter security code Enter the security code which is listed on the left side of the unit d Unit will respond with OK or Error 2 If you get an error try again e Press the Run Standby key to disable the monitor Switch the gray box just to the right of the room monitor from Dry Air to N2 On the east wall flip the breaker for the HA Dec drives to the off position Turn off Moss via the power switch on the front Turn off all racks a Turn off the 2 racks closest to the door at the bottom back 1 switch for each rack b Turn off the computer rack with Emerald Taupe at the top back Unplug the power cord at the back of Olive Unplug the gray ribbon cable on the back of Olive Turn off the dry air system Close the in line valve on the outlet side of the dry air system Open valves on wall directly across from Computer room door for N2 tank Large pressure gauge should read at least 500psi if below this contact the Site Manager small gauge should read about 20psi 39 UPS room Turn off the compressor by toggling the red switch on the power box Unplug the auto drain Switch the compressor disconnect breaker to the off position Turn the UPS off by turning the key switch to the off position Switch the main disconnect breaker to the off posit
48. tled ACE RCS and or Socket Server if it was If it isn t you can bring up a new one To open it double click on the Ace Icon on the desktop on Olive You can also bring up the program via the Start menu Start gt Programs gt Ace gt Ace The login and password are on the white board under ACE TCS The telescope drives energize when you open up the ACE TCS program No initialization of the telescope is needed at the beginning of the night TELESCOPE PARK POSITIONS There are four programmed telescope park positions that will move the telescope to common positions and turn the telescope tracking off Zenith park Dome flat park Mirror cover park and the Stow position Before moving the telescope to any of these positions the safety walk through must be performed to ensure it is safe to move the telescope To move the telescope to one of these positions select Telescope from the main toolbar Send the telescope to the desired park position by selecting one of the options Zenith Park The Zenith park position will send the telescope to zenith and turn the telescope tracking off The telescope should be left at zenith at the end of each night Dome Flat Park The Dome Flat park position will send the telescope to a Dec of 13 and an HA of 3 28 It will also send the dome to the appropriate azimuth for taking flats 12 Mirror Cover Park The Mirror Cover park position will send the telescope to an HA of 4 00 and a Dec of 85 and tur
49. tons The Add Replace and Delete buttons located on the RA coordinate entry tab allow you to modify the currently loaded catalog Delete will remove the currently selected object from the catalog The Add button allows you to add the current target to the currently loaded catalog The Replace button will allow you to modify the currently selected object ACOUIRING AN OBJECT Accessing a cache From anywhere on the TCS click the right mouse button Select Open Database The caches are stored in the following path ACE Control System D gt ACE gt CurrentRelease The caches all have cat extensions Double click on the appropriate cache They should load into the center area of the TCS You can sort the cache by field by clicking on the top of the column To send coordinates to the TCS double click on the object Once you have loaded the star into the fields click the green button A confirmation box will pop up with your coordinates listed Check the coordinates carefully to be sure they are valid coordinates check the HA secz Dec etc If these look correct select Move Telescope When the telescope starts to move GoTo button will turn into a Cancel Slew button Two status bars will also appear above this button one for the RA and one for the Dec You have reached the target when the green GoTo button comes back and the status bars read Locked on Target Don t forget to turn on your dome tracking 1
50. uth On the ACE TCS select Dome gt Azimuth A box will pop up noting the current dome azimuth Below the current azimuth is a box where you can enter a desired azimuth Enter the az and click on Move Dome To turn the dome tracking off at the end of the night select Dome gt AutoDome and confirm that you do want to turn the tracking off 15 Moving the dome via the control panel When setting up to do dome flats it s a good idea to check the alignment of the white spot and telescope You may need to bump the dome in one direction to more precisely align them Manual dome control is possible via the control panel in the dome The Left button will move the dome counter clockwise and the Right button will move the dome clockwise You can also move the dome via the hand paddle The hand paddle is located on the chain railing near the LN2 hose The dome rotation buttons are on the left top side of the hand paddle The left button turns the dome counter clockwise and the right button turns in clockwise Note There is an interlock on the dome that will not allow you to quickly switch directions If you move the dome Left you will need to wait 20 seconds before trying to move the dome Right and vice versa The system that rotates the dome to align the dome slit with the telescope does not perform optimally As a result occasionally part of the telescope beam may be occulted by the dome There appears to be both a systematic and rando
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