CAT CPS Observing Checklist


Version: 2009.01.29

Thomas’s revision of Peter's version of Julia's take on Bernie's slightly expanded copy of JohnJohn's list.

 

Observer: ____________ Date: ____________

These instructions are for Dewar 8 only! For instructions for dewar 6, see Julia's checklist.

Before Leaving Berkeley!

Access Information. You'll need the following info to be able to do anything at all.

  1. ____________ Diner access code
  2. ____________ user password

Support Astronomer Information. Just in case ... info is here.

  1. ______________________ Name
  2. ______________________ Contact Number (1)
  3. ______________________ Contact Number (2)

Target times. Get the twilight information from this page. If at Lick, check the printed calendar. During the summer, it's not corrected for DST! That is, if summer, add an hour to each of the times in the calendar.

  1. ____________ 12-degree dusk
  2. ____________ 12-degree dawn
  3. ____________ Target time to be open and ready to point: dusk - 30 minutes
  4. ____________ Target time to do ThAr and I2: (3) - 20 minutes
  5. ____________ Target time to start setup: (4) - 2 hours
  6. ____________ Target time to finish exposing: dawn + 10 minutes

Everything make sense?

  1. _______ Copy target times to rest of checklist

Time 5: _________

Camera room: opening up

  1. _______ Fill CCD dewar first, to give most time for thermal relaxation. Correct dewar?!
  2. _______ Open collimator cover door (swings down), insert mask (with cross-hairs oriented right way, instructions on mask).
  3. _______ Open prism covers: swing 1 up, slide 2 out, store in safe place.
  4. _______ Carefully open grating cover from behind. Gently.
  5. _______ Turn off lights, leave. Gently.
  6. _______ Check CCD temperature: ~ -135 C for dewar 8.

CAT room: computer setup

  1. _______ Start data taker: in new xterm, ham_start cat
  2. _______ Start photon integrator: desktop background menu, showmidpt.
  3. _______ Change observer name from 2nd level tab in data taker GUI
  4. _______ Open logsheet.
    1. _______ In new xterm, ssh to plato.
    2. _______ Run logsheets to get to right dir. Or just cd /u/user/planets/logsheets/.
    3. _______ Copy most recent logsheet or open pre-set one.
    4. _______ Update header with info on current run.
  5. _______ Start spectrograph controller: in new xterm, hamit.
  6. _______ Open a new xterm on catpc and ssh to shanepc then type slitroom_fe
  7. _______ Choose Stowe All from function menu on the slitroom_fe GUI (This ensures that the iodine cell and CAT pick-off mirror are      out of the way)

Slit room: prep

  1. _______ Look around for image rotator or any other weird stuff that's going to be in the way
  2. _______ Warm up iodine: switch in back, "Run/Stop" button in front. Is T climbing? Remember that we're starting at room temp as measured in C.
  3. _______ Remove clear plastic aperture plate cover, if it's there. Probably isn't.
  4. _______ Turn on fan to Medium.
  5. _______ Lights off, leave.

CAT room: Focusing

  1. _______ Get focus settings in camera controller:
    1. ______ filter to clear (1)
    2. ______ lamp to Th-Ar (5)
    3. ______ decker, aperture plate to focus (a)
  2. _______ Change to focus params in data taker:
    1. _______ Exposure Time to 20 sec
    2. _______ Window size to 1000 rows by 1851 columns, origin 0 100.
    3. _______ Binning to 1 by 1
    4. _______ Read speed to fast
    5. _______ Turn recording off.
    6. _______ Object Name to focus
    7. _______ Start exposure. Th-Ar "A line" should appear at about 760, 1280. Looks like this (FIXME real image):
                @     
                           *
                            * 
                           *
                       * *
 
                                .                 
                 .
 
               
                A 

To increase the row number of the A line by one, increase the height setting by 8.9 units. To increase the column number of the A line by one, decrease the grating setting by 1.1 units.

  1. ______ Run focusing program
    1. ______ In new xterm, ssh gouda and type idl
    2. ______ Run it: IDL> foc,/cat,/hi_rho,[/plt,/mark]
    3. ______ CCD Focus position must be bigger than 500000!!!
    4. ______ Tweak grating and height as instructed by program, until lines are in boxes
    5. ______ Extra credit: Note focus FWHM. Nudge the “CCD Focus” setting back and forth, +/- 2, to minimize FWHM.
  2. ______ Turn on recording. Save 1 focus image.
  3. ______ Close IDL
  4. ______ Update logsheet with grating, height, CCD Focus, FWHM, and an entry for the focus exposure.
  5. ______ Copy the focus image from dusty (should be /local/images/data/cat/d1.fits) to /net/plato/u/user/planets/thar_archive/DDmonYY_d8thar.ccd.

 

CAT room:  Take bias frames.

(The (B) column is for the beginning of the night and (E) is for the end.)

  1. ______ (B) ______ (E) Window size to 1700 rows by 1851 columns, origin 0 100.
  2. ______ (B) ______ (E) Exposure time to 0.00s!
  3. ______ (B) ______ (E) Shutter to closed!
  4. ______ (B) ______ (E) Turn on recording!!
  5. ______ (B) ______ (E) Object Name to bias
  6. ______ (B) ______ (E) Open an xterm on catpc  and enter the command igetham #frames (where #frames is an integer ~ 10)
  7. ______ (B) ______ (E) Look at first bias, make sure it's OK.  Very constant counts across the entire image with no gradients.

 

CAT room:  Start Flats

(The (B) column is for the beginning of the night and (E) is for the end.)

  1. ______ (B) ______ (E) decker, aperture plate to 640:5.0 (O like Oooooopen)
  2. ______ (B) ______ (E) Window size to 1700 rows by 1851 columns, origin 0 100.
  3. ______ (B) ______ (E) Turn on recording!!
  4. ______ (B) ______ (E) Object Name to wideflat
  5. ______ (B) ______ (E) On catpc (not plato): cd focus to get to the focus directory, idl
  6. ______ (B) ______ (E) Then: IDL> autoflat, number=30, /time. The number parameter may vary if time is short; anything more than 10 should be OK.
  7. ______ (B) ______ (E) Enter 15 and 2 for bg12 and bg13 exposure times.
  8. ______ (B) ______ (E) Look at first flat, make sure it's OK. Not saturating (no flat top in column cut)? No iodine lines? (Yes to either of those is bad.)

Dinnertime

Diner: Fend for yourself for dinner. Boo!

Time 4: _________

CAT room: Flats Done

  1. ______ Update logsheet with info on flat exposures. If you are taking N flats, there should be an entry for exposures 2—N+1 and one for exposures N+2—2N+1.

Thorium-Argon Exposure

  1. _xxxxx_ (B) _xxxxx_ (E) Note that it is OK if the iodine cell is unfurled for the ThAr exposures; the ThAr lamp is later in the optical path.
  2. ______ (B) ______ (E) decker, aperture plate to 640:2.0 (L), same as for observing
  3. ______ (B) ______ (E) filter to clear (1)
  4. ______ (B) ______ (E) lamp to ThAr (5).
  5. ______ (B) ______ (E) Object Name to ThAr
  6. ______ (B) ______ (E) Exposure Time to 3 sec.
  7. ______ (B) ______ (E) Start exposure and let it read out
  8. ______ (B) ______ (E) Update logsheet.

Iodine Exposure

  1. ______ (B) ______ (E) In the slit room:
    1. ______ (B) ______ (E) Check: is iodine cell warmed up?
  2. ______ (B) ______ (E) Back in the CAT room:
    1. _xxxx_ (B) _xxxx_ (E) From slitroom_fe GUI select flats with I2 from the function/CAT pulldown menu.
    2. _xxxx_ (B) _xxxx_ (E) decker, aperture plate still at 640:2.0 (L), same as for observing
    3. ______ (B) ______ (E) filter to bg13 (3)
    4. ______ (B) ______ (E) lamp to Polar Quartz (8).
    5. ______ (B) ______ (E) Object Name to iodine
    6. ______ (B) ______ (E) Exposure Time to 17 sec.
    7. ______ (B) ______ (E) Read this whole step! Start exposure, then press pause button after 2 seconds!
    8. ______ (B) ______ (E) filter to bg12 (2)
    9. ______ (B) ______ (E) Resume exposure by pressing pause button again and let it finish.
    10. ______ (B) ______ (E) Check for iodine lines. At centered zoom level 1, should see lines on top but not on bottom of image.
    11. ______ (B) ______ (E) Update logsheet with an entry for the iodine exposure.

Wrap Up

  1. ______ filter to clear (1)
  2. ______ lamp to No Lamps (1).
  3. ______ Start the pointing program: coords -poco no -focus cat/new from an X terminal.
  4. ______ Load /u/user/starlists/jj_subgiants.new for the starlist.

Possible downtime here if conditions are dubious.

 

Slit room: Skin the CAT

  1. ______ Open the telescope. Graphical instructions on wall next to controls.
    1. ______ Turn Control Panel on
    2. ______ Open housing: wait for both green open lights. Takes a while. No need to hold down button.
    3. ______ Open shutter. Hold switch until open. Can do while housing opens.
    4. ______ Open shutter cover. Don't skip this step, dumbass! Little red box next to light switch. Hold button.
    5. ______ Open siderostat cover. Only do once housing is done opening! No need to hold button.
    6. ______ Use the two dimmer switches to turn off panel lights.
  2. ______ Turn on tracking
    1. ______ Press key-button in to turn on power
    2. ______ Toggle switch up for tracking on (check that HA increments and RA is constant)
    3.  
  3. ______ Open ceiling portal thing: plunger down and twist.
  4. ______ Photon integrator
    1. ______ Bottom switch on
    2. ______ Slowly dial voltage up to 705 (V: 125 to 150).
    3. ______ Top switch on: whine noise should start.
    4. ______ Check that gain dial is at 0.1 (not 1, 10, 100).
    5. ______ Pull plunger (left of aperture plate) out. Listen for whirr noise.
  5. ______ Lights off. Should be completely dark. Leave.

 

CAT Room: Observing Prep

  1. ______ From the slitroom_fe GUI select On Sky with I2 from the function/CAT pulldown menu.
  2. ______ Click “CAT” on the bottom menu bar of the guider computer. (Not needed if guider camera controls already open.)
  3. ______ Flip the “enable auto-guider” switch below the coordinate display to enable auto-guiding.
  4. ______ Optional: double check slit alignment. Either turn on a light in the slit room, or just use the sky if it's bright enough. See if the reticle points to the smallest slit. Is it centered? Is the slit in focus?

Time 3: _________

Observe! No checklist can help you here. But, that being said ...

  1. ______ Check midpoint time of first exposure matches output of date -u on your computer
  2. ______ Check for iodine lines every so often! The cell can crap out.

Time 6: _________

CAT room:

  1. ______ Autoguider switch off
  2. ______ From slitroom_fe GUI select Flats with I2 from the function/CAT pulldown menu.

Slit room: Tracking and Integrator Shutdown

  1. _____ Tracking off
  2. _____ Stow telescope to HA = 00:00:00, Dec= 30:00:00 (use paddle, not readout controls! May have to be done from CAT room)
  3. _____ Key-button to power off tracking panel
  4. _____ Close slit room ceiling portal
  5. _____ Turn off integrator:
    1. _____ Plunger in
    2. _____ Slowly dial down voltage to zero
    3. _____ Two power switches (top and bottom) to off

Slit room: Re-Skin the CAT

  1. ______ Turn up two panel light dimmer switches
  2. ______ Close siderostat cover (middle button!)
  3. ______ Close shutter (hold switch until closed)
  4. ______ Close housing (two steps, wait for both red lights)
  5. ______ Close shutter cover (little red box)
  6. ______ Power off control panel

CAT Room: ThAr, Iodine and Bias again

  1. ______ Take an Iodine exposure as at beginning of night.
  2. ______ Take a ThAr exposure as at beginning of night.
  3. ______ Take a set of Bias exposures as at beginning of night.
  4. ______ Slit room:  heater off, fan off. Lights out.
  5. ______ CAT room: From slitroom_fe GUI select Stowe All from the function menu.

Prep for flats

  1. ______ Put notes on two slit room and two camera room doors: “Flats, stay out until 9 AM”
  2. ______ Email mhtechs@ucolick.org with an equivalent message.

CAT Room: Flats again

  1. ______ Start flats routine as before
  2. ______ Update logsheets with prospective exposures
  3. ______ In logsheets, run IDL> jjlogchecker

Finally

Sleep! Did you put up the signs? And email mhtechs?

The Morning After

Camera Room: Close up

  1. ______ Refill the CCD dewar
  2. ______ If last night of observing, close up the spectrometer
    1. ______ Close grating cover, gently, from behind
    2. ______ Close prism covers: slide 2 in, swing 1 down
    3. ______ Remove crosshair mask, close collimator cover door

Comments on Checklist?

Write them below.

 

 

Note: Revised by T. B. Lowe in Jan/2009 following Hamilton spectrograph upgrade consisting of new UCAM CCD controller, new data taker GUI and automated stages for the iodine cell and CAT pick-off mirror controlled by slitroom_fe GUI.