SIMPLE FAST OBSERVING INSTRUCTIONS

Creation -- 2/8/94 -- Perry Berlind
Upgrade to HTML -- 2/11/94 -- Ted Groner

Last Modified -- 3/15/2000 -- Ted Groner

1: OPEN UP THE DOME AND MIRROR COVERS

The dome power switch is located next to the entrance door, on the wall. You may have to push the open (or close) switch twice. The mirror door power switch is located on the opposite (east) side of the telescope.

2: STARTUP THE TCS SYSTEM

Boot the TCS-PC if necessary (CTRL-ALT-DEL). The 60" TCS program will automatically be loaded. See the TCS-PC users instructions.

3: LOGIN TO FLWO60

Username is observer, password written on the monitor.

4: STARTUP THE REALTIME SYSTEM

Type gofast on the SUN. This will bring up several windows, including the "Rtshell" window into which you will issue commands to control the CCD, and the TCS window, from which you can control the telescope and the spectrograph. Use 4x binning for normal redshift survey work. See the TCS60 telescope control system users manual for more info.

5: STARTUP FAST GUIDE PROGRAM

Boot the guide pc if necessary. Select FAST. This program does more than autoguide for FAST. It also controls the dome tracking. Toggle communications ON and turn dome tracking ON. With the telescope stowed, the dome should move to AZ = 230, and be open to due east.

6: TURN ON THE RACK

Make sure that the TCS RA and DEC indicators are solid blue, and NOT flashing red before turning on the rack. These indicators are located on the TCS-PC monitor. If the indicators are flashing red and not blue the telescope could run away! If the indicators are flash ing red, hit F9 a few times on the TCS-PC keyboard. Turn on switches 2, 3, and 4 on front of rack located in chart room. See 60" rack instructions.

7: TURN ON THE TV SYSTEM

Before turning on the TV camera, make sure the guider TV gain switch is turned all the way down (ccw) and that the power switch is in the off position. These switches are located to the right of the SUN monitor in a small control box that also has the telescope focus display. Turn on both the TV power switch and the intensifier switch located on the purple TV power supply box, which is located below the primary mirror cell on the south side of the telescope. Turn on the TV gain switch and the power switch on the box labeled Echelle. Turn up the Pot slowly. Turn on the LKH-1000 image processor, located on the shelf above and to the right of the SUN monitor. A menu should show on guide TV that controls the LKH-1000 functions. Using the LKH-1000 mouse, you might for example set AVRGR to 32 and ENHNC to AUTO. You will need to try different averaging values, depending on brightness of your object.

8: TURN TRACKING ON AND SLEW TO AN OBJECT

Using the TCS60 window on the SUN, turn tracking ON. Load your object coordinates (NEW COORDS). Check to see that correct coords were received at the TCS-PC pc before slewing. They will be in the NEXT coords line on the TCS-PC monitor. If NEXT is highlighted red, the object is beyond the limits of the telescope. Slew to the object by selecting START SLEW from TCS60 window. With the HE-AR, NE, and incand lamps off and the mirror in SKY position, turn on the TV and turn up the TV gain from the TV control box. Focus the telescope using the focus "in" and "out" buttons on the handpaddle. Find a suitable star in the field of view on the guide TV to focus on. Try setting the LKH-1000 averaging value to 16 or less. The focus control in the TCS60 window is for the spectrograph focus, not the telescope focus. It has been stable at a value of 875. To update the telescope coordinates, center your object or a bright star in the TV field. On TCS-PC keyboard, hit an "ALT =" The program will ask you if you want to update the coords.

9: EMERGENCY STOPPING THE TELESCOPE

There are a number of ways to abort a slew in progress and to panic stop the telescope. For most slew aborts, hit the F9 key on the TCS-PC keyboard. KNOW THIS KEY! Hitting F9 makes the commanded position equal to the telescope position. The F10 key on the TCS-PC keyboard will also stop telescope motion, but you will probably lose your coords. Another way to stop the telescope is to turn off switches 3 and 4 on the rack. These switches control current to the motors. There is a panic switch located in the dome on the south polar axis pier. It is located below the RA setting circle and is marked "normal" and "panic". There is also a STOP button in the TCS60 Realtime System window. This button stops telescope motion, but there is some time delay.

10: WHAT TO DO IF YOUR COORDS ARE WAY OFF

If you are hopelessly lost, stow the telescope manually. Go into the dome and move the telescope to +32.3 deg DEC and to 24.01 hours as read by the large DEC and RA setting circles. Reboot the TCS-PC. The TCS-PC will load the TCS program and default to the stow position coords (LHA = 0 and DEC = 32). Next turn tracking on, slew to a bright star near the zenith, position the star at the cross hairs of the finder scope, locate the star on the guide TV (don't forget to turn gain way down!), and update the telescope coords by "ALT =" on the TCS-PC.

11: TAKING AN EXPOSURE

Position your object at the center of the slit. All exposure commands are done in the RTSHELL window. To start an exposure, type "total n", where n is exposure time in seconds. Type "comment" to change and update your header file. Type "fresh" to update the comment header without making any changes. After your object exposure, you will need to take a comparison exposure.

12: TAKING COMPARISON EXPOSURES

To take a comparison exposure, turn the TV gain all the way down (ccw), and type "cex". The cex command also turns on the He-Ar and Neon lamps and moves the mirror to the COMP position, starts a 10 second exposure named "COMP", and then turns the lamps off and returns the mirror to the SKY position.

13: TAKING BIASES AND FLATS

To take BIAS frames, type "bias n", where n is the number of bias frames you would like. The bias command starts a zero second exposure and gives it the name BIAS. To take flats, type "goflat n", where n is the integration time in seconds. Typically, a few seconds of exposure are needed. The goflat command will store the file with a name of FLAT.

14: VIEWING YOUR DATA

To view biases and flats, use the alias "view X" from the RTSHELL window, where X is the file number. To display in IRAF, type "simtool" or "ximtool", and then use the command "display". To view your object and COMP images and to extract line spectra, use IRAF: apsum, apall, display, splot, qfast, etc. For spectral extractions, see the qfast instructions .

15: AUTOGUIDING

For exposures longer than 5 minutes you can use the autoguider as follows: First center your object on the slit. You can autoguide if there is a suitable guide star anywhere in the guide camera field of view. You need to hook up the guide monitor by connecting the BNC connector from the guide monitor to the T BNC connector on the back of the guide TV monitor. Turn on the guide monitor. Hit a "G" on the guide pc and crosshairs will appear on the guide monitor. Center the crosshirs over the star and hit a "G" to start guiding. See the 60" Autoguider Users Manual for more info.

16: SHUTDOWN PROCEDURES

In general, you will want to follow the reverse proceedure of opening. Stow the telescope from the TCS60 window. This will automatically turn tracking off. Home the dome from the guide pc by selecting "H" from the main menu. This will automatically turn dome tracking and communications off. Turn off the rack by switching off 4, 3, and then 2. Turn all TV switches off. Close the mirror covers. Close the dome shutters. Fill the dewar. Make sure all lamps are off in the TCS60 window. Exit the Realtime system. If you exit the Realtime system without turning off the lamps, the lamps stay on. You do not need to exit the guide program or the TCS program.