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Thesis - Dan Caton - Appalachian State University

1. ssssosssesesssssesessssssseeesetsssrssesseesseessresseesseeseeesse 52 4 5 Ollimation ThUMbS re WS a detent eaten a a e EE aae a a Eea 53 4 6 C14 Mitror Flop Stoppers secetei atceacpas eea EE a a ana 54 4 1 DFM Filter Wheel and Bessell Filters s ssoneesessessssssssssseseseesssrsserssresseessressrssseeseressese 56 4 8 IMI Motornzed FOC US i r de dele pute E A e EE E aE AE a 59 AS Apogee Alta U47 CCD Camera senri lids seteapasevvonbben dad anenietwces Mb Wnaseen Maincreantaeater 61 4 10 Balancing the Telescope cicccetcaseked seth sits sdeacebenotnas siniyontedcasanceedouahon seveuhcashsentdaeaseanta shade 63 5 DOME HARDWARE AND PERIPHERAL cccsscssscstssssscsescsssesesssseeseseseseseessessseeees 64 Dells PASEO OMG epi a 4 34 tite eis outa pian dtea th AS E iv a abbot ete a SEn 64 5 2 Observa DOME Control Hardware cttuc ulicatiny sisi secs sectscenvsnaeag ibattoteeateNpwpnetatsedetves 66 Doe S0lar Panel POW Cred SIMUL innen naiss e ao o ES Ea S eas 70 54 Power MA VOICI sh 2 34 Settee o e e E a a a Se 71 6JCCDIMA GING S tg sd Site e a ath ts Oe an nathan geste E E E dda E O S 72 6 1 Types of CCD IMi pE Shh sie sa eau a toca ev econ otc sage aay Goran ea iaia vane aa Ge 12 1X Gigli Wh TTS 5 sasccec oes yvonne caacindy oo caCea soe dve aa wasn pose vy vanon Esta A ape ene 72 SE MZ E SE E T E SE 74 GL BET d ETA vent ty arcasera iui T teat ite AEE 75 GLA I Be lt se cadet ta wie E ale areca inane ental E NEE 76 6 2 Apogee
2. 2008 Diffraction Limited Ottawa Canada http www cyanogen com 95 When we installed MaxIm DL we also had to install a special driver for Apogee s Alta camera series that we received with the camera We also had to add in the Settings menu File Settings specific FITS Header values Fic 50 containing information about the site and telescope optics information and values that were also set in the Site and Optics tab of the Settings menu Settings 2 xi General Files FITS Header Site and Optics Audible Alarms OBJECT TELESCOP Celestron 14 on Paramount ME INSTRUME OBSERVER NOTES TIME OBS hh mm ss DATE OBS contains date only Value Y b Key Type integer 7 Value Unset V Set OBJECT from Telescope Control s catalog ID if available I Set INSTRUME from camera plug in recommended F Use IRAF convention for IMAGETYP values Cancel Apply FIG 50 FITS Header tab in MaxIm DL s Settings These were changed from the defaults to add additional information to each image taken with the CCD camera Author 96 7 4 2 Smart Focus The JMI motorized focuser that we use is controlled using the JMI developed Smart Focus 232 PC focusing system Although the focus can be controlled using the buttons on the front of the control unit the Smart Focus unit also uses an RS232 port to communicate with the TCS computer and receive its instructions The commands are then sent from t
3. Berendsen M 2007 The Astronomy Education Review 2 5 114 http aer noao edu cgi bin article pl id 228 Gomboc A Bode M F Carter D Mundell C G Newsam A Smith R J amp Steele I A 2004 Nuclear Physics B Proc Suppl 132 312 Groot P J et al 1997 IAU Circ 6584 1 Haislip J et al 2006 Nature 440 181 Hege E K Jefferies S M amp Lloyd Hart M 2003 Computing In Science amp Engineering 5 6 42 Henry G W 1996 ASP Conf Ser 87 New Observing Modes for the Next Century ed T Boroson J Davies amp I Robson Holman M J amp Wiegert P A 1999 AJ 117 621 Howell S B 2000 Handbook of CCD Astronomy New York Cambridge Univ Press Kaplan K H 2007 Physics Today 60 3 31 Klebesadel R W Strong I B amp Olson R A 1973 ApJ 182 L85 Lamb D W 1984 in AIP Conf Proc 115 512 MacFadyen A I amp Woosley S E 1999 ApJ 524 1 262 Molinari E et al 2007 A amp A 469 L13 Murphy K Adding an Extra Room for the Sky New York Times 4 October 2007 152 http www nytimes com 2007 10 04 garden 04observatories html Nelson T E amp Caton D B 2007 IBVS 5789 1 Nissinen M amp Hentunen V 2009 GCN Circ 9442 http gcn gsfc nasa gov gcen3 9442 gcn3 Paczynski B 1986 ApJ 308 L43 Pennypacker C 2002 A amp A 395 727 Pignata G et al 2009 IAU Central Bureau Electronic Telegrams 1769
4. Bisque s Paramount ME Information Site The C 14 s dovetail was held in place with only four threaded knobs that applied tension to the dovetail to keep it from slipping Once when testing the balance of the OTA at a near vertical position the OTA began to slip out of the Versa Plate Quickly we caught it and put bolts in the Versa Plate to rest the OTA dovetail against preventing it from slipping further back Adding to the unreliability of the dovetail setup is that due to the dovetail not being held securely it was possible for the weight of the OTA and instruments to create a non repeatable error allowing the OTA to slip and rock from side to side when crossing the pier It was recommended by Software Bisque s Daniel Bisque that we buy a set of OTA mounting rings that can be directly bolted into Versa Plate We installed the 15 3 OD Tubes designed primarily for C 14s from Parallax Instruments Inc The rings Fic 19 clamp around the entire OTA and are tightly and securely bolted into the Paramount s Versa Plate preventing non repeatable errors caused by slipping or rocking ii http www bisque com help ParamountMF attaching_ota_to_Versa Plate htm Parallax Instruments Inc PO Box 327 Youngsville NC 27596 http www parallaxinstruments com 49 Fic 19 The Parallax Instrument OTA rings holding the C 14 to the Versa Plate Author We did however have to modify the C 14 OTA due to the declinat
5. Link v Coupled Goto Open Slit Close Slit Sync Find Home Park Abort 2 Under the Dome menu select Find Home 3 Test by slewing the scope to a random sky position 4 If still not aligned turn off Terminator and Home the mount 163 CHANGE SET PARK POSITION FOR DOME 1 If TheSky6 and Automadome are connected to the dome disconnect them by clicking Dome Link Terminate for both the TheSky6 dome controller and Automadome controller windows 2 Open up ODL Dome Control on the desktop Dome Control System ioj xj v1 03 Observa D ME LABORATORIES INC Connection Settings COM Port ec OM5 z Port Settings 19200 8N1 Disconnect Azimuth Control Azimuth 343 9 Halted ipet E o M Enable Set Home Set Park Set Azimuth Find Home Park Dome Gotatzimuth Rotate Left Rotate Right Halt Dome Shutter Control Shutter Closed M Enable Open Close Halt Shutter 3 Connect to the dome If the link fails be sure that the COM port number is correct The default is COM4 DSO 14 uses COMS 4 Select the Enable box under Azimuth Control 5 Type the desired azimuth position into Input Press Set Park 6 Press Park Dome to see if it is at the position you want Repeat Step 5 and 6 until satisfied 7 Disconnect from dome and exit ODL Dome Control 164 FOCUSING THE TELESCOPE WITH MAXIM DL This focusing technique should be used while a job is running on Skynet
6. sssesssssseessseeessesssessrssstesesessrsssesseestesssrssreeseesseessre 159 Turn On Off Lights AC Fan Inside the DOome seesssseesessesseesesreesesrerserrersrrrersrrseesersresresrese 160 Power Cycling the Mount or Camera ccs can tseetivcies he deca taeesiuiis aed stetaawndcedabdon etaatensarteeds 161 Slewiniey ie K A E lieu dance e cent 162 Homines the NING cs cated Pa e pau odes che a oa ine VEE E E ae EEEE 162 Parkins the IMU cate a e eRe least a taht tata aaea P alae cde cic deat 162 Parkie Chis TOUS ots e atvadt he cena een eta ieee eee an Aae EE 163 Re Synching Dome Azimuth If Not Aligned With Scope cece ceseesseeseeceeeseeeseees 163 Change Set Park Position for Dome sca cccssiirens de cease seauis eee seetacwnd eden eaatensaraes 164 Focusing the Telescope with Max Im ls evcsigsch ide acceansepas ut biadadeaenkacweee eben eacdateaeneiad ee 165 Change Set Home Offset for Gin casctecovstte aes cde cetera niga ow ancanaieumeagead a abeansemantnenenna Se 167 Change Set Park Position for Mount in TheSky6 eee cscesecseeceeeesaeeseecnseeaeeeaeees 168 Change Set Park Position for Mount in Terminator 00 0 cece ceeeeseeseeceeesseeneecneeesseeneeees 169 Changing the CCD Cooler Setpoint Used by Terminator 200 0 eee ceeeeeeseeeeeeeenneeeeneeeeseees 170 Changing the Flats Altitude and Azimuth sort co hes venines iat csteauiin vostancaeaddasutaes eutg weaned atea gluse 170 Changing When to Turn CCD Camera Cooler Ono iicississ dccsccesshcase
7. 0x0000001e 30 EE AutomaDome R8 sitTop 0x0000005a 90 z Rg UpdatePeriod 0x000003e8 1000 J PORT SERVER ccpsoft m PrecisionPEC E Thesky H A TPoint Software Bisque Instance 2 H StarTrailviewer X 4 gt My Computer HKEY_CURRENT_USER Software Software Bisque AutomaDome DOME For Help press F1 RA 22h 19m 31 1s Deo 29 07 7 FIG 48 Changing the width of the dome slit displayed in TheSky6 requires changing one of AutomaDome s entries in the Registry Editor The value in parenthesis is decimal based Author 93 7 3 4 ODL s TheSky Link ODL offers a program they designed that tracks the dome with the telescope position Neither AutomaDome nor TheSky6 offer dome tracking The program starts up with the computer but in order to activate it one must right click the icon and select the option to Track Dome with TheSky Additionally the default Update Interval of 30 seconds is far too often to move the dome only a few degrees of azimuth When we have it we set the Update Interval to 500 seconds The bigger issue with TheSky Link is that the program cannot be controlled through scripting Although Terminator parks the dome and moves the mount to separate places in the morning the dome continues to move with the telescope to a position that does not allow the solar panels to get good Sun exposure However it does not appear to be a problem to run Terminator without TheSky Link because
8. 1 Querci F R amp Querci M 2000 Ap amp SS 273 257 Reichart D E 1999 ApJ 521 2 L111 Reichart D E 2009 Personal communication Rest A M ndermann L Widenhorn R Bodegom E amp McGlinn T C 2002 Rev Sci Instrum 73 5 2028 Schady P amp Cannizzo J K 2009 GCN Circ 9450 http gcn gsfc nasa gov gcn gcn3 6364 gcen3 Schiling G 2000 Flash The Hunt for the Biggest Explosions in the Universe translated by Greenberg Slovin N Cambridge UK Cambridge Univ Press Schneider J amp Doyle L 1995 Earth Moon and Planets 71 153 Shamir L amp Nemiroff R J 2008 Applied Soft Computing 8 79 Sington D 08 January 2002 PBS NOVA Death Star Smith A 1776 An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations London W Strahan amp T Cadell Smith A et al 2009 GRB 090530A Skynet DSO Detections GCN Circ 10015 http gcn gsfc nasa gov gcen3 10015 gcn3 153 Smith A B amp Caton D B 2007 IBVS 5741 1 Steele I A 2001 New Astronomy Reviews 45 45 Trueblood M amp Genet R 1985 Microcomputer Control of Telescopes Richmond Willmann Bell Wright E 2006 PASP 118 1711 http www astro ucla edu wright CosmoCalc html 154 APPENDIX A Procedures for DSO 14 155 This Appendix contains common procedures used to maintain DSO 14 and the software that controls it These procedures are designed for use
9. 2000 pg 60 and the pixel that received half the light in the flat field has its value in the final light image doubled Flat field correction completes the data reduction process TT 6 2 Apogee Alta Series Residual Bulk Image Problem One problem that we see in our Apogee Alta images and those of PROMPT is that of residual bulk images RBIs The result of RBIs appears as a ghost of an object that was exposed in the previous images Fic 38 This is due to electrons that were trapped in the interfacing at the bottom of a pixel well in a previous exposure becoming thermally excited loosening from the interfacing and entering into the pixel s charge collection region appearing as additional signal Rest et al 2002 The effect of electrons getting trapped predominantly happens with longer exposures of longer wavelengths leads to larger penetration depth by electrons in the pixel well and is dependent on temperature and the incoming flux the pixel receives Therefore bright objects remain and the image cannot be corrected with dark subtraction or field fielding FIG 38 Two images showing Residual Bulk Images RBIs The left is an overexposed image of a bright star The right is a dark taken immediately after the left image was taken Author 78 In addition to how aesthetically unpleasing RBIs appear they can also be problematic when doing aperture photometry For instance if a job run on DSO 14 observing Jup
10. Association of Lunar amp Planetary Observers ALPO are made up of advanced amateur astronomers The data their groups publish has proven very useful in scientific research 23 The power of simple telescope networking becomes even more obvious when its use is extended from merely doing scientific research to also assisting with public outreach and education Made available to schools and advanced amateur astronomers RT networks can not only make valuable contributions to the scientific community but can also give the public a feeling and understanding of the scientific process by letting them be part of an international collaboration 26 2 9 Future of RTs As the Hubble Space Telescope is left to eventually die in orbit and before the launching of a new James Webb Space Telescope scheduled for 2012 there will be a need for coordinated projects on optical telescopes Robotic telescopes and the networks that link them to the common user at their home computer are the future of astronomy The technology to run RTs is still advancing and the knowledge we learn will continue to grow The information being obtained through the use of RTs and RT networks is both invaluable and forever changing the field of observational astronomy 27 3 THE DSO 14 REMOTE ROBOTIC TELESCOPE PROJECT 3 1 The Dark Sky Observatory and Rankin Science Observatory This thesis project has been developed at ASU s Dark Sky Observatory DSO This facility
11. Boltwood Systems Co 2005 Cloud Sensor User s Manual VO04B for firmware version 0x35 amp Clarity version 1 54 Ottawa Canada Diffraction Limited Borne K Becla J Davidson I Szalay A amp Tyson J A 2008 in AIP Conf Proc 1082 Classification and Discovery in Large Astronomical Surveys ed C A L Bailer Jones 347 Cannizzo J K Stamatikos M Mangano V amp Schady P 2009 GCN Rep 222 1 http gcn gsfc nasa gov reports report_222_1 pdf Caton D B amp Smith A B 2005a IBVS 5595 1 Caton D B amp Smith A B 2005b IBVS 5699 76 Cohen M 2009 Celestron Overview and History http www company7 com celestron index html Cordova F A Priedhorsky W C Mason K O Margon B Hutchings J B amp Murdin P 1985 Ap amp SS 111 2 265 Cummings J R et al 2009 GCN Circ 9781 http gcn gsfc nasa gov gcn3 978 1 gcn3 Deeg H J et al 1998 AAP 338 479 Djorgovski S G Kulkarni S R Bloom J S amp Frail D A 1999 GCN Circ 289 http gcn gsfc nasa gow gcen3 289 gcn3 Dvorak R 1986 AAP 167 379 151 Dvorak R Froeschle Ch amp Froeschle Cl 1989 A amp A 226 335 Fox D B amp M sz ros P 2006 New J Phys 8 199 Fukugita M Ichikawa T Gunn J E Doi M Shimasaku K amp Schneider D P 1996 AJ 111 1748 Gehrels N Piro L amp Leonard P J T 2002 Sci Am 287 6 84 Gibbs M G amp
12. Click the Sun Triggers tab 3 Select adjust the Cooler Setpoint to the desired temperature 4 Click Update at the bottom of the configuration window 5 Restart Terminator to put these changes into effect CHANGING THE FLATS ALTITUDE AND AZIMUTH 1 Select Configuration from the Terminator menu bar Server Setup Sun Triggers Locion Weather Dorme GED risus 6 L5 Park sun elevation a sak al Park Aeimuth J 15 041 RA Tracking Rate DFM mounts only Frac 12009 07 1 Configuration options You are ether seeing this because this is your Frst time starting the Terminator or you requested a change 2009 0 upeate cancel zousj07 1 2309107 2 Click the Sun Triggers tab 3 Set the Altitude and Azimuth for the desired position at which Flats will be taken 4 Click Update at the bottom of the configuration window 5 Restart Terminator to put these changes into effect 170 CHANGING WHEN TO TURN CCD CAMERA COOLER ON 1 Select Configuration from the Terminator menu bar Location Weether Dome Fous Emors Mount GED raisin fs Perksun elevation momes Jeo Pakakas fo a fisan RA Taco ate ornou erin Configuration options Yau ara ether seeing thishecaurethis your frst time caring the Terminator o you requested a change Click the Sun Triggers tab Set the number of degrees the Sun should be above the horizon
13. ME designed by Software Bisque Inc is a highly precise German Equatorial mount that easily integrates with just about any small telescope setup At 65 lbs it can hold over twice its weight up to 150 lbs Its 11 inch 576 tooth right ascension gear delivers accurate tracking with a peak to peak periodic error of 5 arcseconds or less With through the mount wiring auto guider input parallel or serial CCD camera control and the availability of control for two more devices the mount shows that it has been designed with the serious amateur astronomer in mind The Paramount ME telescope mount was recommended to us by the PROMPT group as they had had great success installing them at the PROMPT array at CTIO in Chile While we waited for ours to come in we were loaned an older Paramount GT 1100S for our initial testing When our Paramount ME arrived it turned out to be much simpler to install than the older model The very first thing we did before installing the Paramount was to make sure that all the necessary equipment came with the mount and that photos of the mount in the user manual matched the mount itself We had planned the instrument setup before attaching any instruments or even installing the mount The weight of the instruments the amount of clearance the instruments have without hitting the pier and the clearance of the counterweight bar with other objects in the room were all estimated so that we could determine the correct Y
14. SN 2009dl by CHASE It was later determined that SN 2009dI Fic 12 was a Type Ia supernova located in a galaxy almost two billion light years away from us Pignata et al 2009 Fic 12 Using PROMPT Project CHASE discovered SN 2009dl where the lines meet It was later determined that this Type Ia supernova occurred in a galaxy two billion light years away G Pignata D Reichart 39 3 2 6 Long Period Monitoring Because DSO 14 is part of a global network of telescopes it could be used for long period monitoring Long period monitoring of objects is very useful in researching variable objects The length one can continuously observe an object is of course limited by the number of hours without sunlight at a location At DSO the longest nights are 14 hours long on the night of the winter solstice It can be very beneficial to an observer s research to have the ability to continue getting data after the star sets at their location by placing a request on a telescope at a location where the star is just rising The periods of eclipsing binary star systems range from less than an hour to weeks in length Therefore it sometimes takes weeks or even months of nights observing the system to determine the period of a newly discovered eclipsing binary or to obtain data for an entire light curve If the job were to be placed on several different telescopes located in different time zones around the Earth and barring any problems with
15. Software Bisque Inc 912 12th St Golden CO 80401 http www bisque com 42 height and position of the mount Because we installed our Paramount ME Fic 14 on a pier that we had fabricated for the DFM 16 inch that is now at RSO a new base plate was fabricated to adapt the mount to the pier Fic 14 The author adjusting the altitude on the Paramount ME after installing it in the DSO 14 dome D Caton The Instrument Panel Fic 15 on the Paramount ME has connections for both RS232 and USB 2 0 Since the control computer is not in the same room as the mount USB signal dropouts between the mount and the computer could occur We decided that we would use RS232 as an extra security precaution to make sure the mount to PC connection works reliably 43 x Focus Guider a 4 Mount Power RA Dec Fic 15 The instrument panel of the Paramount ME Author On the ME s adapter panel Fic 16 are two auxiliary power connections Aux and Aux 2 that have through mount wiring to the instrument panel at the back of the Versa Plate This feature is very handy in that it decreases the number of cables the site manager needs to feed through the mount Over time from weight and tension of the cables and the constant movement of the telescope power cables can slip out of their connectors but these ports prevent that from happening Each port connection requires a special 2 1mm DC power plug with a lock
16. and elevation of DSO 14 s dome These values were double checked and accurately confirmed with the use of a handheld GPS system Time Zone is the offset of the number of hours the computer is from UTC Because the computer clock is set for UTC it is very important that Time Zone be set to zero and that Daylight Savings be set as not observed Additionally the elevation is also very important for TheSky6 to get accurate coordinates and should be properly set with units of meters Location 2 xi Predefined List World Map User Defined Description dark Sky Observatory Longitude f Latitude Degrees far Degrees 36 4 Minutes 24 H Minutes 15 Seconds 52 3 a Seconds fou H West C East f North South Daylight saving option Not observed 7 Add to Predefined List Time zone o o Elevation m 923 0 ox cancel Aprly Hep Fic 45 TheSky6 s site location menu Author i http mapper acme com 90 We turn off all of the Real Mode viewing options View Real Mode Options like Moon halo and sky background as they add overhead when updating the screen We also turn off reference lines View Reference Lines with the few exceptions shown in Fic 46 Additionally we turn off all labels except the planets and keep the view set centered at the zenith Reference Lines 20 x General lines Telescope limit lines J f Ecliptic E G
17. and received Access to the control system and data archive must be made through the Internet While a robotic telescope is ideally a closed loop system the controlling programs must be accessible and made available for debugging and upgrading 15 Integral Fic 4 Diagram of the GCN network The burst is detected by the satellites and its location is sent to GCN That information is then sent via internet to networked observing sites GCN GSFC NASA 16 2 4 Equipment for RTs The necessary equipment for setting up an observatory with a RT A telescope The type and aperture size of the telescope is not crucial although a 12 inch diameter mirror or larger is better as long as it is of scientific quality and works properly A fast slewing telescope mount is important for rapid response But while speed is important for programs with transient objects more important are an accurately pointing mount and stable telescope setup Non repeatable errors like mirror flop and gear backlash destroy pointing models and make reliable data runs extremely difficult An automatic dome or roll off roof Not only does this protect the telescope during the daytime from heat and humidity but in the event of weather conditions changing for the worse the system must be able to cover and protect the telescope and equipment as quickly as possible Also good is a fast tracking dome that allows for quick telescope slews to transients High speed in
18. before the dome is able to be closed If this is an issue with the temperature of the batteries and inverter it is possible that we could solve the problem by insulating the inverter and batteries and covering over the inverter s cooling fan and heat exhaust vent during winter If the problem cannot be solved and continues to be a hindrance we could always remove the solar panels and use power bars to supply the power to the dome shutter control module and motor To continue having the dome shutter failsafe in the event of a power loss the power bars would be connected to a UPS 137 10 3 RF Power Supply Meltdown One evening Skynet alerted us of a dome error and we tried to investigate by remotely logging into the TCS computer The problem looked similar to the issue of the dome shutter control losing power when temperatures were cold However the computer could not connect to the shutter control or the azimuth control Additionally the dome was closed and we determined that the shutter control timed out and closed the shutter When the problem could not be resolved through remote login we made a trip out to DSO to find out that the AC power adapter for the dome s RF control module had literally burned out The power supply had melted along the side and was hot to the touch When the faulty power supply was replaced normal function returned 138 10 4 Bad Computer for Boltwood One way that we are able to monitor power glitche
19. can also correct this PEMPro Documentation by CCDWare PEMPro Create PE Curve E 5 xj File Graph Type Drift Fitting PMS Enor TA Periodic Error x Erea z ik Graph of Data and Fitted PE Curve ene SBI 1 9 1 9 3 078 cc 2 FFT Waveform Analysis Fundamental Freq cycles woim period Amplitude arc seconds I a a a aa M3000 0 219 31 2 3 333 0 027 121 2 Data Points RA Axis X X Num Time Cyce Phase Centoid Fitvaue Eno E i 0 00 00 000 il 00 00 000 2 587 1 668 0 919 2 0 00 08 000 il 00 08 000 2 209 1 885 0 325 3 0 00 10 343 1 00 10 343 1 946 1 905 0 040 4 0 00 12 687 1 00 12 687 1 679 1 915 0 236 5 0 00 15 000 1 00 15 000 2 158 1 917 0 241 6 0 00 17 343 1 00 17 343 1 697 1 915 0 218 7 0 00 19 625 1 00 19 625 2 431 1 910 0 521 8 0 00 21 968 1 00 21 968 2 213 1 904 0 310 z Initial Worm Phase Image Roll degrees 0 37 34 18238 an Close Export Data Image Scale Worm Period secs Declination faro seo pinen 714953 000 1 600 Create Paramount PEC File 4 Fic 54 A screenshot of PEMPro while making a PEC curve for the telescope PEMPro Documentation by CCDWare 103 7 8 TheSky6 s Image Link TheSky6 has a feature called Image Link that can be used to precisely determine the field at which the telescope is pointing Using an image taken from MaxIm DL Image Link compares the position of the stars near where TheSky6 believes the telescop
20. data to be processed and analyzed at a later date At the time of the introduction of charge coupled device CCD cameras to telescope systems astronomers could control their instruments completely by computers As time has gone on the technologies used to run these telescope systems has become faster more reliable and more user friendly Now with ease an amateur astronomer can take as good scientific and publishable data as professional astronomers A completely robotic telescope RT saves time and money all the while streamlining and pipelining data processes that previously took astronomers hours or days to get done The number of telescopes capable of taking data of scientific quality is continually on the rise and the prospects that come with this new era of astronomy are tantalizing the astronomical community 11 2 2 Problems with Current Networks As the use of space observatories like the Hubble Space Telescope HST the Spitzer Space Telescope SST and the Chandra X ray Observatory CXO has become more common in obtaining data many astronomers have been forced to request observations by submitting their jobs into a queue scheduled by the observatory The observations must be planned far in advance and then proposed to the team that runs the requested satellite However astronomers who schedule time and observations on satellite facilities may have a hard time getting simultaneous optical and near infrared observations with gr
21. group and available for use through observing jobs requested on the Skynet website As in the case of the PROMPT system far less than half the telescope time is needed for the response to GRBs a few per week at maximum For the rest of the available observing time the telescopes on the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network are in an idle mode taking data for a consortium of North Carolina institutions providing research telescope time for both faculty and their students These observations are automatically interrupted when the system is commanded to a GRB target It should be noted that this provides access to the southern sky targets not viewable from North Carolina s northern latitude Thus PROMPT extends our access but does not offer observing of northern hemisphere targets including GRB events that can be viewed with the instrument DSO 14 described in this thesis The Skynet Robotic Telescope Network uses a program named Skynet for controlling jobs on their telescopes Skynet discussed further in 8 is written in LabView and runs on a computer at UNC CH s Morehead Observatory Skynet interacts with MySQL databases and commands dumb by design Terminator programs at each telescope which control the The Skynet Robotic Telescope Network http skynet unc edu hardware Images are automatically transferred back to a 6 5 terabyte RAID 5 server with tape backup at Morehead Observatory making use of communication libraries that they
22. is located about 20 miles from Boone on the Blue Ridge beyond Deep Gap Located at an elevation of 3 028 feet the facility has four domes and telescopes distributed over its 120 acre site DSO is over a hundred miles from large urban sources of light pollution An optical fiber data network connects all domes and the house and is connected to the Internet via DSL Four webcams mounted outside the control rooms of the 18 inch and 14 inch telescopes are positioned to send daytime images of sky conditions in all directions DSO was established in 1981 with its first telescope the 18 inch reflector Since then a pair of 16 inch telescopes were added and in 1995 the DFM Engineering 32 inch DSO 32 Following the completion of the new wing of Rankin Science Building the DFM Engineering 16 inch telescope RSO 16 was moved back to Rankin Science Observatory RSO the on campus observatory for astronomy undergraduates The RSO 16 is now ready to be put onto the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network a dome shutter control system not unlike DSO 14 s has recently been installed A weather station and infrared skycam will be installed and subsequent Web pages developed for users to monitor the current sky conditions above the RSO dome The DSO 32 Fic 5 is ready to be put onto the Skynet Network as well a new Apogee Alta CCD camera and DFM Engineering filter wheel have recently been installed and are now in routine use The DSO s 28 18 inch teles
23. observations to be made if it is too humid or windy outside during the night Therefore the manager can set the percent humidity and wind speed range allowed for observations to values they prefer If those conditions are not met or are outside of the accepted range then Terminator tells Skynet that it is not ready to observe and waits for conditions to change Weather monitoring has not yet been implemented with DSO 14 although plans are to have it done in late August 2009 Even if all the hardware and software conditions are met for Skynet to be allowed to run jobs on the telescopes the site manager has the final say by locally turning off the Allow Dome To Open button on the Terminator node running on the site s TCS computer Fic 63 The manager can also select Deny from the drop down menu underneath Permissions in the Site Manager section on the Skynet website If the dome is open denying permissions will immediately close the dome but the telescope and Terminator will be in idle mode camera still cooling and ready to begin observing again It will remain like that until daylight comes and Terminator parks the dome and telescope as it usually does Regardless of whether or not permissions are allowed by the site manager if Terminator is running on the TCS computer it will take darks every night and prepare the telescope for when permission is finally allowed 115 Terminator 7 05 2009 Configuration D
24. polar alignment which uses the amount a star drifts spanning several images to calculate the corrections in altitude and azimuth needed to have the telescope accurately aligned It is of the utmost importance that PEC and the ProTrack features in TheSky6 are turned off when using PEMPro If they are not turned off TheSky6 will attempt to make minor corrections to the tracking and cause errors while PEMPro makes calculations A telescope s image scale is an extremely important value that every Skynet site manager should know during setup of the telescope system as it is a value that used often in both software and hardware configurations The image scale is a number of arcseconds per pixel in images taken by the CCD camera That number is required for many of the programs used for setting up the telescope and programs used by Skynet and Terminator An estimation of the image scale can be easily made using an image and a star chart PEMPro however can calculate it when setting up the program for the mount DSO 14 s image scale is 0 63 arcseconds per pixel The user manual for PEMPro is long and involved but it is thorough and explains many of the features available Although Polar Alignment Wizard Fic 52 is extremely user friendly it is again important to carefully read the manual before starting any of the procedures This is especially true for the procedures that correct backlash Fic 53 and PEC as there are many options for a variety of
25. ring that keeps the cable in place and connected Some cable modification was necessary to solder the wires to the plug 44 we uM Power Fic 16 The adapter panel at the back of the Paramount ME s Versa Plate The filter wheel power is labeled A and the CCD camera power is labeled B Author Software Bisque warns however that the port might be 2 5mm as the Adapter Panel of the ME is made by a third party and some MEs have been shipped with the wrong port but they offer instructions on how to check the port size The 2 1mm and 2 5mm plugs Fic 17 can be ordered online from Mouser Electronics and are listed as Part 171 7391 and Part 171 7395 respectively Fic 17 A close up of the DC power plugs with locking rings Author Y Mouser Electronics 1000 North Main Street Mansfield TX 76063 1514 http www mouser com 45 The assembly and installation instructions in the user guide that come with the ME are thorough filled with figures and diagrams that really made the installation less tedious As is the case with all assembly instructions it was very important to make sure to do each step properly as it can become very difficult to redo steps For instance after everything was set up we needed to run another cable through the mount However several screws on the side panel that need to be opened up to get to the cable conduit are typically hidden behind the altitude wedge unti
26. selecting View Information Window 8 The mode should be set for Aperture and Displayed in Arcsec should be checked Click Calibrate if never used before Under Spatial Calibration the pixel scale should be set to the value of the image scale arcseconds per pixel If it is not the correct value click set and adjust the scale 9 Use the aperture to determine the FWHM of bright star in the latest image Adjust focus accordingly 10 Close the Information window 11 Under the Setup tab in the Telescope Control window disconnect the focuser 12 Close the Telescope Control window 166 CHANGE SET HOME OFFSET FOR DOME This procedure should never be done unless something catastrophic happened with the dome azimuth position e g home position reset DSO s Home Offset Position is 112 To correctly do this it has to be done in person at the dome 1 If TheSky6 and AutomaDome are connected to the dome disconnect them by clicking Dome Link Terminate for both the TheSky6 dome controller and AutomaDome controller windows Open up ODL Dome Control on the desktop MEE v1 03 AN i Observa DOME LABORATORIES INC Connection Settings COM Port COMS Port Settings 19200 8N1 Disconnect Azimuth Control Azimuth 343 9 Halted Input E Enable Set Home Set Park Set Azimuth Find Home Park Dome GotoAzimuth Rotate Left Rotate Right Halt Dome Shutter Control Shutter Closed Enable Open Close Halt Shu
27. that supports the Paramount ME and dome control through AutomaDome It also comes with both the UCAC2 and the USNOB subset stellar catalogs that can be displayed on the main screen Fic 44 celestial coordinates and not object names or catalog numbers However when DSO 14 is being controlled by Skynet it only receives Normal sky TheSky6 File Edit View Orientation Data Tools Telescope Help lel Es OsB me S te e o 2 ol ahal S S Wa H S P Ae Sa X ew Milo o om 20 Ain Fo D Ree Q a BS 7 Ixtrealtine za Moon For Help press F1 RA18h Olm 43 3s Dec 27 50 47 lt a yl cle E FIG 44 TheSky6 is used to control the telescope The crosshair left of middle is the postion where the telescope is pointing The meridian cuts down the middle of the screen The large white trapazoidal outline is the position the dome slit is pointing Author Y TheSky6 Professional Edition 2009 Software Bisque Inc Golden CO http www bisque com 89 As with each installation the user manual needs to be read to become familiar with the setup The first thing after installing TheSky6 was to set the location of the observatory by going to Data Location and making a User Defined site Fic 45 Using the terrain and topographic maps provided by the free online mapping program ACME Mapper 2 0 we determined the latitude longitude
28. the main image are subtracted by the value of the corresponding pixel in the master dark Fic 36 A dark image shows the thermal noise on the CCD chip The noise increases linearly with longer exposures Author 75 6 1 4 Flats Flat images are images taken of a field that is equally and evenly lit Fic 37 With DSO 14 the flats are taken when the Sun reaches 15 degrees below the horizon These images much brighter than normal images are exposed for an amount of time that nearly saturates the CCD chip in order to obtain a large signal to noise ratio Flat fields show the problems in the illumination of the chip such as vignetting the variations between pixels and dust motes on the filters and CCD window that block some of the incoming light Fic 37 A flat image on DSO 14 The donuts are out of focus dust motes on the clear filter or on the CCD chip window Author 76 A master flat is made by combining and taking the median value of five flat images and then normalizing the master flat to a scale such that the pixel values range from zero to one one being the brightest If for example no dust mote is in the way of a pixel in the flat it has a value of one whereas pixel that has the shadow of a dust mote cast on it has a value of 0 5 meaning it gets half the brightness of the rest of the pixels Then when performing data reduction the bias and dark subtracted light image is then divided by the master flat Howell
29. when the camera cooler turns on Click Update at the bottom of the configuration window Restart Terminator to put these changes into effect CHANGING WHEN THE DOME OPENS CLOSES l Select Configuration from the Terminator menu bar i Servet Setup Sun Triggers Location Westher Dome Fous Emors Mount GED Pais Us Pakainsievatin deo Perkabude T5047 RA Takna Rats OrMimeunts enh E Click the Sun Triggers tab Set the Sun elevation at which the dome will open at night and close in the morning Click Update at the bottom of the configuration window Restart Terminator to put these changes into effect 171 APPENDIX B AutomaDome Geometry 172 The telescope should be oriented like in the diagrams shown in Fic 83 as if seen from above the setup The coordinate system is such that a positive X value is East of center and a negative X value is West of center A positive Y value is North of center and a negative Y value is South of center A positive Z value is above the base line or center of the dome while a negative Z value is below See Fic 84 for reference i i i i gt lt lt a 5 N i i i i i i y l ar ga mi Z x lS BA EEEE AA EE Mon eee I Dome Radius Rdome The Dome A a A PORRER e O ENE FET FIG 83 The geometry layout given in the AutomaDome Help documentation Sof
30. wrote for remote use of SOAR Users can submit jobs and retrieve data from any location via a PHP enabled web server that interacts with the MySQL databases However GRBs receive top priority and are automatically added to the queue via a socket connection The Skynet Robotic Telescope Network continues to grow and develop as more telescopes are integrated to the network The intention of the UNC GRB group is to continue to keep increasing the number of available Skynet run telescopes such that the network becomes large enough to be able to observe any and all GRB afterglows Therefore Terminator was written very generally such that any telescope mount that can be controlled by TheSky6 software discussed in 7 3 3 any camera that can be controlled by MaxIm DL software discussed in 7 4 1 or mounts and cameras that are ASCOM compliant discussed in 2 6 can easily be integrated to work with Skynet 10 2 REMOTE AND ROBOTIC TELESCOPES 2 1 Introduction Since the first astronomical telescope was built by Galileo in 1608 astronomers have made larger and more precise instruments to help them in unlocking and understanding the hidden secrets of the universe In the 1980s computers became cheaper and more reliable With the publication of Trueblood and Genet s book Microcomputer Control of Telescopes in 1985 personal computers became common place in observatories accurately controlling the telescope s tracking motors and or storing
31. 1h 57m 40 6s RA and 26 35 34 Dec Cannizzo et al 2009 with an afterglow of 17 43 magnitude Schady amp Cannizzo 2009 Problems with the dome lights prevented DSO 14 from imaging until 04 20 06 UT Smith et al 2009 one hour after the initial burst trigger when the afterglow was quickly fading Twenty two 80 second images were reduced and then stacked on top of each other creating an image Fic 77 that is in essence one 30 minute long exposure This allowed us to see faint stars not normally seen in the individual images Although the detected object is extremely faint after creating a false color pixel map of the area around the GRB Fic 78 we determined that the imaged object is not random noise When compared to a separate image taken by a different group Nissinen amp Hentunen 2009 the object is at the exact coordinates of their detected GRB Later calculations showed that the burst originated from a galaxy about 10 billion light years away from the Earth Cannizzo et al 2009 143 e e e x 4 L j y r a a i s N a gt amp ee 4 Fic 77 The above red arrow points to the detected position of the first GRB afterglow imaged by DSO 14 that of GRB 090530 This inverted image is comprised of twenty two 80 second images taken with the R filter one hour after the initial burst trigger from the Swift satellite Author Skynet 330 Fic 78
32. 4 from the icon on the desktop NC iewer Connection Details 2 Select the IP address for the X10 computer using the drop down menu or typing it in Click OK 3 Enter the computer s password The following screen should come up ActiveHome Professional PROMPT X10 Settings Fle Edit View Tools Lifestyle Plug ins Help All Lights On in All Rooms All Units Off in All Rooms 7417 2009 19 14 56 4 Click the switch ON or OFF for the desired modules To set it up for day mode lights on A C on fan off click the Run Macro button on the Morning Setup icon For night mode lights off A C off fan on click the Run Macro button on the Night Setup icon 5 Click the close window button at the top right of the VNC window 160 POWER CYCLING THE MOUNT OR CAMERA 1 Start VNC Viewer 4 from the icon on the desktop NC iewer Connection Details x 2 Select the IP address for the X10 computer using the drop down menu or typing it in Click OK 3 Enter the computer s password The following screen should come up All Lights On in All Rooms All Units Off in All Rooms 7417 2009 19 14 56 4 Click the switch OFF for the desired module The mount and filter wheel are Scope FW The camera is Apogee Alta CCD 5 Wait 10 seconds and then click the switch ON 6 Click the close window button at the top right of the VNC window 161 SLEWING THE TELESCOPE 1 Bring the TheSky6 window to front 2 Right c
33. 88 63 1D Index eror Dec I NP Non perp HA Dec IV CH Non perp Dec OTA I ME Polar axis elevation I MA Polar axis EastWest T Fork flexure I Tube flexure None Equatorial More Terms 19 terms in use osa Sle el le 7 oint Model in Normal sky 002240 2 19353523 0022527 2076 14 0 000 0 000 19 50 00 7 TAS ems Sky RMS 24 44 PSD 25 04 Correction arcsecs 1918 15 99 19 27 29 1 19 37 02 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 g 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 o E Gi raph Scatter Diagram v E a ane User defined gray S ECCELSA EE I Use Setup FIG 55 Screenshot of TPoint while fitting a pointing model This model contains 396 points and has an RMS accuracy of 24 arcseconds Author 106 8 SKYNET AND TERMINATOR CONTROL 8 1 Description of Skynet and Terminator Skynet is an automated system that schedules and organizes the observations made on its global network of robotic telescopes Ten robotic telescopes including DSO 14 ranging over three continents are currently integrated into the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network Many of the telescope owners who put their telescopes on the network have done so and no longer need to be present and watch over the telescope at night also because they now having joined Skynet are able to observe using different and possibly better telescopes than their own Since 27 January 2006 the Skynet Ro
34. 8m 17 9s Dec 30 28 54 DTZ 3 To test the park position home the mount Then from the Telescope menu in TheSky6 select Options Park 168 CHANGE SET PARK POSITION FOR MOUNT IN TERMINATOR This sets the park position that Terminator sends the mount to at the end of each night 1 Select Configuration from the Terminator menu bar The following screen should come up His Parksun elevation dso Park Atitude Mount ps0 Park Acimuth ocus 15 041 RA Tracking Rate DFM mounts only Configuration options You are ether seeing this because this is your first time starting the Terminator or you requested a change Update Cancel 2 Click the Mount tab 3 Set the Altitude and Azimuth for the desired park position The Sun elevation at which the mount will be parked can also be set This should not be changed unless necessary 4 Click Update at the bottom of the configuration window 5 Restart Terminator to put these changes into effect 169 CHANGING THE CCD COOLER SETPOINT USED BY TERMINATOR 1 Select Configuration from the Terminator menu bar Server Setup Sun Triggers Locion Weather Dorme atk Beimuth Jis 041_RATrackingRate OF mounts ony fzoosjozi 2008 07 1 Configuration options You are ether seeing this because this is 2008 07 1 Your frst time starting the Terminator cr yourequested a change peste cancel 2
35. AKING DSO 14 A REMOTE ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY As outlined in 2 4 a remote robotic observatory requires additional special hardware and software as well as weather and cloud monitoring Fic 66 for safe and effective use of the telescope Discussed in this section are the methods how using hardware not normally used by astronomers we made DSO 14 a fully remote robotic observatory Fic 66 From left to right the sky webcams Boltwood cloud sensor and SBIG AllSky Meteor Camera All are mounted outside of DSO 14 s control room Author 122 9 1 Dome and Sky Webcams Four webcams are used to send images of sky conditions during daylight Split up they are mounted on the roofs outside of the 18 inch and 14 inch control rooms inside plexiglass domes each monitoring a different direction of the sky Another camera Fic 67 is mounted inside the dome pointing at DSO 14 Fic 68 thereby allowing us to continually monitor the condition of the telescope This turned out to be particularly important when we began having tracking errors described in 10 5 All of DSO s webcams use Webcam32 which takes and then FTPs the images to DSO s webcam page As of September 2006 Webcam32 is no longer sold or actively supported by Surveyor FIG 67 The webcam mounted inside of the DSO 14 dome allows site managers and Skynet users to check the condition of the dome and telescope Author Y Webcam32 2000 Surveyor Corp
36. Alta Series Residual Bulk Image Problem cece eeesceeeececeneceeneeceeneeeesees 78 TELESCOPE CONTROL SYSTEM AND SOFTWARE uu eee ceceseeseecneeesseeneeenees 80 Delis VES COM U E a a ANRE EREN E AE EAEE E E E 80 TIKER o t EE E E T SAE EE OE 82 7 3 Configuring Telescope and Dome Control ssssssssssssssseseseesssrsseesseesseessressessseeseeessess 83 TaI ODE Pome C ONO ar a a A a Ve aE a ere IE 84 T32 ANOM OMG a antec Oe a E a a betula e EEE bubble clas cial aa 86 7 3 3 TheSky6 Professional Edition sseseseesesssessssssseeesresssrssresseesseessressresseeseresses 89 TAA ODES TheSky Link ede EE EN E O E a 94 7 4 Configuring CCD Filter Wheel and Focus Control sssssesssesseessseesseesseessrssseeseeesses 95 Ae Meg IV Vere B Mesa ba eet ts os acerca anne dee ae Cecgler ys ta E E E A ANE 95 PAZ MBE OCU rete wit rid id caster cases yuna ted a a ceatoca stage Waa van sagt oc E E aetna DUO 97 7 5 First Use and Rough Polar Alignment of DSO 14 woe ceeeeeeeecreeeeeeeeeeees 99 aA COLMA OR 305 Gai nts erica asks eee LO ected ete oe tiles os td begat e hanai iaa 100 1 1 Precise Polar Alignment With PEM Proite gies tingssial tt saceaucescesuntaas ieansetonesl Mawuninetuagiates 101 Te AMES RY One mase Linken r diag teste sands omian aa eatin o aS 104 7 9 Telescope Pointing with PPO 42s te csct docewieeebinghbial i scesaseviomuntaas arian aaell Mawnanoveaiasiatel 105 SKYNET AND TERMINATOR CONTRI viciviviccsties tes itesst
37. CH Integrated 16 Prompt6 PROMPT UNC CH Rebuilding sg 32 Prompt7 PROMPT UNC CH Building Morehead Observatory NC 24 Morehead UNC CH Integrated Dolomiti Astronomical Observatory Italy 16 Dolomiti Carlo Magno Zeledria Hotel Integrated Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute NC 16 PARI 16 PARI Integrated Coyote Rim Ranch CO 14 5 TIT Jack Harvey Integrated Dark Sky Observatory NC 14 DSO 14 Appalachian State University Integrated 32 DSO 32 Appalachian State University Integrating Rankin Science Observatory NC 16 RSO 16 Appalachian State University Integrating Hume Observatory CA 14 GORT Sonoma State University Integrated Guilford College Observatory NC 16 Guilford College Integrating Hampden Sydney College Observatory VA 16 HSC Hampden Sydney College Integrating Selu Observatory VA 14 5 Radford University Integrating Winer Observatory AZ 14 5 University of Iowa Integrating Ronald E McNair Observatory NC 14 NCA amp T Integrating 147 The PROMPT array in Chile will soon have an additional 32 inch near infrared NIR telescope equipped with a LuckyCam an adaptive optics camera developed by the Lucky Imaging Team at the University of Cambridge Because PROMPT did not have a telescope that was able to observe in NIR they had to rely on other telescopes such as SOAR for images However because those telescopes are neither robotic nor integrated into the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network i
38. Corner has many different categories of how to s involving Software Bisque products each with graphics explanations and very simple step by step instructions This site was extremely useful and helped to solve several problems that occurred during the set up of DSO 14 However the primary documentation to be used should be the actual installation instructions provided by the software with Tom s Corner as support Both the user manuals and Tom s Corner should be read thoroughly before beginning an installation i http www bisque com Tom tom asp 82 7 3 Configuring Telescope and Dome Control When setting up the control software all programs were installed and updated to the latest versions The latest ASCOM platform and drivers were also downloaded and installed from the ASCOME website along with the plug ins for the instruments used in the telescope set up We downloaded and installed the SmartFocus Focuser and TheSky6 Controlled Telescope drivers as well as the TheSky6 ASCOM Telescope plug in xi ASCOM Website http ascom standards org 83 7 3 1 ODL Dome Control As described previously in 5 2 the dome is controlled using two control modules the azimuth module mounted on the dome wall and the shutter control module mounted on the dome itself These are linked to the computer via an RF communication device wired to a serial port on the TCS the RF device is already set up by ODL when the equipment is ship
39. Earth more than halfway across the universe FIG 7 Image of GRB 080319 taken with PROMPT The arrow points to the GRB nicknamed the Naked Eye GRB because it became bright enough 5 magnitude to be visible without the use of any instruments D Reichart 32 3 2 2 Eclipsing Binary Star Systems Many if not most of the stars in our galaxy are paired up in binary star systems These stars orbit around each other in elliptical or circular orbits For binaries which have their orbital plane nearly edge on to us the stars pass in front of each other from our view causing eclipses that dim the observed light as shown in the figure below Because the stars are so far away we can not resolve them as two separate stars so we see them only as one point of light The primary eclipse is the eclipse with the time of minimum light and occurs when the hotter star is blocked The secondary eclipse cooler star eclipsed by hotter happens about half a period later In the light curve in Fic 8 shows the brightness of the binary system is plotted as a function of time LIGHT FIG 8 The relation between the orbital motion and light curve of an eclipsing binary star system http www physics uc edu hanson astro lecturenotes W02 Lec6 page 1 html Eclipsing binary systems are some of the easiest objects for small telescopes to observe and research The period can be found measured and monitored and if given enough obser
40. OUNT FROM DOME Xm 0 Ym 140mm Zm 273mm OFFSET OF TELESCOPE FROM MOUNT Xt 476 25mm Yr 0 OFFSET OF OPTICAL AXIS FROM TELESCOPE Yo 0 176 APPENDIX C Site and Telescope Specifics 177 LATITUDE LONGITUDE ELEVATION OPTICAL DESIGN APERTURE FOCAL LENGTH FOCAL RATIO FINDERSCOPE OPTICAL TUBE OPTICAL COATINGS SEC MIRROR OBSTRUCTION SEC MIRROR OBSTRUCTION SEC MIRROR OBSTRUCTION OPTICAL TUBE LENGTH OPTICAL TUBE WEIGHT TYPE RADIUS SITE SCOPE DOME 178 36 25258 or 36 15 9 1 N 81 41453 or 81 24 52 3 W 923 meters or 3028 feet Schmidt Cassegrain 14 inches 355 6 mm 153 94 inches 3910 mm 11 9x50 Aluminum StarBright XLT 4 5 in 114 3 mm 10 BY AREA 32 BY DIAMETER 31 in 787 4 mm 45 lb 20 41 kg 14 6 Ash Dome Ash Specs 2133 6 mm 7 Measured 2184 4 mm CCD CAMERA MODEL U47 ARRAY PIXELS 1024 x 1024 PIXEL SIZE 13 x 13 microns IMAGING AREA 13 3 x 13 3 mm 177 2 mm IMAGING DIAGONAL 18 83 mm LINEAR FULL WELL 100 000 e DYNAMIC RANGE gt 83 dB PC INTERFACE USB 2 0 COOLING Thermoelectric cooler with forced air COOLING TEMPERATURE Max 55 below ambient POWER 40W SHUTTER Melles Griot 43 mm FILTER WHEEL TYPE DFM FW 82 SIZE FILTERS Round 50 mm diameter FILTER SET Bessell UBVRI and Clear FOCUSER TYPE JMI NGF XTcM with Smart Focus 232 DRAWTUBE LENGTH 3 179 VITA Adam Blythe Smith was born in Washington D C on 26 April 1983
41. Several companies that made very precise out of the box scientific cameras during the advent of CCDs stopped production for the cameras specifically designed for astronomy Photometrics was a company that was started by engineers from Kitt Peak Observatory They offered high grade astronomical cameras that were resilient and reliable to the relatively small niche of medium aperture telescopes run primarily by universities without large resources However as CCDs were shown to be of great use in other fields of science like geology chemistry and biology they began to design their CCDs more for the lab setting and less for the harsher environments in which astronomical work is required to be done From then on Photometrics has only made CCD cameras for bio imaging and microscopy applications Thus the market for good astronomical CCDs was not filled until the 1990s when the Santa Barbara Instrument Group SBIG and Apogee Instruments began designing CCD cameras for amateur astronomers that were both low cost and of high scientific quality It is very common for very large telescopes run by universities to have custom control systems designed specifically for one telescope that cannot be used with any other system Large telescopes are typically custom designed and the larger the telescope the more unique the project and the more away from standard the design becomes Telescopes cameras filters and filter wheels are often custom made by m
42. THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A REMOTE ROBOTIC TELESCOPE SYSTEM AT APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY S DARK SKY OBSERVATORY A Thesis by ADAM BLYTHE SMITH Submitted to the Graduate School Appalachian State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE August 2009 Major Department Physics amp Astronomy Copyright 2009 by Adam Blythe Smith All Rights Reserved ABSTRACT THE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A REMOTE ROBOTIC TELESCOPE SYSTEM AT APPALACHIAN STATE UNIVERSITY S DARK SKY OBSERVATORY August 2009 Adam Blythe Smith B S Appalachian State University M S Engineering Physics Appalachian State University Thesis Chairman Daniel B Caton Robotic telescopes RTs are changing the field of observational astronomy Although in the past observational astronomy seemed only to be a professional endeavor using large aperture telescopes has now become thanks to advances in computer technology a world wide conglomeration of both professional scientists and advanced amateurs As time has gone on the technologies used to run these telescope systems has become faster more reliable and more user friendly A completely robotic telescope system saves time and money all the while streamlining data acquisitions and pipelining data reduction processes that previously took astronomers hours or days to complete The observatories of Appalachian State University ASU in co
43. Telescope This only applies to setups that have the OTA not directly over the counterweight bar An example of this would be if the Versa Plate were mounted on the Paramount sideways to allow for two telescopes on the same mount e The Testing values can be ignored if the geometry is done correctly NOTE The units of length must all the same DSO 14 used millimeters Test that the dome radius is correct by moving the dome to the azimuth positions in the cardinal directions 0 North 90 East 180 South 270 West Then go to North again by moving the dome to 360 If the North azimuth positions are not the same then the radius might be wrong Another way to check is to keep moving to these positions in order and seeing if the dome slit consistently ends up in the same position as before Xt should sometimes be a negative value rather than positive For weeks we could not determine why the telescope and slit were not properly aligned Support at Software Bisque recommended that we slew the telescope to Az 190 Alt 10 Gust West of South and near the horizon If the telescope does not align with the slit then switch the sign of Xt Any other problems encountered with AutomaDome geometry should be asked in the Software Bisque support forums 175 DSO s AutomaDome Geometry Terms ROLL AXIS ELEVATION 36 2528 0 632726883 radians DOME RADIUS Ash Specs 7 feet 2133 6mm Measured 86 inches 2184 4mm OFFSET OF M
44. The inverted image on the left is a closer view of the area around the afterglow in FIG 77 The red arrow points to the detected position On right is a false color image map of the pixels within the black box in the left image which shows that the detected object on the right is well above the average background noise Author Skynet 144 11 2 Future Plans with DSO We expect that within the next few months we will have DSO 14 integrated with Terminator s weather monitor Additionally we are planning to motorize the lower drop down section of the dome shutter We are also obtaining a 17 inch mirror diameter telescope to install into the dome next to DSO 14 and integrate onto the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network Both RSO 16 and DSO 32 are ready to be integrated with Skynet as well Because DSO 32 s aperture size is much larger than DSO 14 s we expect that it will greatly increase our ability to detect GRB afterglows 145 11 3 Future Plans with the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network Soon all images will be able to be processed and reduced through the Skynet website s automatic data reduction pipeline They can also be reduced using the astronomical image processing program that UNC GRB is developing called Afterglow Afterglow Fic 79 a web based program is being designed so that it can be easily used by students and teachers in the classroom It is already being used at UNC CH in their introductory astronomy laboratori
45. This makes data reduction easier and ensures that the final data set sent to the observer is as homogeneous as possible 14 Finally the fact that sky survey work is not necessarily dependent on the time the observation is taken assists the telescope scheduling because surveys can be scheduled to fit into any time slot available and rescheduled if necessary This can also make use of otherwise idle time on a telescope The more useful and perhaps most important aspect of RTs is that they are ideal for objects that require rapid response Several very popular realms of astronomy require this function GRBs X Ray Flares XRF and other transients are some of the least understood astronomical phenomena in part due to their nature of quickly fading away before most instruments can lock on and image them By using RTs in combination with NASA s Swift satellite more information about GRBs has been collected and analyzed than ever before This is in part because of the Gamma ray burst Coordination Network GCN set up by NASA to alert RT networks of GRBs through the use of notices These notices can be sent by email cell phone pager and internet sockets Fic 4 Because the GCN notices get sent worldwide within 40 seconds of the spacecraft initially detecting the burst many modern RTs and RT networks are being used to hunt for GRB afterglows RTs have a main station or computer that acts as the information hub through which data is sent
46. Using a program like FocusMax while Terminator is running causes major errors that are difficult to recover from 1 In MaxIm DL bring up the Telescope Control window by pressing lt CTRL gt T or by selecting View Telescope Control Window N Telescope Control 29x Telescope Catalog Center Focuser Autofocus Setup Telescope gt p Focuser Not Connected Connected ttCS S Options gt Options gt Connect Disconnect Connect Disconnect 2 In the Setup tab make sure the JMI Smart Focus is listed in the drop down menu under Focuser 3 Click Connect to link to the focuser If it does not connect click the triangle beside Options and select Setup Make sure the correct COM port is being used For DSO 14 the focuser is on COM3 N Telescope Control 2f x Telescope Catalog Center Focuser Autofocus Setup p Focuser Status Absolute Incremental Position 181 fio 5 4 Temp on Move To Move In Status Absolute Stop Move Ouf F Temperature Tracking 4 Click Move In or Move Out to incrementally move the focuser or type an encoder position under Absolute and click Move To 5 Repeat until satisfied with images 6 If desired an aperture can be used to scroll over a star in an image taken by MaxIm and determine its FWHM If this is not needed skip to Step 11 165 7 Open the Information window by pressing lt CTRL gt I or by
47. When he was growing up in Norfolk Virginia he became hooked on astronomy after his first look through a telescope and seeing Saturn By the first grade he was dragging his father to meetings of the Tidewater Community College Astronomical Society Mr Smith renewed his interest in astronomy while attending high school at The Putney School in Putney VT There he helped set up the school s observatory with his physics teacher Glen Littledale taking the first images with the school s telescope and CCD camera Mr Smith came to Appalachian State University in 2001 In 2004 he began research of neglected binary star systems with Dr Daniel Caton In the summer of 2006 he was awarded a PROMPT Research Fellowship to study Gamma Ray Burst data with Dr Daniel Reichart at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill December 2006 Mr Smith received his Bachelor of Science in Applied Physics with a concentration in Astronomy and a Minor in Math Mr Smith accepted an offer from ASU to become a Graduate Assistant and began his Masters in Science in Engineering Physics He was awarded a second North Carolina Space Grant for Graduate Research during the summer of 2008 After being awarded his Masters in August 2009 Mr Smith accepted a position at ASU as an Adjunct Instructor to continue teaching introductory astronomy and physics labs his binary star research and maintaining the DSO 14 telescope Mr Smith s parents are The Rev Dr Davis LeGr
48. after logging into DSO 14 s TCS computer with Remote Desktop or RealVNC Viewer When first logged in the window should look like Fic 82 mj E LI se Fie Edt Wen Oinon Dts Took Tekscope Helo Ble Gat kee insbe pmoss Mie Gor Pupin Winde Hep eh om Sees aam e DSRS P4 te ee P ale abmiN52hG eee Pe CSeraeseba tee allo shen e oe Be ew wa A vpn e tb ie Doi Imact tet aay toon K HEG ID CA DER EE G ur ARE Fre Han cece Fi 5 a 0 Th parini h THIB DOR Trescteng Expose Seting Sequence Focus tnipect mii Se Ceres Malm Code Tere pected I D hyrat corrected Q ve Puranen D icd wathr BOOEVOT IE LIATI A051 Tracked frore 12 635013bo 12 640637 peel in 3006200 seconds TDD DOV IB 19 47 11 542 Tracked frora 12 625429 ba 12 228013 Poort Piatha Wam E Si ETEN Ena TE Aan Ot t CCD Dagis AE Tanino F Terminater 7 05 20 Woy 3 e FIG 82 This screenshot is what desktop of the TCS typically looks like when logged into DSO 14 remotely The open windows are A MaxIm DL B MaxIm DL CCD Control C AutomaDome D Terminator E TheSky6 and F TheSky6 s Dome Controller Author 156 PROCEDURE sshd ic duseatrace beta EA staid RETRE A vend venson tude a a EE PAGE Terminator Start OD cai cade ic ies r Ea a dus utnas E e a Eat 158 Terminator Sh t DOi ea a a eather a aa A CEE a a aieeaa 159 Recovering From a Terminator Error
49. ain window of Terminator Terminator receives and acts on commands sent from Skynet as well as monitors weather conditions at the telescope s site K Ivarsen When to open the dome at night when to close the dome in the morning and when to park the Paramount are all determined by Sun elevation triggers for the site Fic 64 The manager can set the elevation triggers for their observatory within Terminator s configuration window Terminator using the current date time and location calculates the Sun elevation and when one of the triggers is met and Skynet gives permission it proceeds with the command The procedures on how to change Terminator configurations are in Appendix A We also use timer triggers for X10 modules discussed in 9 2 so the dome lights and A C are turned off and dome fan turned on an hour before sunset The X10 timer triggers controlled by a separate program and are not a function of Skynet 116 Configuration Weather ErrorLog About Debug Manual Control Activity Log Configuration Window Sun Triggers Location Weather Focus Errors Mount re Park scape gos Park sun elevation Aso Park Altitude fso Park Azimuth Permission Timestamp A 15 041 RA Tracking Rate DFM mounts only f200s 07 1 2009 07 1 Configuration options You are either seeing this because this is peih your first time starting the Terminator or you requested a change 2009 07 1 2009 07 1 2009 07 1 U
50. ake a statistical net over the sky that applies corrections to the telescope when slewing to point in a field At first TPoint can seem pretty daunting but as it is used more it becomes easier to understand the numerous ways to adjust telescope pointing The default view that TPoint uses is the scatter diagram Fic 55 This view is good for determining initial terms but we also used two different views The Declination vs Declination and Hour Angle vs EW of the Sky graph views were very helpful for determining which polynomial and harmonic terms that TPoint suggests were better to use for our fit TPoint also suggests that TPoint models on the Paramount ME have a term called DAF declination flexure term recommended for German equatorial mounts like the Paramount be used in the fit The fit we use as of this writing uses 389 points applies 21 terms and gives an RMS value of 24 arcseconds With this fit DSO 14 nearly always gets an object within 1 arcminute of the center of the 10 arcminute wide CCD chip s view lt i TPoint Telescope Pointing Analysis 2009 Software Bisque Inc Golden CO http www bisque com 105 s TPoint TPoint Model in Normal sky File View Model Data Window Help 19 35 35 71 19 34 47 1 19 5352 5 19 4052 7 19 59 23 1930382 19 27 00 1 19 43 11 6 19 28 03 1958216 19 53 25 19 56 35 5 20 00 30 20 03 21 4 20 06 19 2 20 10 36 2 T T 1H Index error HA
51. ala equate 7 Visible Edit Declination Limit Milky Way picture Edit Altitude Limit P Milky Way solid r Constellation m Horizon based lines F Boundaries M Lines I Grid Local horizon fill I Drawings C Transparent Iv Only neat screen center V Meridien fe Opaque IV Local Equatorial lines F Grid I Refracted IV NorthjEast indicator Show in Pole Up orientation Spacing automatic Wide x Edit Local Horizon RA spacing degs 1 0 jec Spacing dens Dec spacing degs Eo Cancel FIG 46 TheSky6 s Reference Lines menu Author If an observatory is on top of a mountain or in the middle of a field it is unlikely that they will need to modify their local horizon limits DSO 14 has trees to the east and south that can get in the way of observing near the horizon Also the lower portion of our dome slit is a drop down shutter which can only be lowered by hand crank It is being left shut until we install equipment that can automatically lower the slit Therefore the drop down shutter covers up a portion of sky and the trees viewable through the slit from the horizon up to an 91 altitude of 30 To prevent the telescope from trying to observe below the drop down shutter we set the limits in the Horizon Editor View Reference Lines Edit local horizon button to 30 in every direction Fic 47 Horizon Editor Normal hrz Local 21x Ope
52. all and medium sized telescopes allowing his team to interrupt observations on these telescopes when a GRB was detected Schiling 2000 pg 107 1 1 2 Swift and Beyond NASA s Swift satellite was launched in late 2004 and its impact on the field has been revolutionary In comparison to previous GRB spacecraft Swift localizes GRBs an order of magnitude more often more accurately and more quickly In addition to observing GRBs at gamma ray wavelengths Swift observes GRB afterglows at X ray UV and blue optical wavelengths beginning only 20 to 70 seconds after each burst Using data from Swift UC Santa Cruz s Stan Woosley and Andrew McFadyen used a supercomputer to model a collapsar McFadyen amp Woosley 1999 a super massive star collapsing into a black hole a process many times more powerful than a normal supernova When the super massive star collapses the stellar material starts to expand and surrounds the forming black hole with an accretion disk The material swirls around injecting energy into the central engine The immense forces that create the black hole also throw energy in the form of x rays and gamma rays and matter out from the two poles of the collapsing star at relativistic speeds As proposed by the GRB fireball model that energy and matter is ejected from the poles of collapsar in the form of jets traveling at relativistic speeds 99 999 of the speed of light Molinari et al 2007 instead of isotropically explod
53. and Smith Jr and Mrs Barbara Blythe Smith of Topping Virginia 180
54. anufacturers and therefore the control system must then force equipment to work with other components that were not necessarily designed for use with each other Often the RT control system and software at a university observatory are primarily designed and created by students After the student who created the system leaves the school and as time passes and technology changes the system becomes increasingly difficult 20 to maintain debug and upgrade until it finally becomes obsolete Recently there has been a push for professionals to use standard technology and common open source software to allow equipment and software to be more easily integrated thus making system transitions less painful 21 2 6 Standard Drivers for RTs All RTs and RT networks were created for the same reason there is some person or persons who want to make observations but are located far away from an available telescope suited for their purposes Often they cannot make those observations remotely due to a lack of familiarity with the telescope s control system Thus the need has arisen for some standard protocol in telescope control Astronomy Common Object Model ASCOM is a software standard for telescope control Pennypacker 2002 for use with any computer operating system An ASCOM driver acts as a plug and play driver between astronomical software and instruments This is done by using a list of common commands that all brands of a type of instrumen
55. are shown in Fic 9 P type Fic 9 Model of exoplanets in a binary star system If two stars were at positions m and m the white areas around it would be the stable orbits for S types The shaded region is where an exoplanet s orbit would be unstable Outside around the edges are where P type orbits would be stable Dvorak et al 1989 The only exoplanets in binary systems to have yet been discovered are of the S type none of the P type This could be explained by the fact that the orbital period of a P type is much larger than the period of an S type This makes S type planets easier to find because eclipses occur more frequently and a suspicious event has a better chance to be seen again and proven 35 Arranging observation time on large telescopes would prove worthless unless we had a large enough number of suspicious events to accurately predict when another eclipse would occur Because large telescopes are oversubscribed they are not used for time consuming long shot projects such as this However DSO 14 has the chance to devote more of its telescope time to monitoring systems than any large telescope normally would or could 36 3 2 4 Asteroids Both the PROMPT and DSO 14 have been and continue to be used for observing the changing brightness of asteroids as they tumble and spin in their orbit Fic 10 Observations have included binary asteroids and Near Earth Asteroids NEAs It is possible to determin
56. as when the temperature sensor inside the camera failed We became aware of this when the current CCD temperature was displayed as 58 C causing the software to turn off the cooler Additionally the CCD cooler status continually read Cooler Regulating without changing to the typical status display of the percentage of maximum power being used to cool the CCD chip The temperature regulator problem was also quickly repaired by the manufacturer The CCD camera had to be properly rotated so that the CCD image was square on all sides with the equatorial grid of the sky The method we used to check the CCD rotation is discussed later in 7 8 It should be noted that the CCD camera was attached to the focuser with a small nylon thumbscrew that applied moderate tension to the focuser drawtube Because of that the camera could be very easily rotated accidentally Therefore we replaced that thumbscrew with a larger brass thumbscrew to apply more tension and lessen the possibility that the camera position can get accidentally changed 62 4 10 Balancing the Telescope Balancing a telescope is one of the most important steps in setting up a telescope If the telescope is not balanced then one side of the telescope will exert more force on the gears and cause the drives to perform incorrectly or possibly even damage the gears themselves As shown in Fic 28 the filter wheel is not on axis or centered with the back of the OTA Therefore we had to a
57. ation Images taken on a telescope without proper optical alignment of the mirrors have much less quality than telescopes with good collimation Collimation requires putting a bright star out of focus and then turning the collimation thumbscrews on the front of the C 14 s corrector plate until the dark middle of the circle of light is perfectly centered Initially we collimated the telescope once using an eyepiece and once using a video camera before we attached the instruments However the telescope had to be refocused when the instruments were attached and that required moving the primary mirror Changing the primary mirror s position also changed the collimation We re collimated using short exposures of a bright unfocused star taken on the CCD camera to check and confirm that We used a program called CCDInspector by CCDWare the light shown across the CCD chip was evenly spread and that the curvature of field of field was small Although CCDInspector has the ability to accurately check the telescope s collimation we chose not to use it x CCD Inspector v2 2008 Paul Kanevsky and distributed by CCDWare http www ccdware com 100 7 7 Precise Polar Alignment with PEMPro PEMP ro created by CCDWare is a program designed for adjusting the tracking of a mount The program includes corrections for periodic error correction PEC backlash and has a handy Polar Alignment Wizard PEMPro uses the drift method of
58. ativistic Fireball of Epic Mass Destruction 2009 Chase Gordon Pixelfab Studios Charlotte NC http www pixelfabstudios com expected high rate of occurrence and because GRBs have had the highest redshifts that have been measured for any astrophysical object GRBs are widely expected to be the next great probe of the early universe when the first galaxies were being formed after the Big Bang A GRB is detected about once a day However while it appears that every GRB is unique when compared to another there appear to be two general types of GRBs the long classical GRB and the short GRB The long GRBs are blasts lasting from about two seconds to several minutes and are primarily the GRBs with afterglow counterparts The short GRBs appear to have a stronger initial burst of energy although they last less than one or two seconds and are very difficult to observe before their afterglow fades away This all leads to the need for much larger and much faster networks of robotic telescopes With a large enough global network of robotic telescopes no GRB with the exception of GRBs that come from the direction of the Sun could escape observation This is the main reason why the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network were developed by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill UNC CH and one reason why we here at Appalachian State University ASU decided to integrate our telescopes into their global robotic telescope network 1 2 PROMPT and T
59. blem we encountered with the inverter overloading during the winter is discussed in 10 2 Xantrex Technology Inc 8999 Nelson Way Burnbary BC Canada http www xantrex com 71 6 CCD IMAGING 6 1 Types of CCD Images 6 1 1 Lights A light image is the typical image taken with the CCD camera containing the object that is being observed Light images are the images that are taken while a job is running on a telescope They vary in exposure length from job to job as per the requested exposure time when the job is submitted A light image is a graphical interpretation of the value for each pixel in the CCD chip s pixel array Each pixel not only contains the charge due to photons coming in from the field being observed but also charge from the noise that was there initially before the image was taken and noise caused by thermally generated electrons The thermally generated noise increases the longer the exposure Light images are termed raw because the noise needs to be subtracted from the image so all that is left is the signal caused by the objects in the field To get rid of the noise in a light image additional types of images need to be taken with the CCD camera Those images are then mathematically applied to the raw light image in a process called data reduction The final image is called the reduced image Fic 34 12 Fic 34 M66 observed on DSO 14 The left image is the raw image the right the re
60. botic Telescope Network has taken over 1 7 million exposures Fic 56 for over 30 000 users many of whom are members of the general public Reichart 2009 Total number of images lights darks flats taken with Skynet 2 000 000 1 800 000 1 600 000 1 400 000 1 200 000 1 000 000 800 000 600 000 400 000 200 000 ef J A eS Sie fe oe dere es FIG 56 Graph of the number of images taken by Skynet Skynet website K Ivarsen 107 The software itself is made up of three different programs the master Skynet server application the Terminator node and the Data Management System DMS Skynet runs on a computer at the UNC CH and receives its job queries from a local Web server that maintains the website http skynet unc edu with which users submit their requests for observations Skynet controls a telescope by sending commands to the Terminator nodes running on the telescope s local control computer The DMS runs on a machine dedicated to storing data within its 6 5 TB RAID 5 disk array and retrieves images from the Terminator nodes as the images are captured and stored on the site s TCS computer A Terminator software node itself is dumb meaning that it makes no decisions of its own It processes the commands from Skynet possibly performing an action and sends a response back to Skynet Skynet makes all of the logical decisions to open the dome to take flats or darks etc based off of the status updates and resp
61. c home position sensor along the base ring of the dome which detects the reference home magnet that moves along with the dome After these are calibrated the position is determined using the encoder and the home position offset the difference in degrees between the home position and true north is set in ODL s dome control software discussed further in 7 3 1 For DSO 14 the home offset is 112 the method to set the home offset is described in Appendix A FIG 31 The dome azimuth control module Author 68 The Shutter Control Module opens and closes the shutter using two limit switches that determine if it is fully open or closed The module will automatically close the dome not only if the emergency close switch is activated but also if after five minutes the module has not received a signal from the TCS computer This prevents the dome from being left open if the computer unexpectedly crashes As seen in Fic 32 the Shutter Control Module is mounted to the inside of the dome and receives its power via batteries FIG 32 The dome shutter control module A the power inverter B and the batteries C that store the charge created by the solar panels Author 69 5 3 Solar Panel Powered Shutter Due to the size of DSO 14 s dome mounting power rails inside along the base ring would have created several problems Because of how the floor is setup inside the dome it not only poses a risk of accidently getting
62. causes no errors 141 10 6 Unable to Initialize Filter Wheel Since fall of 2008 MaxIm DL has occasionally not been able to connect to the CCD camera due to a failure that it quotes as Unable to Initialize to Filter Wheel While the direct cause has not been determined it seems to occur when MaxIm DL connects and disconnects from the camera and filter wheel several times within relatively quick succession Sometimes after the error occurs a message bubble appears from the task bar saying that the USB device the camera cannot be read properly This error can sometimes be corrected by power cycling the mount filter wheel and camera as described in Appendix A a number of times leaving them in the off position for up to a minute each time 142 11 CONCLUSION 11 1 Results with DSO 14 As of printing DSO 14 has attempted to observe GRB afterglows on several different occasions the most recent of which was the attempted observation of GRB 090813 The Swift satellite detected the initial burst on 13 August 2009 at 04 10 43 UT originating from 15h 08m 04s RA and 88 34 21 Dec Cummings et al 2009 DSO 14 slewed to the burst position and began imaging at 04 11 21 UT only 38 seconds after Swift initially detected the GRB The reduced images revealed no visible candidate for the afterglow of the GRB DSO 14 s first image of a GRB afterglow happened on the night of 30 May 2009 At 03 18 18 UT Swift detected GRB 090530 at 1
63. cope DSO 18 has recently been equipped with a DFM Engineering control system and could also be integrated onto the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network Fic 5 The 32 telescope dome DSO 32 at Appalachian State University s Dark Sky Observatory DSO T Bush D Caton 29 3 2 Research Opportunities on DSO 14 While GRBs are the primary objective of the project their unpredictable occurrence leaves much idle time that is available for other research In this section several projects are described that can and are being accomplished using DSO 14 Because the camera should never be taken off of a robotic telescope that limits use of DSO 14 to primarily CCD photometric projects 30 3 2 1 Gamma Ray Burst Research Observations of GRB afterglows are one of the primary science goals for DSO 14 and the very reason PROMPT and the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network were created The biggest problem with observing GRBs is that the data is very hard to come by due to the unpredictability of both their occurrence and location in the sky the speed at which their afterglows fade away and their magnitude often not being bright enough for ground based telescopes to observe However the Swift satellite allows networks of telescopes to slew and start obtaining data within 30 seconds of the initial burst notice DSO 14 s northern latitude offers the UNC GRB group increased coverage of the night sky and therefore more chance that they can obse
64. d air conditioning to turn off and the dome fan to turn on one hour before sunset Fic 70 That gives the dome time to start equalizing the inside temperature to the outside temperature while turning off the lights in preparation for Terminator to take darks and flats One hour after sunrise timers activate the X10 modules again turning the lights and air conditioning on and fan off ActiveHome Professional PROMPT X10 Settings A cco A tive lI Ble Edt View Tools Lifestyle plugins Hep Rooms exe All Rooms a a i e ay i 7417 2009 19 14 56 FIG 70 ActiveHome Professional is the software that we use to control the X10 modules With it we have set timers to automatically turn off the lights two hours before sunset to allow for darks to be taken in a darkened dome and to turn on at sunrise Author Some problems have been encountered however when hooking a module up to an uninterruptible power supply UPS The UPS does not let the altered AC waveform through losing the encoded digital signal and thus the module does not get the command to turn on or off While we would like to have the Paramount on a UPS we need to be able to remotely cycle the mount power in case any problems come up Furthermore the UPS units xavi ActiveHome Professional 2008 X10 Wireless Technologies Inc Renton WA http www x10 com 126 have special X10 filters installed between them and the main power to prevent the UPS from
65. d sees which telescopes are able to see the burst cancels whatever job is running on them and creates a new job Priority Level 0 which is then sent to available telescopes The telescopes slew to position and then begin to expose the field using the filter Skynet designated for use for GRBs 120 8 6 Terminator Error Notices Site managers are able to get messages via email or short message service SMS text message of any errors that occur while Terminator is controlling the telescope e g the mount disconnects camera shutter stays open filter wheel position is stuck or dome shutter cannot close Each Terminator node running on a TCS computer has several subsystem loops running simultaneously for each major component of the telescope mount camera dome weather monitoring etc Each loop is managed by the main Terminator event loop If an unrecoverable error occurs in any of the sub loops it alerts the main event loop which then sends a socket packet to the Skynet server notifying it of an error When Skynet receives the error it looks at the telescope s site manager database to see who should be notified Site managers list their email address and or cell phone numbers in their account preferences Skynet then sends out a message via email to the specified address notifying the site manager of the type of error that occurred If a cell phone number is listed Skynet sends an SMS of the error alert via email as well 121 9 M
66. data for the past several hours 7 15 09 If the time or date are old DSO may be experiencing a network problem RAC Humidity 65 Solar Radiation watts sq m Dew Point 63 5 Sunset 7 44pm HeatIndex 78 5 Moonrise 11 53pm Barometer 30 20in Moonset 1 12pm gt 0 002inhr Moon Day Rain Today 0 00in Omph Hourly 0 00in n 0 Monthly 0 44in 76 1 a WSW 250 Total 22 22in 2 28 shr Gust 3mph Temperature F past 24 hrs Hourly Rain in hr past 12 hrs Dew Point F past 24 hrs Inside Relative Humidity past 24 hours Outside Relative Humidity past 24 hours Inside Temperature F past 48 hrs Wind Gust mph past 24 hrs Solar Radiation Watts sq m past 48 hours Fic 72 The weather data is posted on DSO s weather webpage D Caton Author xxx DSO Weather Page http www dancaton physics appstate edu Observatories DSO Weather 129 9 4 Boltwood Cloud Sensor For our weather station at DSO 14 we installed a Boltwood Cloud Sensor distributed by Diffraction Limited This sensor Fic 73 detects cloud conditions at DSO Terminator will use the readings from the Boltwood to determine whether or not to open the dome or in the event of bad weather or non optimal sky conditions close the dome The Boltwood detects clouds by using a thermopile to read the amount of infrared radiation directly above the sensor That reading is then compared to the current ambient air temperature be
67. dd a weight to the side of the OTA to counteract the weight of the filter wheel as it caused an irregularity in balance with both the declination and right ascension axis Fic 28 Image showing the counterweight steel weight on right side of image used to negate the weight from the filter wheel bottom left being off axis Author 63 5 DOME HARDWARE AND PERIPHERALS 5 1 Ash Dome DSO 14 s dome Fic 29 is a 14 5 foot diameter steel dome made by the Ash Manufacturing Company and installed at DSO in 1986 The shutter is divided into two sections an upper shutter that is controlled by a 120 VAC geared motor and a lower drop out shutter that is lowered by a hand crank The drop out shutter is soon to be motorized but in the mean time is left closed during observations Although this means that the bottom shutter covers 30 of sky above the horizon we have found this to be acceptable for now due to the treetops to the south of the dome reaching to just about the top of the bottom shutter anyway Setting software horizon limits within TheSky6 thus prevents the telescope from slewing to a position lower than 30 in altitude vi Ash Manufacturing Company PO Box 312 Plainfield IL 60544 http www ashdome com 64 Fic 29 DSO 14 s Ash dome The bottom of the shutter drops down by use of hand crank However we hope to have that motorized in the near future Author 65 5 2 Observa DOME Control Hardware The
68. dome is controlled by two control systems developed by Observa DOME Laboratories They are made to work with not only with domes designed by Observa DOME Laboratories ODL but also with a wide variety of pre existing domes As shown in Fic 30 the dome controllers are linked to the telescope control system TCS computer The computer sends signals via radio frequency RF from an Aerocomm ConnexLink 4490 provided by ODL to the controllers telling them that the computer is connected to them The controllers also relay their positions back to the TCS computer xvii Observa DOME Laboratories 371 Commerce Park Drive Jackson MS 39213 http observa dome com 66 Solar Panel RF Link FN Shutter Limit Switches 12V Gel Cell Battery Shutter Controller Shutter Motor Magnet For Home POSMONSWIGN Mounted on Rotating Observa Dome Mounted Below Rotating Observa Dome Telescope Home Position Interface R RF Link Switch CCD Camera Dome Azimuth Drive Motor Controller Customer Supplied PC EN 115 VAC N Supply Friction Drive Azimuth Encoder FIG 30 The dome is controlled by two separate control modules They connect to the TCS computer through an RF link Observa DOME Laboratories website 67 The Azimuth Control Module Fic 31 uses a motor with an encoder driven off the dome rotation motor track to determine dome azimuth position The Home azimuth position is set by a magneti
69. duced image Author 73 6 1 2 Biases Bias images or biases are images taken with zero exposure time with a closed shutter Fic 35 The pixel values in a bias image are independent of exposure length or thermal noise A bias shows pixel readout noise and the DC offset voltage of the CCD before an exposure is taken If a pixel s potential well has trouble dumping all its charge before taking an exposure then this image will show the amount of charge and amount of dark current that is initially present as an image is being taken In the case of the Apogee cameras the bias is really a minimal exposure made with the shutter closed 0 02 seconds Fic 35 A bias image shows the DC offset on the CCD chip before any exposure is taken Author 74 6 1 3 Darks Dark images or darks are images taken with the shutter closed with the exact same exposure length as a normal image Fic 36 Darks can also be scaled to match the exposure time of a normal image Astronomers routinely take a sequence of images with the same exposure time so that they can combine and stack them together resulting in a better quality image Because the dark current builds a charge in the potential wells over time longer dark exposures have more noise Because the noise is random astronomers make a master dark image that uses the median dark value of each pixel from a series of dark images taken through the night The values for each pixel in
70. e the three dimensional shape of an asteroid by monitoring the light curve as the light reflects off of the irregularly shaped features on the asteroid Determining the shape requires obtaining multiple light curves taken over several years so that the asteroid may be examined from numerous different viewing angles Fic 10 A 40 seond exposure taken on PROMPT of asteroid 2009 DD45 J Pollock D Reichart 37 Because of the extreme latitude difference between DSO 14 and PROMPT 66 it is possible to view the parallax of an asteroid or comet Astronomy labs can use two images of the object taken at the same time one from DSO 14 and one from PROMPT to measure the parallax angle and determine the distance to the object On 27 June 2009 a day before asteroid 2001 FE90 passed within 6 99 lunar distances LD to the Earth the author took several series of images of the asteroid using both DSO 14 and PROMPT and made a mosaic combining the image series from both telescopes Fic 11 Fic 11 The above mosaic using images from DSO 14 and PROMPT taken on 27 June 2009 shows the parallax 8 arcminutes of asteroid 2001 FE90 a day before it passed within 6 99 LD to Earth The asteroid is also spinning and periodically varying in brightness Author 38 3 2 5 Supernovae Survey PROMPT has already had success with users doing supernovae searches On 15 April 2009 the PROMPT 4 telescope was used in the discovery of Supernova 2009d1
71. e future to better match data taken with the PROMPT telescopes 58 4 8 JMI Motorized Focuser The ability to automatically or at least remotely control focus is a very crucial part of a robotic telescope Because a robotic telescope does not require on site intervention by the site manager a motorized focuser that can be adjusted by computer software is required Typically the telescope s focus would need to be changed from night to night or even during the night depending on the night s temperature changes Attached behind the filter wheel is a JMI Motorized Focuser The focuser we installed from JMI Telescopes is the NGF XTcM which has a 3 inch black anodized drawtube and is designed specifically to be used with large Cassegrain telescopes Fic 26 Fic 26 The JMI Motorized Focuser allows focusing to done remotely or automatically as part of a scripted routine Author xiv Jim s Mobile Incorporated 8550 West 14th Avenue Lakewood CO 80215 http www jimsmobile com 59 The C 14 OTA has significant expansion and contraction due to temperature changes and as a result the most extreme focus positions between summer and winter are nearly at opposite ends of the focuser s travel Initially during late summer we set the set focus position at the center of the travel but when winter came the focus position we needed was beyond the end of the travel Therefore we had to loosen the C 14 Flopstoppers and move the
72. e is pointing to the stars in the image of the field where the telescope is actually pointed and determines the exact field at which the telescope is pointing The method on how to do this is discussed at length at Tom s Corner When an Image Link is successfully completed it displays the image scale value as well as rotation of the field The rotation of the field should be zero We used this on several occasions to make sure that our camera was properly oriented This is also the preferred method to synchronize the telescope position and should only be done before performing an automapping or pointing routine Image Link is used by several programs in their automapping routines Automapping is a method of refining the telescope pointing by going to specific fields and determining the difference between the expected and actual positions of the telescope These numbers can then be interpreted in statistical algorithms to improve the pointing of the telescope Y hetp www bisque com Tom ImageLink ImageL ink asp 104 7 9 Telescope Pointing with TPoint TPoint is a program developed by Software Bisque to improve the pointing accuracy of the telescope using various statistical methods TPoint uses mathematical terms to model the error in pointing caused by things such as flexure in the OTA misalignment in optical collimation gear errors and errors in the polar alignment These and other suggested mathematical terms can be used or not to m
73. e site A Danko Author i DSO Clear Sky Chart http cleardarksky com c ASUDSONCkey html 132 9 6 SBIG AllSky Meteor Camera In 2007 we installed an infrared sensitive AllSky Meteor Camera from SBIG to monitor sky conditions above DSO 14 Although it does not see the complete sky the camera has a 90 x 140 degree field of view It is provided in a weatherproof housing and is mounted outside of the control room The camera is an un cooled shutter less version of SBIG s ST 402ME and is mounted with a 2 6 mm focal length f 1 6 lens The window on the top of the housing is heated to prevent condensation and contains a red filter to reduce light pollution Because the camera is not cooled the images have many hot pixels that appear due to thermal noise on the CCD chip Because the camera is shutter less it cannot take the necessary darks to subtract the noise out of the image Thus the noise remains in the image and the hot pixels appear as though they are bright stationary stars When making a series of animations of several nights images this problem was circumvented by using a 2x2 kernel mask to average a pixel based off the pixels surrounding it While this significantly reduced the apparent noise the image quality was much degraded The camera is controlled using the SBIG developed CCDOPS software therefore the images are only taken in the TIFF image file format Because we do not want to continually upload an image to o
74. ebug Manual Control System State Observing Mode ObsID GRB ID ExpID 2455031 28317 IDLE Undefined 1 ait 09 08 55 6 LST Exp Progress Sun Elevation 18 47 45 559 Permission i O of 80 seconds 67 4367 7 18 2009 Timestamp Operating mode Camera State Cooler Temi Dome Status RA P Skynet lt i READY 13 19 CLOSED 12 38 38 1 Mount State Dec EA IDLE 51 50 53 536 Cooler at setpoint I Skynet connected Focus Status Azimuth ID Site Permission READY 49057 40 448 il Good Weather Focus Position Elevation Filter o 50 14 41 843 Scope parked D Allow dome to open 2009 07 18 18 47 33 605 Tracked from 12 635013 to 12 640637 303 7 in 20 062000 seconds 2009 07 18 18 47 13 542 Tracked from 12 629459 to 12 635013 300 0 in 20 031000 seconds 2009 07 18 18 46 53 512 Tracked from 12 623829 to 12 629459 304 0 in 20 141000 seconds 2009 07 18 18 46 33 370 Tracked from 12 618282 to 12 623829 299 5 in 20 031000 seconds 2009 07 18 18 46 21 823 Connection error 56 TCP Read in TCP Read with Size vi gt PCL_Server 2 vi 2009 07 18 18 46 19 776 Connection error 56 TCP Read in TCP Read with Size vi gt PCL_Server 2 vi 2009 07 18 18 46 13 339 Tracked from 12 612665 to 12 618282 303 3 in 20 016000 seconds 2009 07 18 18 45 53 323 Tracked from 12 607047 to 12 612665 303 3 in 20 187000 seconds 2009 07 18 18 45 33 137 Tracked from 12 601470 to 12 607047 301 2 in 20 203000 seconds Fic 63 The m
75. eenseeeaeeeeensaes 137 10 3 RE Power Supply Meltdown isr oei eerdre iinei seee isorine 138 10 4 Bad Computer for Boltwood sssesesesseesessessessessessessessessessesstssesseesenseesesseesteseeseesees 139 10 5 Tracking Problem noa Gattis teat e e aA Daas EEES a aaa aiii 140 10 6 Unable to Initialize Filter Wheel sseeeeeeeeeeseeeessessessrrsessessessersessresessresrssresresreseesees 142 TE CONCLUSION ec oot a fad tet eaaa e aee ea a eea oa EENE a taaan sete 143 PEDDIE SUES with SOI rror e E E a a oaa 143 11 2 F t re Pats WAL DSO eere e e a R ae a Matin ae aara ites 145 xi 11 3 Future Plans with the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network cece eeeseeseeseeeees 146 REFERENCES E dikes E Aactenetoadbnbaled at 151 APPENDIX A EE A E TEE E Rat 155 APPENDIX B E a E E EE a Rat 172 APPENDIX Co E EE A A TEE E RS 177 DA AA ES A E AE AO 180 xii 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1 A Brief History of Gamma Ray Burst Astronomy 1 1 1 Vela to BeppoSAX In 1963 after the United States and the Soviet Union signed a nuclear weapons test ban treaty the Soviets had a lot of headway in the space race So the United States government launched the first Vela satellites to watch for possible detonation of atomic weapons by the Soviets in space At all times two Vela satellites were placed to never leave an area of the sky unseen The satellites were used to triangulate the source of a possible blast log the time when the gamma photons hit and send
76. eiateunnobestsattessieededgunmevevsayiust 107 8 1 Description of Skynet and Terni ator sc 3 34 cseyiviieapescegeaeseseseuendannsantevecseetcuvenavensteaaiates 107 8 2 Sky et Websites moeten a p e tudstesstuvstrn ue oat e 110 8 3 Terminator Control seire a N a EET E E E AE tae 115 A N aaO La e E E 119 EIA e WaN E E E A A E A 120 8 6 Terminator Error Notices eesesseeeesessesreesesrrssesresseseesseressesesserresseesessersessteseeseestesees 121 9 MAKING DSO 14 A REMOTE ROBOTIC OBSERVATORY eerren 122 9 1 Dome and Sky Webcams seeeseeeessssressrseesrrsresresresresterestesrestersesteestnreenrsreeserereseeerent 123 9 2 ActiveHome X10 Modules sseossseosesseosessesseesessesseeseeseesseseesseseesseseesseseessessessersssse 125 9 3 Davis Vantage Pro Weather Station eeseseseseseeesesseseesseserssesrrrsesreestsreesrseresreereneesrene 128 9 4 Boltwood Cloud Sensor sseeesesseeeeseseesresesrrsteststesrestesestessesttssesttestsreentseeestesreseesene 130 9 52 Clear Sky Chaite e RE E A E E E E aia 132 9 6 SBIG AllSky Meteor Camera sseesesseseessrssesresresresressesrtssesrersestresrsrrenrseeestesreseesene 133 9 7 Remote Desktop and RealVNC ACCesS wii ccccaitssesieatvassees cnessansnsin tebubenstbedcausveseseaaciys 135 10 PROBLEMS ENCOUN T RE D a atk E E ol lel ds Seat 136 LOA UPS Issues Power Glitehes scrii orrae a a ins 136 10 2 Dome Shutter Stuck Open When Cold cies eeeceseessecseeceseeseeeaeees
77. ere is a significant temperature change in the weather 98 7 5 First Use and Rough Polar Alignment of DSO 14 It was at this point when Tom s Corner on the Software Bisque website truly showed XXIX how invaluable it is for setting up the telescope The Out of the Box section explains setting up the Paramount and performing a rough polar alignment in great detail However unlike Tom s Corner we found that the final alignment should not be made using Software Bisque s TPoint software It was important that the polar alignment be done properly and with great care or the telescope would not be able to accurately point nor track a star correctly We adjusted the polar alignment of the telescope several times using different methods until we were satisfied with the results which is why we did not use TPoint for polar alignment TPoint s polar alignment corrections vary depending on the terms the site manager uses when fitting a pointing model and as a result if the manager does not fully know how to properly use the terms to fit a model the adjustments TPoint recommends can be incorrect Also it takes longer to use this method as the manager must make a pointing model apply the fitting terms adjust the mount and repeat until the results are satisfactory The method and software program we used for the final polar alignment are discussed in 7 7 hitp www bisque com Tom Paramount outofbox asp 99 7 6 Collim
78. ervation button up at the top Fic 59 Skynet can look up coordinates by the common name or the observer input the RA and DEC coordinates of the object the observer wishes to image At the bottom of the screen is a graph which shows 110 the altitude of the object as viewed from each site available for use for the next 24 hours The desired filters can then be selected and telescope chosen After that the observer can input the number and length of exposures they would like to take and the job is submitted to the Skynet queue with a unique ID number Continue on same tele z BEBRER Re BEEBE Bee asu max priority 1 Fic 59 A screen shot of the page used to submit jobs to Skynet integrated telescopes Skynet website K Ivarsen 111 While the job is running the images are continuously sent back to the Skynet server and made available for the user to view as either as a JPEG or FITS image file format Fic 60 amp 61 The images can be downloaded as a lossless compressed file and are also available by File Transfer Protocol FTP DSO 14 2009 06 20 02 43 49 After 6 3 17 33 12 DSO 14 2009 06 20 02 44 18 After 6 3 17 33 12 DSO 14 2009 06 20 02 44 47 After 6 3 17 33 12 FITS JPEG Header DSO 14 2009 06 20 02 45 17 After 6 3 17 33 12 FITS JPEG Head DSO 14 2009 06 20 02 45 46 After 6 3 17 33 12 Fic 60 The images for this job have successfully been taken They are archived on the Skynet server ready to be downl
79. es a Photometry Aperture 310 Meonitude 11 89 0 09 Annulus Radius 10 10 99 0 04 Annulus Width 15 14 04 0 29 ZeroMag 25 13 36 0 11 Noise Model Poisson vj attest ES vi Ignore Duplicate Sources within 1 pixels vi Use Centroiding Centering Box Width 5 Max Center Shift 1 Celestial Coords Remove Download Data Batch FIG 79 Afterglow a web based image processing program is being developed by the UNC GRB group for use with Skynet s automated data reduction pipeline J Haislip 146 The Skynet Robotic Telescope Network is continuing to grow and develop into a world wide consortium of telescopes the Dolomiti Astronomical Observatory in Italy has recently been integrated and made available for use with Skynet Nine other telescopes across three continents are integrated or nearly integrated for use with Skynet with six more expected to be integrated soon TABLE 1 In the future Skynet hopes to develop a new array of 16 inch telescopes at the Siding Spring Observatory in Australia which will allow near continuous observations to be made using Skynet TABLE 1 The Skynet Robotic Telescope Network Site Size Name Owner Status Cerro Tololo Inter American Observatory Chile 16 Prompt1 PROMPT UNC CH Integrating 16 Prompt2 PROMPT UNC CH Integrated 16 Prompt3 PROMPT UNC CH Integrated 16 Prompt4 PROMPT UNC CH Integrated 16 Prompts PROMPT UNC
80. filtering a signal that passes by on the way an X10 module further down the line The filter intercepts the X10 signal and passes it down the line not allowing the signal to see the filter circuitry in the UPS 127 9 3 Davis Vantage Pro Weather Station Near the 18 inch dome at DSO we have installed a wireless Vantage PRO weather station Fic 71 made by Davis Instruments It comes with a rain collector temperature and humidity sensors powered by a solar panel and an anemometer to measure wind speed and direction It also comes with an ultraviolet UV sensor that measures solar radiation Fic 71 DSO s Davis Vantage Pro weather station is wirelessly connected to the monitoring computer in the 18 inch telescope s control room Author vill Davis Instruments 3465 Diablo Ave Hayward CA 94545 http www davisnet com 128 The readings are relayed to a computer in the 18 inch control room and then sent to the DSO Weather Website Fic 72 When the UNC GRB group has finished integrating Terminator s weather monitor to work with our setup the weather data will be used to determine if the conditions at DSO are acceptable to allow the dome to open Appalachian State University DSO Weather Conditions d The graphic at left gives current Dark Sky Observatory weather conditions at our Dark Sky is 4 Observatory These data are updated Phillips Gap 7 every 10 minutes The charts below give weather
81. forts teaching and helping me I could not have come this far Thank you vi DEDICATION To My Parents For Encouraging me Time and Time again to Go Forth and Explore the Universe Thank You vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PRBS TRACT sa bad ceca Bade itt ols cite ect ds vie ccantn ecb da E R lat Sd dial iain ate iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS n n a E E E E R A E EE vi PEDIC ATION E E E EEE E ES vii TIN RODUC TION E lil cecatra seule ela bib daectatuen dds Obes cdesdpavteda vibes 1 1 1 A Brief History of Gamma Ray Burst Astronomy ssseesessesseesesressesrrrsesreeserreesrereesresees 1 Vet le Vela to Beppo SAX ea E n E bla tedden EE E sd REEE 1 1 1 2 S5Swiftand Beyond sen s E E EEE EA RRR E 5 1 2 PROMPT and The Skynet Robotic Telescope Network esseeeeeeseseeeseseeserrerrrrrerrresees 8 2 REMOTE AND ROBOTIC TELESCOPES 02 2 csccstasenpoteiiadngs seetanssnsententteasteeusauaeseredaatess 11 Zhe TIO GU CHO Ms ee e e R E Ea E E EE S 11 2 2 Problems with Current Networks eseeeeessseseseeesessessesresresressenressenrenstseseenenseesesseeseesee 12 2 3 About Robotic Telescopes ssseesesssesessseseesseseessessersesseseesseseesneseesstssessenseessesressessesess 14 2 4 Equipment for RTs rera a eae a hth E acta EE anaa 17 2 5 Developments in RTs and RT Networks sssssssesssssssesseseseesssrssersseesseesseessrssseesseesses 19 2 6 Standard Drivers for RTs sssseosesseesersseseesseseessessessesseesesnseseeseseessessee
82. he Smart Focus unit Fic 51 to the focuser assembly on the mount via a six conductor flat cable that we fed through the Paramount y yDC Focuser PC OFF ON P FA Out In Manual Focus JMI SMART FOCUS 232 Fic 51 JMI s Smart Focus controller The control unit can move the focuser independent from any computer control However to use the Smart Focus remotely focus software must connect to the focuser Author 97 The focuser control software that comes with it called JMI Smart Focus is used to configure the settings of the focuser s EEPROM After configuring the program for use with the NGF XTcM model focuser we have we set the zero position the starting position past which the focuser will not move to a little before the edge of the focus housing touched the edge of the camera adapter If it is not set it is possible for the motors to continue pulling the drawtube even though it cannot physically move thus damaging the drawtube and the motor gears We do not focus using this program however Instead we use MaxIm DL to move the focuser to the desired position As a Skynet job runs we connect MaxIm DL with the focuser using the Telescope Control window and move the drawtube in little increments until the stars in the image have the lowest full width half max FWHM we can obtain for that night This procedure is explained in Appendix A Because this can be a long process we only focus every couple of weeks or after th
83. he Skynet Robotic Telescope Network UNC CH has built and is continuing to develop the Panchromatic Robotic Optical Monitoring and Polarimetry Telescopes PROMPT on Cerro Tololo a mountain in Chile An array of six 16 inch RTs Fic 3 PROMPT s primary objective is rapid and simultaneous multi wavelength observations of GRB afterglows some when they are only tens of seconds old The University of North Carolina Gamma ray Burst UNC GRB group uses images taken with PROMPT to measure redshifts by the dropout of light at short wavelengths early time spectral flux distribution SFD and extinction curves of sufficiently bright afterglows in unprecedented detail Fic 3 PROMPT telescopes 5 4 and 1 on top of Cerro Tololo Chile D Reichart UNC GRB The UNC GRB group also facilitates quick response observations at the 13 5 foot diameter Southern Astrophysical Research SOAR and 26 6 foot diameter Gemini South telescopes When not chasing GRBs the PROMPT array carries out non GRB programs including a survey of RR Lyrae intrinsic variable stars in support of NASA s Space Interferometry Misson SIM Lite automatic supernovae searches by the CHilean Automatic Supernova sEarch CHASE and serves as a platform for undergraduate high school and public education and outreach throughout the state of North Carolina The PROMPT array is integrated into the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network a global consortium of RTs coordinated by the UNC GRB
84. ilter wheel has custom bolt patterns that we provided to DFM Engineering to assure proper attachment of all the instruments to it The FW 82 was equipped with a Bessel astronomical filter set Part XBSSL SOR from Omega Optical Inc The set includes five 50mm diameter filters for the ultraviolet U blue B green visible V red R and near infrared I bandpasses Fic 25 The filters are designed for use in photometric classification Transmission 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1100 Wavelength nm Fic 25 Transmission curve of Omega Optical s Bessell filter set R Johnson Omega Optical Inc zii Omega Optical Inc Delta Campus 21 Omega Drive Brattleboro VT 05301 https www omegafilters com 57 The Bessell filter set has been widely used for CCD UVBRI photometry since its development Bessell 1990 The broad passband of the filters allows imaging of fainter objects while the effective wavelength of each filter allows for accurate UBVRI photometry The Sloan Digital Sky Survey SDSS broad band filters Fukugita et al 1996 uw g r 7 and z are used in the PROMPT telescopes The sharp cutoffs in the transmission curves between each SDSS filter make it so that the filters do not overlap like Bessell filters This allows easier conversions between magnitude and flux energy Because we have two open spaces in the filter wheel we considering adding an 7 or z filter in th
85. ing from the star in all directions as a typical supernova does When ejected matter collides with matter that has slowed down ahead of it the collision creates the flash of gamma rays initially observed by satellites Fox amp M sz ros 2006 As the matter continues to travel out from the collapsar it eventually collides with the interstellar medium surrounding the star becoming superheated and creating the radio and optical afterglows Fox amp M sz ros 2006 that we are able to observe on Earth Fic 2 The Fireball Model of a Gamma Ray Burst Xerays Visible Light Jet Collides with Radio Waves Interstellar Medium External Shock Wave Gamma Rays Blobs Collide Internal Shock Wave Slower Blob Faster Blob Collapsar Preburst Gamma Ray Emission Afterglow FIG 2 Diagram of the GRB Fireball model C Gordon after Sci Am 2002 Redshifts have been measured for many GRBs and their implied isotropic equivalent luminosities show them to be the biggest bangs since the Big Bang itself beating supernovae by six to nine orders of magnitude Sometimes in the first few seconds to minutes after the burst the optical and near infrared afterglows are extremely bright A GRB on 19 March 2008 GRB 080319B had an afterglow that was bright enough to see with binoculars despite a redshift that placed it three quarters of the way across the observable universe Given the i A Fated Galactic Death Star and its Rel
86. ion counterweight bar being in the way of the rings Therefore we designed fabricated and installed a new counterweight bar that lifted the counterweights higher and out of the way of the OTA rings Fic 20 50 Fic 20 Newly fabricated and installed declination counterweight bar Author 51 4 4 OTA Lens Shade and Dew Shield The OTA lens shade item 94015 from Celestron is specifically designed for C 14s and is attached to the front end of the OTA Fic 21 reducing dew and dust build up on the corrector plate Because the telescope setup works best when the air temperature in the dome is the same as outdoors a heated dew shield should not be used The heat can cause air disturbances in front of the corrector plate distorting the CCD images It is also possible that a heated dew shield might heat up the aluminum OTA causing it to thermally expand significantly altering the focus Fic 21 Celestron C 14 Lens Shade Dew Shield prevents dew and dust from accumulating on the corrector plate and improves image contrast by keeping out stray light Author 52 4 5 Collimation Thumbscrews As described later in 7 6 although we did initially collimate the telescope without the instruments attached to the back of the OTA we determined that it was in vain as the addition of the instruments changed the alignment of the mirrors Therefore in preparation for when we would eventually need to re collimate we installed
87. is moves the tension of holding the mirror in place onto the thumbscrews holding the guide shaft in place and not on the mirror itself The primary focus knob remains in place as a support for the mirror xi Ironwood Pier Power Products PO Box 265 Kahuku HI 96731 http www ironwoodobservatory com 54 Fic 23 One of the two C 14 Flopstoppers holding the primary mirror in place Author 55 4 7 DFM Filter Wheel and Bessell Filters After bolting the OTA rings to the Versa Plate and putting the C 14 on the mount we then attached the rest of the instruments to the back of the telescope Attached to the back of the C 14 is a DFM Engineering filter wheel Fic 24 We chose the FW 82 filter wheel by DFM Engineering because of its high quality engineering use at other DSO and RSO telescopes and compatibility with both Skynet and other generic ASCOM controllers ENGINEERING INc SERIAL PORT MAN CONTROL POWER daila FIG 24 The DFM Engineering FW 82 filter wheel Author i DFM Engineering Inc 1035 Delaware Ave Unit D Longmont CO 80501 http www dfmengineering com 56 The wheel has eight available 50mm diameter filter positions The DFM Engineering filter wheel is very beneficial if the site manager is planning on mounting several different instruments to the back of the OTA because its thin profile and low weight of 4 Ibs lessen the strain on the telescope and make it easier to balance The f
88. iter or a bright star like Vega was taken with too long of an exposure length a measurable residual of Jupiter or the star could remain in the images during the next job If the residual appears during the next job s images in the same place as a comparison or target star used in aperture photometry the added measurable signal and its decay could give false values and alter the results of the photometry Most CCD cameras including Apogee s Alta series appear to have this problem however a few of Apogee s cameras now have built in near IR pre flash systems used to uniformly fill in all of the CCD s deep pixel wells before taking an image thus minimizing the residual ghost image 79 7 TELESCOPE CONTROL SYSTEM AND SOFTWARE 7 1 TCS Computer The Telescope Control System TCS computer is a Dell Optiplex GX270 running Microsoft Windows XP Pro Service Pack 3 at 2 8 GHz with 2 GB of RAM A separate 280 GB hard drive is used to store the images Installed in the TCS are an extra video card for dual monitors and two PCI cards with dual RS232 serial ports This gives a maximum of five possible serial connections to the computer The CCD camera is the only instrument we control with USB 2 0 the others are controlled via serial ports The computer is set up with a minimum of processes at startup and the Admin login is protected with a password shared only with the few people who maintain DSO 14 Windows Automatic Updates are
89. ke fast moving asteroids or variable stars Levels 3 4 are for non time dependent research jobs like supernova searches Levels 5 7 and below are typically only used by groups doing public outreach or by astronomy classes for lab research Levels 8 and lower are for guests that are not guaranteed their observations will be completed When a telescope is available Skynet selects jobs based on their priority and forms its own queue for the telescope If a job is canceled or if a new job is requested for that telescope Skynet will change its queue order based on the priorities of the new job and the previous jobs still queued to run 119 8 5 GRB Alerts When a GRB is detected by any of the instruments on the Swift and or Integral spacecrafts a notice is relayed to NASA from a receiving station That notice is then sent out by GCN via internet socket packet The Skynet server is constantly listening to TCP port 5720 for connections from a GCN server The connections transmit information in a format designed by GCN Every minute the GCN sends an Imalive packet to ensure that the connection is still up When a GRB happens GCN sends out the packet type designed to relay information from the specific instrument that detected the burst which includes the estimated coordinates of the burst When Skynet receives the packet the information is stored in its database and replaced with a new packet when refined data is received Skynet then checks an
90. l research capabilities While most RTs have been conceived as single instruments for special scientific projects and have modest apertures it is clear that they have tremendous potential for filling the niche left empty by large telescope s service queue modes What they lack in aperture size they could more than make up with reliable observation time available each night There are many types of observational astronomy programs that require monitoring on time scales greater than a week It is often difficult to conventionally schedule and then carry out such a program RTs offer the ability to observe an object on a variety of time scales anywhere from one week to one year or more A worldwide network of telescopes can make a target observable and available to monitor 24 hours a day giving an almost limitless time scale The hunt for the period of a previously undiscovered eclipsing binary star system can be cut down to a matter of days from a matter of months This makes networked RTs ideal for constantly varying objects such as asteroids quasars and cataclysmic variable stars Ideally research in stellar variability requires continuous observations The study of these objects often does not need large telescopes Amateur class telescopes are very good for gathering such data In fact amateurs are very active in observing variable stars and are consistently being published Both the American Association of Variable Star Observers AAVSO and the
91. l the altitude is adjusted to nearly the highest position This required us to raise the altitude but because the weight of the still attached optical tube assembly OTA and instruments it was a very difficult and very slow process Some important things we did before attaching the OTA and instruments were to adjust the Paramount s altitude wedge to the correct position and to level the Paramount s base plate using the installed bubble levels During every setup procedure especially when attaching the OTA and instruments to the mount the worm gears were entirely engaged to prevent the mount from moving and possibly damaging the gear teeth 46 4 2 Celestron 14 inch Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope The C 14 a 14 inch diameter Schmidt Cassegrain telescope by Celestron was first produced in the mid 70s and until 1994 with the introduction of the Meade 16 inch LX200 was the largest catadioptic telescope in production Cohen 2009 The quality of its design and mass production has made the C 14 a widely used telescope by both amateur and professional astronomers alike The aluminum tube construction has a 14 inch 355 6 mm diameter mirror with a 3910mm focal length resulting in an overall focal ratio of f 11 Specially designed StarBright mirror and corrector plate coatings decrease the amount of light lost when reflecting off of the mirrors Our C 14 Fic 18 was purchased in 1988 using funds from an NSF award for development of an
92. lick on or near a star within the green horizon boundaries where you would like to slew the scope The window should look like such Toggle Star Display Properties of Star Center Find F Display Explorer Look Zoom To Move To Rotate Tool Alt R Full Screen Space Bar tock 3 Left click on Slew and the scope should begin slewing to desired position HOMING THE MOUNT 1 From the Telescope menu in TheSky6 select Options Find Home Normal sky TheSky6 Edt View Orientation Data Tools Telescope Help ae aah soe pigtalsetting ards JOU OD 5 Line Editor ee ea e u Sie Focus Control Park Set Park Position Find Home Star Search PEC ProTrack Status Ctrlt K RA23h 09m 179s Decxairze54 ST 7 PARKING THE MOUNT Parking the mount with TheSky6 makes it lose connection with the mount something that Terminator does not want to happen 1 From the Telescope menu in TheSky6 select Options Park Position 162 PARKING THE DOME 1 Bring up TheSky6 s Dome Controller window labeled F in Fic 82 Dome Controller 28 Ox File Dome Setup Link v Coupled Gato Open Slit Close Slit Sync Find Home Park Abort 2 Under the Dome menu select Find Home RE SYNCHING DOME AZIMUTH IF NOT ALIGNED WITH SCOPE 1 Bring up TheSky6 s Dome Controller window labeled F in Fic 82 Dome Controller 28 x File Dome Setup yy
93. low the sensor The comparison of temperatures is used to determine the amount of cloud cover above the sensor The cloud sensor user manual states that a clear sky is measured to be at least 20 C colder than the ambient air temperature while a sky with thick cloud covering is measured at about the same temperature as the ambient air Boltwood Systems Co 2005 The Boltwood also has a moisture sensor to alert the site manager of precipitation and is able to close the dome via hardware located on the adapter assembly FIG 73 The Boltwood cloud sensor uses infrared sensors to determine cloud conditions at DSO Author Boltwood Cloud Sensor 2008 Diffraction Limited Ottawa Canada http www cyanogen com 130 The Clarity software program that comes with the Boltwood sensor reads the values and gives a measurement for the amount of cloud cover by putting it in one of three different categories Clear Cloudy and Very Cloudy The thresholds values for the cloud categories can be changed to allow for personal preference Due to DSO s tendency to have fast changing weather conditions this is a very important part for DSO 14 setup Terminator monitors the Clarity program so that in the event of bad weather Terminator closes the dome without being prompted by the site manager Additionally we installed software developed by Russell Croman at RC Astro com that makes a real time graph of the cloud measurements A JPEG image of the graph i
94. most Skynet jobs do not often last the eight minutes before TheSky Link updates again Also time dependent observations of variable stars are typically broken up into separate jobs in order to regularly re center on the observed star field to overcome track rate errors 94 7 4 Configuring CCD Filter Wheel and Focus Control 7 4 1 MaxIlm DL MaxIm DL the imaging software created by Diffraction Limited not only controls the CCD camera but also controls the filter wheel and if needed the autofocuser and telescope In addition to controlling instruments it can also be used for image processing and data reduction Fic 49 Although Diffraction Limited has released Version 5 of MaxIm DL we still continue to use Version 4 until we can test and confirm that it is supported by Skynet and Terminator N Maxim DL 4 m66nathan_250910_Clear_000 fits gt File Edit view Analyze Process Filter Color Plug in Window Help 6H oc melale F aaf FN CCD Image 70 m66nathan_250910_Clear_000 fits N m66nathan_250910 Clear_G00 fits zl MaxIm CCD 24 x Expose Settings Sequence Focus Inspect Guide Setup E Mari CCD Camera p Filter Wheel ctup Apogee Alta DFM Pw 82 Pyy 82 Cooler is off ooler Setpoint 20 0 T aes we emp a Autoguidet Setup No Autoguider Warm Up B Cooler Off Disconnect Fic 49 MaxIm DL s Setup tab in the CCD Control window Author xviii MaxIm DL v4
95. n Save Save s Copy Description DSO 14 Limit lower shutter closed Paste Cancel Match Horizon Image 90 Bo 70 60 sae 40 30 20 10 0e ae 40 ee aS sleds oZzb0e e240 aaao aago 932502 Altitude 90 00 Azimuth 335 Fic 47 TheSky6 s local horizon editor Author The user manual for TheSky6 does a good job in explaining the setups for the dome and telescope although additional help can be found at Tom s Corner When connected to the dome a white box representing the dome slit appears on the screen The dome slit width may be changed by modifying a couple of AutomaDome s registry settings The method to xxvii do this is described at the Software Bisque website while keeping in mind that the default values should be in decimal base format The way to check this is by looking at the number that is in parenthesis under the Data column that is the decimal value Fic 48 il http www bisque com help AutomaDome domewidth htm 92 Normal sky TheSky6 Jol x File Edit View Orientation Data Tools Telescope Help DEHRA tte PP Ahal HO S CVAG Ga ee A o ZLD e keam e oly File Edit View Favorites Help H Policies Name Data a Realne BB Default value not set m Roxio RSJEINotSignificant 0x00000001 1 m Safer Networking Limited Rg sitBottom ox00000000 0 H E SimonTatham RS siitLert oxo0000000 0 EH Software Bisque RE sitRight
96. n error go to the Recovering From a Terminator Error procedure 158 TERMINATOR SHUT DOWN 1 At the top of the Terminator window select the Close Window button This window should come up ObservingNode ObaD GBD gD 2455000 55778 0 z i 1 Undefined iewias LT SunEbyetion 023121025 8100171 THaje0D9 2008107119 01 20 47 743 Te 2 Choose the desired options and click OK 3 When the shutdown procedure is finished select the Close Window button again 4 If Terminator is stuck in a loop and not able to shut down open Task Manager by pressing lt CTRL gt lt ALT gt lt DEL gt lt CTRL gt lt ALT gt lt END gt if using Remote Desktop and end the Terminator process in the Applications tab as opposed to the Processes tab When done this way Terminator is still able to shut down cleanly and release all of its resources 20 45 32 5 e Dec 45195595 9 s azimuth 4499395 82 2003 07 21 03 02 46 270 Trackec 2009 07 21 03 02 26 1 14 Trckec 13 02 06 062 Tracker Endtask SwichTo New Task a ePuUsage 19 Comm Charge 29M 26AM 7 RECOVERING FROM A TERMINATOR ERROR 1 Follow the steps in the Terminator Shut Down procedure 2 Power cycle the mount filter wheel or camera if necessary 3 Follow the steps in the Terminator Start Up procedure 159 TURN ON OFF LIGHTS AC FAN INSIDE THE DOME 1 Start VNC Viewer
97. nadonstesssetenss dds antdnnoteasdads 171 Changing When the Dome Openis CLOSES occ asc atscnecenasdiagdecsdoasssh caveniaensinnidetioeheNeanndatetensiane 171 157 TERMINATOR START UP 1 Start TheSky6 Establish the connection to the mount by going to Telescope Link Establish Normalsky Thesky6 10 x File Edit View Orientation Data Tools Telescope Help 0 oe ta Mame S ene Sete l Polso wanas R 5 Telescope Line Editor RERE ma a ien ota Aaa SHE LS eB CEE Sone Alt M More Settings Focus Control Park Set Park Position Find Home Star Search PEC ProTrack Status Tracking Abort Slew 7 9s Dec 302854 BT Z 2 Home the mount if it has not yet been done by selecting Telescope Options Find Home 3 Start MaxIm DL Open MaxIm s CCD Control Window by pressing lt CTRL gt W or selecting View CCD Control Window MaxIm CCD 25x Expose Settings Sequence Focus Inspect Guide Setup m Main CCD Camera Filter Wheel s Apogee Alta etup DFM Py 82 T Cooler power 50 ei Cooler Setpoint 20 0 T 20 0 Looe mee SiR Cooler On C nnect ee Setup i Autoguider _Wwam Up _Wwam Up E Coole ioler Cooler Off becom 4 Connect to the camera 5 If everything is working properly start Terminator by clicking the program icon 6 If Terminator states a
98. nations of theorists in this era The further one goes back in journals towards the first publications about GRBs it becomes obvious that the scientists knew that they had a significant lack of understanding about what was going on because there was little to no observed data By the late 1980s the two main contesting theories were that GRBs were created by the merger of two highly magnetic neutron stars called magnetars Lamb 1984 or were actually cosmological meaning not originating from within our own galaxy Paczynski 1986 The best way to prove either theory was to determine the origin of each burst If they were in the galactic plane the neutron star theory would fit and if they were uniform around the sky then the cosmological theory would fit the data But getting the positional data points was a slow process until the launch of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory in 1991 When the data from Compton began to come in it showed that GRBs appeared to be randomly distributed around the sky The galactic neutron star theory was shelved for a while as the cosmological theory looked more viable Compton equipped with the Burst and Transient Source Experiment BATSE continued detecting bursts and was able to locate them more accurately however the telescope was slow to slew to the coordinates and attempt a direct observation of the GRB When a GRB was detected it took several hours to several days to locate and give accurate coordinates f
99. oTrack adjustments move the RA motor more than 5 encoder counts the tracking gets turned on Kevin has discussed this with Software Bisque who indicates that it will be fixed in update 6 0 0 63 of TheSky6 As that update has not yet been released we have changed the park position of the telescope by going into the configuration menu in Terminator and setting the mount park position to Alt 50 Az 50 which points the telescope towards the eastern horizon However if the tracking turns on or if ProTrack adjustments track the telescope to the meridian the telescope will not cross the pier and continue on its way rather it will reach the meridian limit and turn off the tracking While both situations are unwanted the temporary solution we have seems to be working 140 An additional problem has been that if the dome did not open the night before and was in its park position the entire night when the Paramount parked the dome slewed with the telescope and ended up pointing in the wrong position However Terminator still believed that the dome was parked and did not try to park it again leaving the dome pointing the solar panels in the wrong direction While Skynet developers are fixing this problem we are able park the dome in the correct position by using Microsoft Remote Desktop to log into the TCS computer and tell TheSky6 s dome controller to park the dome The park dome command is independent from both Terminator and TheSky6 and
100. oaded by FTP or in a zip file Skynet website K Ivarsen 112 Fic 61 A raw image from a job viewed as a JPEG Skynet website K Ivarsen The website also allows an observer to see the weather conditions at CTIO where PROMPT is located and see which telescopes are available for use via Skynet Live Fic 62 Additionally the most recent light images can be viewed as well as the total image count and telescope activity plot for each site 113 Skynet Live Dome Mount Weather RA Dec Camera Exp Progress Obs D Obs ExpID Dolomiti TEE EE DSO 14 54 892 CLOSED IDLE GOOD 13 33 15 12 51 48 08 64 READY 1 GORT Prorpt2 21 063 CLOSED Prompt3 21 063 CLOSED IDLE 1 Prompt4 21 063 CLOSED Prompt 21 063 CLOSED 0 005755901336671 FIG 62 Skynet Live shows in real time the status of a site where the telescope is pointing and the job being run Skynet website K Ivarsen 114 8 3 Terminator Control Terminator monitors all the equipment that is necessary in creating a remote observatory and robotic telescope The status of the camera mount and dome are each polled for their current conditions Additionally the weather conditions and local overrides at an observatory are monitored Each Terminator node has specific limits created by the site manager that owns or maintains the observatory For instance a site manager might not want
101. observatory for undergraduate physics and astronomy majors enrolled in Observational Astronomy at RSO It was used there until 2002 when Rankin Science Building was redesigned and the old astronomy laboratory and observatory demolished During that time the C 14 was stored away and Observational Astronomy Lab students used the newly acquired DFM Engineering 16 inch telescope RSO 16 in the dome at DSO where DSO 14 currently resides After Rankin s new wing with a new dome was completed RSO 16 was moved back to campus leaving the dome empty for this project i Celestron LLC 2835 Columbia St Torrance CA 90503 http www celestron com NSF award 8852993 47 Fic 18 The C 14 OTA before modification and without instruments attached Author The C 14 was disassembled to provide the OTA for this project The Paramount ME replaced the Celestron mount which suffers from poor tracking and no automatic pointing capability The OTA was attached to the Paramount with special mounting rings 48 4 3 OTA Mounting Rings The weight of the OTA and the amount of equipment load was very dangerous with the original setup we tried The Paramount ME comes with what Software Bisque calls a Versa Plate The Versa Plate is designed to hold various setups of OTAs including the Homeyer OTA cradle OTA mounting rings and the Losmandy dovetail system Each method has its advantages as well as disadvantages and each is described on Software
102. olden CO http www bisque com http www bisque com Tom DomePage domepage asp 86 is 544KB in size The Software Bisque DomeAPI dll file was not the same size and so we replaced it with the file from Observa DOME s installation CD In the Setup menu Dome Setup the COM port and baud rate must be the same as used by the ODL software Fic 42 The Security settings Dome Setup Security button should all be allowed and check marked with the sole exception of Allow Sync COM Port coms OK Baud Rate fis200 Cancel ACL Address 2000 Update period fico JV Elevation not significant Security Fic 42 AutomaDome s Setup window Author The most confusing part and also the most important of AutomaDome are the Geometry Settings Dome Setup Geometry button These settings allow the dome to rotate to the proper position for any kind of telescope setup Fic 43 The definitions are somewhat complicated to understand and even Tom s Corner refers the reader to the AutomaDome documentation rather than explaining them on the site Appendix B contains dome geometry term definitions and also suggestions when determining values for the terms 87 Geometry Fic 43 AutomaDome s Geometry window Definitions of the terms are described in Appendix B Author 88 7 3 3 TheSky6 Professional Edition The Professional Edition of Software Bisque s TheSky6 XXV is the only edition
103. onses that Terminator sends The state transition diagram is shown in Fic 57 108 Ul MODE_X Command CANCEL Transition a SLEWING i CANCEL WAITING l EXPOSE EXPOSING CLEAR_DITHER WN COMPLETE CANCELED Fic 57 Terminator state transition diagram Commands received from the Skynet server are listed in bold MODE _X refers to three possible commands MODE_LIGHT to take light images MODE_DARK to take darks and MODE_FLAT to take flats K Ivarsen 109 8 2 Skynet Website The Skynet website Fic 58 at http skynet unc edu is available for use by anyone who has an account or has a telescope networked with the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network Welcome to SKYNET fe Home My Account Our Scopes Observation Manager Site Manager Error Log GRB Manager Log off asmith Announcements Posted on Jul 14 2009 by Kevin Ivarsen Prompt 2 will be offline starting tonight for specialized use during lunar dark time The telescope will return to Skynet control on July 30th Prompt 4 filter wheel problem Posted on Jul 9 2009 by Kevin Ivarsen Sometime last night July Sth a set screw came loose inside Prompt 4 s filter wheel As a result the wheel was stuck on an unknown filter for part of the night Color dependent observations from Prompt 4 should not be trusted We hope to have the wheel repaired today and back online tonight Update July 10 2009 The fil
104. or begin Terminator the program that Skynet uses to control the telescope Only the TCS computer is available for use with Remote Desktop Occasionally we need to turn a light off or on in the dome begin imaging with the AllSkyCam or update the cloud sensor graph these are all on separate computers from TCS Therefore a Skynet administrator must use VNC from the TCS computer to gain access to the other control room computers When an administrator uses Remote Desktop they log out whoever was using the computer at that time VNC does not log off the current user allowing two people to be on the same computer at once iY RealVNC 2009 RealVNC Ltd Cambridge UK http www realvnc com 135 10 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED 10 1 UPS Issues Power Glitches Due to DSO s location on the eastern edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains it is often subject to storms and other bad weather conditions that lead to power outages For this reason we like to have our systems on UPSs Unfortunately we have found out that X10 modules often do not work if connected to a UPS If for instance we needed to restart the Paramount by cycling its power the signal that is sent through the analog lines to the X10 modules sometimes gets lost when going through the UPS due to the UPS filtering out the X10 signals as noise Because we need to have this capability we chose not to put the Paramount or any of the other instruments on a UPS Therefore DSO 14 for the
105. or ground based astronomers to observe and monitor The BeppoSAX satellite was launched in early 1996 with the purpose to quickly point to a detected burst and then inform a team of astronomers to start observing at the coordinates of the suspected GRB On 28 February 1997 the BeppoSAX observed a burst and relayed the coordinates to a team of astronomers who later detected the first optical afterglow of a GRB Groot et al 1997 A few weeks later using the Hubble Space Telescope they found a faint galaxy where the afterglow was previously seen Fic 1 After measuring its redshift astronomers determined the burst originated from a supernova Reichart 1999 in a galaxy which was nine billion light years away Djorgovski et al 1999 Gamma Ray Burst GRB 970228 PRC97 30 ST Scl OPO September 16 1997 A Fruchter ST Scl and NASA Fic 1 An image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope showing the optical afterglow of GRB 970228 along with its suspected host galaxy STScI NASA After the success and excitement following the imaging of GRB 970228 the BeppoSax team decided to make the sky positions of the bursts detected by the satellite available to the public so that astronomers around the world could have the opportunity to observe and measure the afterglows Schiling 2000 pg 103 Jan van Paradijs an astronomer with NASA s Burst and Transient Source Experiment Team BASTE was able to get override proposals from several sm
106. oration San Luis Obispo CA http www surveyor com YDSO Webcam Page http www dancaton physics appstate edu Observatories DSO WebCam 123 14 inch Telescope The image at right shows the 14 inch telescope and part of the dome and its slit This telescope is to join the Skynet Gamma Ray Burst response network when completed over the end of this summer This project funded by North Carolina Space Grant and the National Science Foundation FIG 68 The DSO webcam page for DSO 14 D Caton Author 124 9 2 ActiveHome X10 Modules The dome lights Paramount CCD camera air conditioner and dome fan are all able to be remotely and or automatically turned on and off using X10 modules Fic 69 X10 is an industry standard of communication between electronic devices that uses household electrical wiring to send digital data The data are encoded onto the 60 Hz AC waveform and decoded by all of the X10 modules connected to that power line Each module has its own individual address code If the digital signal corresponds to that module then it receives and acts on that command Fic 69 The X10 module for the dome azimuth control box X10 allows us to cycle the power to any instrument plugged into an X10 module Author xvi X10 Wireless Technologies Inc Renton WA http www x10 com 125 xxxvii We use ActiveHome to control the X10 modules Timers are set for the lights an
107. ordination with the University of North Carolina Gamma ray Burst UNC GRB group at the University of iv North Carolina at Chapel Hill UNC CH are currently integrating their telescopes onto a global network of RTs called the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network The purpose of the Skynet Network is to observe the very short lived afterglows caused the little understood astrophysical phenomena known as Gamma ray Bursts GRBs The network is managed and controlled by Skynet a Web based prioritized queue scheduling system continuing to be developed at UNC CH Skynet manages astronomical observation jobs requested through its website that run on telescopes during their idle time the available telescope time when GRBs are not being observed The primary focus of this thesis is on DSO 14 a 14 inch RT at ASU s Dark Sky Observatory DSO the first of ASU s telescopes connected to the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network and currently available for use through the Skynet website Discussed is the development and implementation of DSO 14 detailing the installation the instrumentation software modifications we made to an existing dome and the various problems we encountered Also included are results of DSO 14 s first successful detection of a GRB afterglow GRB 090530 observed on the night of 30 May 2009 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I and others who worked on the DSO 14 project wish to thank the North Carolina Space Grant for a New Initiative
108. ound based telescopes A quantitative analysis found that approximately 60 of observations made with the EXOSAT space telescope required coordinated simultaneous data with ground based telescopes Although time on large telescopes both space and ground based is scheduled long in advance only one quarter of the jobs on EXOSAT successfully obtained simultaneous ground data primarily due to scheduling difficulties Cordova et al 1985 The PROMPT array in Chile will soon have an additional telescope a 32 inch near infrared NIR telescope Because PROMPT did not have a telescope that was able to observe in NIR they had to rely on other telescopes such as SOAR for images in the NIR spectrum However because those telescopes are not robotic it took tens of minutes to interrupt a job there and begin imaging during which time the GRB afterglows faded so much that they were often not able to be observed Reichart 2009 Due to the enormous cost of large telescopes there is pressure from astronomers to operate the newest generation of ground based telescopes in a job queuing mode in order to get the requested observational jobs done in an efficient manner Steele 2001 12 Both of the problems that EXOSAT and PROMPT had are proof of an obvious need for continuing to develop ground based networks of telescopes especially networks of robotic telescopes that run in priority queue modes and could allow higher priority jobs like GRBs to interru
109. pdate Cancel 2009 07 1 2009 07 1 2009 07 1 FIG 64 Terminator s configuration window Here site managers can manage the Sun elevation triggers that start darks open the dome start flats etc K Ivarsen As shown in Fic 65 darks and biases are taken when the Sun is 20 above the horizon when the dome is closed Given that permission has been granted by the site manager the dome opens when the Sun is on the horizon and flats begin exposing when the Sun is 3 below the horizon Light exposures can begin when the Sun is 6 below the horizon if a job has been requested to time images at that time If the dome was closed when twilight flats were supposed to be taken Skynet will try to take them again in the morning when the Sun is again 6 below the horizon 117 20 DARKS 0 HORIZON 3 FLATS 6 LIGHTS Fic 65 The default Sun elevation trigger the Terminator module monitors at a site Author K Ivarsen 118 8 4 Skynet Priorities Observing jobs are given a number representing the priority that job has over other jobs The lower the job s priority number the higher level priority the job has GRB events are given Level 0 priorities as they are the primary observing goal for Skynet Level 0 is only available for members of the UNC GRB group Levels 1 2 are the highest priority levels a research group like ASU can have We typically only use these when observing time dependent objects li
110. ped ODL has its own dome control software to set up the dome Fic 40 After following the instructions given in ODL s user manual the home offset position and the park position are both saved to the azimuth module s ROM Now when a dome control program tells it to park dome it does not have to give an absolute azimuthal position the dome rotates until the encoder value matches the value when park position was set and then sends a dome parked signal back to the computer Because the dome control uses a baud rate of 19200 and not the default 9600 the baud rate of the COM port used by the dome control has to be changed This can be done by opening XP s Control Panel menu and selecting System Click the Hardware tab and the Device Manager button and scroll down to Ports Expand Ports right click on the COM port used by the dome control and select Properties Click on the Port Settings tab and the baud rate can be changed using the drop down menu The park position for the dome is at 325 azimuth to position the solar panels which give the dome shutter control module power towards a WSW position At that position they can receive the most amount of sunlight during the day ensuring that the batteries have a good charge 84 Dome Control System i ojx v1 03 x a Observa DOME LABORATORIES INC Connection Settings COM Pott coms z Fort Settings 19200 8N1 Disconnect m Azimuth Con
111. primary mirror so that the winter s focus position would be in the same range as the summer position thus preventing us from having to change the primary mirror position again 60 4 9 Apogee Alta U47 CCD Camera Behind the focuser on the end of the instrument stack is an Apogee Alta U47 CCD XV camera The Alta series of CCD cameras by Apogee Instruments are designed for astronomical use and offer low prices that appeal to both professional and amateur astronomers DSO 14 uses the Alta U47 Fic 27 which has a back illuminated 1024 x 1024 pixel array with high signal to noise ratio dynamic range and quantum efficiency It has a very sturdy housing and four three speed programmable fans that limit vibration The CCD chip can be cooled to 55 C below ambient temperature The U47 is interfaced with USB 2 0 allowing fast readout and can be controlled by any CCD imaging software that uses ActiveX drivers and scripting Because the U47 uses USB 2 0 USB boosters are needed to make sure a strong signal arrives at the TCS computer in the control room FIG 27 Apogee s Alta U47 CCD camera Apogee Instruments Apogee Instruments Inc 1020 Sundown Way Suite 150 Roseville CA 95661 http www ccd com 61 We had to send the camera back for repairs on two separate occasions First when we were testing it upon arrival a spring in the shutter broke and the shutter got stuck open The second time w
112. pt previously queued jobs at a moment s notice 13 2 3 About Robotic Telescopes In a paper by Francois and Monique Querci 2000 they give the following definitions which are useful for understanding this field of instrumentation Automated Telescopes ATs follow a prescribed set of procedures and perform the indicated tasks Robotic or automatic Telescopes RTs operate without human help at all They offer a remote operation capability however a fully robotic telescope is not supervised either locally or remotely during its routine operation There are several very distinct advantages to using robotic telescopes Gomboc et al 2004 These include e Rapid response to targets of opportunity and transients events e Efficiency in systematic and long term monitoring of light varying objects on any time scale e Simultaneous and coordinated observations with other facilities either ground or space based e Observations that require specific and dependable sky conditions such as stable weather and excellent seeing minimal effects due to atmospheric turbulence e Small scale surveys and routine tasks There are several reasons why sky surveys are well suited for RTs Firstly they often require special conditions like the flexible schedule of an RT and the excellent seeing conditions that are available at many RT sites Secondly the nature of robotic observing means that survey data are taken in a reliable consistent fashion
113. rve a GRB Additionally it offers easily comparable data and greater time resolution of an afterglow that is visible to both DSO and PROMPT We hope that within the next year both DSO 32 and RSO 16 are going to be connected to Skynet giving the UNC GRB group an even better chance to image an afterglow The randomness in occurrence and the fact that no GRB event is identical to another guarantees that we will have unique and very important data for continued research into the physical properties of GRBs On 4 September 2005 Skynet imaged the most distant explosion in the universe known at that time The GRB numbered GRB 050904 imaged with both PROMPT and the SOAR telescope Fic 6 was determined to have a redshift of 6 3 The redshift corresponded to an event that happened 12 8 billion years ago when the universe was 6 of its current age Haislip et al 2006 31 FIG 6 Images of GRB 050904 which at that time the most distant object known in the universe The discovery image left panel was taken with SOAR in the infrared and right is a visible image was taken by PROMPT The light from the GRB has redshifted so much to the IR that it does not appear in images of visible light D Reichart PROMPT also observed a GRB on 19 March 2008 nicknamed the Naked Eye GRB Fic 7 within 15 seconds of notification from the Swift satellite The GRB almost reached 5 magnitude even though it originated 7 5 billion light years away from the
114. s Grant and the Appalachian State University Research Council who both provided instrumentation funding for which we are grateful I thank the ASU Office of Student Research for the funds which allowed me to present our work at the 213 Meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January 2009 I also wish to thank the NC Space Grant for awarding me a Space Grant Fellowship in 2007 and a Graduate Research Fellowship in 2008 allowing me to continue my work on the telescope I am very grateful to Dr Daniel Reichart who awarded me one of the first PROMPT Summer Fellowships in 2006 to work at UNC Chapel Hill learning about GRBs and the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network in order to help develop the project described here I am in debt of gratitude to Kevin Ivarsen at UNC Chapel Hill for his assistance and endless patience while we integrated DSO 14 onto the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network I am also grateful to Lee Hawkins Butch Miller and Mike Hughes who designed fabricated and installed many of the hardware components necessary to operate DSO 14 Thank you to the Department of Physics amp Astronomy especially to Drs Calamai Pollock Saken Gray and Clements whose support has made me feel so welcome happy to be here and has and continues to help me to become a better astronomer and teacher Finally the biggest of thanks to Dr Daniel Caton for the many opportunities offered to me which I had never thought possible Without your tireless ef
115. s out at DSO is by looking at the Boltwood s cloud sensor graph At times when there is a power outage we see that there was no logging of sky conditions at the time and occasionally all data from before the glitch and during the computer s restart had been erased However the computer had a tendency of restarting on its own without a power glitch Additionally the computer often could not detect the webcam used to monitor the telescope inside of the dome This led us to believe that the computer itself had a malfunction 139 10 5 Tracking Problem Occasionally we have had the mount tracking turn on unexpectedly When not noticed in time the telescope tracks into its limits at which point the mount has to be power cycled before it will slew to a new position Kevin Ivarsen the head Skynet programmer determined that this was because of two separate bugs in TheSky6 The first bug is with ProTrack a feature of TheSky6 that makes adjustments to the drive rates to improve the tracking accuracy Even when the tracking is turned off ProTrack still makes adjustments to the mount position The second programming bug is that if any command is sent to the mount that adjusts the RA position by more than five encoder counts about 0 5625 arcseconds the tracking automatically turns on When ProTrack has been running for a few hours the adjustments it applies get larger especially as the telescope starts pointing closer the horizon If any of the Pr
116. s then uploaded onto the DSO weather station webpage and made available to the public Fic 74 However RC Astro does not offer this software anymore because a graphing program is now standard in the software that comes with the new cloud sensor model offered by Diffraction Limited the Boltwood Cloud Sensor II Fic 74 The cloud conditions are graphed and posted on the DSO weather website RCAstro Author 131 9 5 Clear Sky Chart In addition to the weather and cloud data on DSO s weather website we also have a Clear Sky Chart generated by Attilla Danko on his website ClearDarkSky com The Clear Sky Chart Fic 75 uses weather forecasts from the Canadian Meteorological Center to generate a chart that plots the predicted cloud cover transparency seeing and dark time at a given latitude and longitude Although this is not used by any remote systems to control the observatory in any manner in combination with real time satellite and radar charts it can be used by astronomers to decide if they would like to observe that night This data is available to any Skynet user to determine if they would like to submit a job to DSO 14 that night Thursday 11111 111122 DO ENNE BEB 4 f INR RRR TITtTtttttt tei P 5 anf ESESESESBEBE BE Bel BEBSSGS Environment Environnement Canada Canada FIG 75 The Clear Sky Chart is a prediction using weather models to make an hourly forecast as to the sky conditions above th
117. shocked someone standing next to the power rings could get snagged by the ring mounting hardware if the dome unexpectedly moved Instead four KC40T model solar panels by KYOCERA Solar Inc have been mounted outside of the dome to provide power to the Observa DOME Shutter Control Module With the dome shutter pointing due north they are mounted from 270 to 310 azimuth The panels Fic 33 are tilted 15 from vertical to obtain the best performance during the winter They are wired to two 12 volt deep cycle marine batteries that store the charge Hg LL OOpa Fic 33 The Kyocera solar panels mounted on the outside of the DSO 14 dome Author xvii KYOCERA Solar Inc 7812 East Acoma Drive Scottsdale AZ 85260 http americas kyocera com 70 5 4 Power Inverter The DC voltage from the batteries powers a PROwatt 1750 Power Inverter by Xantrex Technology Inc to produce the AC output power needed to run the shutter control module Fic 32 We used an inverter to avoid replacing the stock dome shutter AC motor with a DC motor The inverter draws 0 5 amps while the dome is idle while the dome shutter control module draws an additional 0 5 amps Our battery bank has about 200 Amp Hours of reserve Thus if it is cloudy over an extended period of time 8 to 14 days we have to manually recharge the batteries with a battery charger due to the limited charging capacity of the solar panels on cloudy days A major pro
118. ssessessesessessesses 22 21 RT Data Red ction Pipellihe Sennin e e eiee a E ane EEs 23 2 8 Observational Projects Suited for RTS sessesseseesssesssesessrrseseresrssresrssresresresrensesressesees 25 29 FUE ORES e E a a a E a a a Paseo 27 3 THE DSO 14 REMOTE ROBOTIC TELESCOPE PROJECT sassseseeseeseeesrererererressesee 28 3 1 The Dark Sky Observatory and Rankin Science Observatory s eeeeeeeeeeeersreereeen 28 3 2 Research Opportunities on DO SO 14 cvs coo dcch satis tect otitis aidan daa Aan cas eae 30 3 2 1 Gamma Ray Burst Resear We c02 2 secysxctentsaqceie gt ca darevec penne danshansoensaas ieee eateetsaieeal es 31 viii 3 222 EChipsine Binary Stat Systems ienen one e a E E E tyes 33 3 2 3 Exoplanets in Binary Star Systems eessseeeesssseesreseesrstesrrsresresresrestesresresresresrese 35 EPPA ANI O EE E E E E E E T E eye 37 3 2 3 SUPEINOVAS Survey ore a EE T E ER AEE E Ea 39 3 2 6 Long Period Monitoring essssseeseseeresessessrssetsrssetsreseesteseestestestesrestestesresteseesreerese 40 4 MOUNT AND TELESCOPE HARDWARE ssesesseeesssssersresessresessreseesrestseresresestesresreseest 42 4 1 Software Bisque s Paramount ME oi ivsicciededecceesssecasipeebtedigeanessdsenteetebeeadbessstaeesniene due 42 4 2 Celestron 14 inch Schmidt Cassegrain Telescope cceeceesceeseeeseceseeeseeeseeeseeeseeeeees 47 AD OTA Mounting Rags sene aR ea a A Aa eE EE a E EE E 49 4 4 OTA Lens Shade and Dew Shield
119. strators at UNC CH are developing YourSkies com a website from which Skynet telescope owners can sell their unused observing time to not only amateur astronomers but to students and the general public alike This will offer a chance for anyone to observe using professional quality telescopes at an inexpensive price Each telescope owner can set and adjust their own rate based off of the quality of equipment they have rates may be as low as a one cent per second of exposure This gives YourSkies com the ability to sell individual exposures Planned for public release on 12 March 2010 YourSkies com will be a social networking site linkable to other social sites like MySpace and Facebook Not only will there be forums blogs and wiki areas for topics ranging from telescope procedures to specially developed curricula for teachers but also galleries to display user created images taken with Skynet run telescopes YourSkies com is being designed for easy public use however it will offer interfaces with additional options for serious researchers Although YourSkies com will replace the Skynet website as the scheduling interface for Skynet networked telescopes Skynet itself will not be replaced It is important to note that North Carolina schools institutions collaborating with Skynet and private owners of Skynet networked telescopes will still be guaranteed free use of Skynet telescopes 150 REFERENCES Bessell M S 1990 PASP 102 1181
120. struments A CCD camera able to download images at high speeds USB 2 0 or better a fast changing color filter wheel and automatic focuser are extremely important The faster the equipment the more objects can be observed and jobs efficiently completed during a night A fast computer system that is able to effectively and efficiently run the system programs The dome telescope focuser filter wheel and camera should typically all be run from one computer 17 A large hard drive is required to handle and store the enormous amounts of data taken during observation runs High speed Internet for receiving jobs to queue and sending out data A weather station that monitors the conditions at the observatory Rain humidity precipitation wind seeing and cloud cover must be monitored real time and information made available to the observers so that they can see if they would like to cancel their program or queued jobs for that night The weather sensors are used to close the dome in case of bad weather or other unsuitable sky conditions All sky and dome webcams to allow observers and site managers to monitor sky conditions and the conditions of the telescope inside the dome 18 2 5 Developments in RTs and RT Networks In the astronomical world the past 20 years has seen a great advancement in amateur astronomy The availability of scientific grade systems made for amateur use combined with their low production cost has given rise
121. t took tens of minutes to interrupt a job running on those telescopes and begin imaging During that time the GRB afterglows faded so much that they often were not able to be observed Reichart 2009 The UNC GRB group expects that with the addition Fic 80 of the dedicated PROMPT NIR telescope Prompt7 their success rate observing GRB afterglows will increase by an order of magnitude NTER AMERICANO 148 Fic 80 The red X marks the spot of the soon to be built Prompt7 a 32 telescope to observe in the near infrared wavelengths NOAO CTIO D Reichart Additionally improved public outreach programs that use Skynet have been planned and are in the works The Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill NC is being renovated and will have an improved science center for astronomy education The exhibit will feature a live observing center where visitors may observe astronomical objects in real time using the proposed telescope array at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia Reichart 2009 The addition of a telescope at Siding Springs Fic 81 would allow Skynet to continuously monitor an object above 3 airmasses that has a declination between 40 and 24 Fic 81 A Daylight Map of Earth with several Skynet Networked telescopes The addition of a proposed telescope at Siding Springs observatory in Australia would make it possible to continuously monitor an object for more than 24 hours Author 149 The Skynet admini
122. t uses i e for dome control park dome or open dome shutter These then act as universal drivers that can recognize and be able to control the instrument This makes all ASCOM supported devices compatible with each other and able to be controlled by any ASCOM supported control software allowing for maximum functionality and system integration Almost all astronomical equipment and software used by amateurs today utilizes ASCOM drivers and are generally available at the ASCOM website ASCOM makes RT systems easier to set up Even if one telescope on the RT network is not exactly the same as the others it can still be controlled and used by a properly written ASCOM compliant program ii ASCOM Website http ascom standards org 22 2 7 RT Data Reduction Pipelines Lately the importance of computer pipelines for the data reduction of astronomical images explained in 6 1 has been realized Kaplan 2007 RTs have provided significant discoveries and sky survey programs are considered among the most important projects in observational astronomy today The sheer number of images and thus the immense amount of data is staggering Within the next few years the 27 6 foot diameter Large Synoptic Survey Telescope LSST will be completed and will start its process of repeatedly taking 15 second exposures of 10 degrees of the night sky at atime It will finish imaging the entire night sky in three days and repeat the process over and o
123. telescope configurations available almost any PEMPro V2 5 2008 Sirius Imaging distributed by CCDWare http www ccdware com 101 mount or telescope is compatible with PEMPro which if left unchanged might conflict with the present telescope setup The settings for the Paramount ME are well detailed in the PEMPro Help documentation Ee PEMPro v2 0 File Settings Tools Wizards Help PEC Polar Align Wizard Star Finder Backlash Measure Azimuth Error Azimuth Polar Aignment C View Other Ais DRIFT arc secs vs TIME minutes Measuring The drt value may be unstable or a couple minutes After t settles down note the alignment Jemor then go make an adjustment to the mount s AZIMUTH Wait a couple more minutes and make further adjustments as needed Adjust Counter clockwise West 3 7 Arc mins Drift Scale z 160 30 i C Show adustment in arc seconds Interval 5 5 mins 16h 01m 00 00 Scope Connected Camera Connected Fic 52 A screenshot of PEMPro while using the Polar Alignment Wizard PEMPro Documentation by CCDWare In order to have good tracking and remain looking at the same star field is necessary to have a good PEC curve Fic 54 PEMPro not only creates very good PEC curves but it also has a specialized set up for Paramount MEs 102 Fic 53 Backlash is caused by the mount s motor gears slipping when changing directions PEMPro
124. ter wheel was repaired in time for last night s July 9th observations We will keep an eye on it for the next few days to make sure it continues to operate correctly Prompt 3 shutter problem Posted on Jun 24 2009 by Kevin Ivarsen A problem has developed with the camera on Prompt 3 We have found that the shutter is partially open before and after some exposures This causes vertical streaks to extend from bright stars near the center of the image See this limage for an example of the problem We will ship a replacement camera to Prompt but in the meantime we will leave Prompt 3 operating as is Please be aware of this problem if your project could be affected by it View news archives About SKYNET is a distributed network of robotic telescopes controlled by a central server operated by students and faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill In January 2006 the first six telescopes PROMPT officially began operation Two more telescopes TTT and GORT joined during the first year and many more are scheduled to come online in the year to come FIG 58 Screenshot of Skynet s main page at http skynet unc edu From here people who have time on Skynet can submit jobs on telescopes and site managers can grant permission for their telescope to be used that night Skynet website K Ivarsen With Skynet the observer can schedule observations by clicking on the Observation Manager link and then the Add Obs
125. the information back to the control room in Los Alamos New Mexico On 2 July 1967 two satellites Vela 4a and 4b both logged a powerful event although it did not have the specific characteristics of a detonation and therefore the data was only stored away In 1969 when the data was reviewed it was found that the blast did not come from anywhere near the Earth Moon or the Sun Over time several more events now called Gamma Ray Bursts GRBs registered and in 1973 the first GRB publication was written by Klebesadel et al 1973 Observations of Gamma Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin A few years after the first publication announcing GRBs gamma ray detectors were put onto various spacecraft and satellites If a burst was detected then the devices would work to triangulate and localize the direction the burst came from The large error in the triangulation sometimes as much as a couple of degrees prevented getting exact locations in the sky that astronomers could monitor closely to see if there was any object at the position of the burst origin In the 2002 PBS aired NOVA documentary about GRBs entitled Death Star Sington 2002 Don Lamb one of the first astronomers to theorize the origins of the bursts was interviewed about that period of time saying One might say it was a golden age of theories in gamma ray bursts because the constraints from the observations were so sparse were so limited that it gave free reign to the imagi
126. thumbscrews in place of the secondary mirror allen screws Fic 22 The thumbscrews specially designed by Bob s Knobs allow for much easier collimation by simply turning the screws by hand rather than fumbling with a small allen wrench in the darkness Fic 22 The collimation thumbscrews on the secondary mirror make collimation a much easier task Author Morrow Technical Services 6976 Kempton Rd Centerville IN 47330 http www bobsknobs com 53 4 6 C 14 Mirror Flop Stoppers The C 14 was designed by Celestron to be focused by moving the primary mirror back or forward to the desired focus For amateur astronomers who observe through an eyepiece and do not use CCD cameras this is fine However because the mirror is moveable it has a tendency to shift position when crossing the pier causing the image to become out of focus or even out of proper optical alignment Mirror flop as the condition is called can be prevented by locking the mirror in place with bolts However bolting the mirror puts tension on and stresses the mirror which can cause a pinching of the optics or can even cause damage to the mirror itself The C 14 Flop Stopper V2 from Ironwood Observatory locks the mirror in place but without stressing the mirror A solid and threaded mirror guide shaft screws into the mirror bolt holes and sticks out through the back of the OTA Fic 23 The guide shaft is then tightly held in place by thumbscrews Th
127. time being is still subject to power glitches due to nearby storms The dome shutter control as it runs on batteries charged by solar power is not affected by power outages because it can still close the dome if the computer is suddenly turned off 136 10 2 Dome Shutter Stuck Open When Cold During the winter after we first brought DSO 14 online with Skynet we began having a very troubling situation in that the dome was still open the morning after we had been observing using Skynet We quickly discovered that this was because the TCS had lost communication with the dome shutter control The shutter control is supposed to have a failsafe in that it will close the dome if it is not connected to the computer for longer than five minutes But the failsafe only works if the shutter control is powered on We determined that the inverter had shut off with an indication light that read 29 overload When the inverter was power cycled it worked again The inverter read the voltage off the batteries to be normal so we theorized that it might to be due to a power spike We did note however that this only occurred during some of the coldest nights that had some of the most drastic temperature drops of the winter Soon spring came around and we were not able to troubleshoot it further because it has not happened since The issue turns out to be a major problem because it requires that somebody physically cycle the inverter s power switch
128. to a new wave of astronomical interest Incredibly large numbers of retiring members of the Baby Boomer Generation with a large disposable income are increasingly buying high end equipment and building backyard observatories Murphy 2007 If one takes into account that amateur astronomers considerably outnumber professional astronomers Gibbs amp Berendsen 2007 the number of casual observers with instruments could soon outnumber the number of formal scientific and professional astronomical telescopes This leads to an interesting prospect that can help shape how astronomical research can be done in the future Two developments have resulted in a renaissance in small telescope use and science First advances in computer and sensor technology have made it possible to control telescopes over the Internet and make even a simple telescope robotic with only a moderate budget Second there are many interesting scientific projects which can only be carried out by networking a large number of telescopes This has resulted in an explosion of the number of remote and robotic telescopes Improvements in technology have made constructing a personal observatory in one s backyard a viable option Smaller and faster personal computers combined with software compatibility through standard drivers allows for amateurs to have a professional observatory available to them thereby making it possible for them to take scientific astronomical data 19
129. trol Azimuth 343 9 Halted Input m IV Enable Set Home Set Park Set Azimuth Find Home Park Dome Gotodzimuth Frito _Pak Done Gates Rotate Left Rotate Right Halt Dome M Shutter Control Shutter Closed Enable Open Close Halt Shutter FIG 40 The control software that comes with Observa DOME Laboratories control hardware Author 85 7 3 2 AutomaDome AutomaDome is a dome control program Fic 41 developed by Software Bisque for use with their telescope control software TheSky6 The setup instructions that are available in the help menu of the program did not seem sufficient It is very important that a site manager installing AutomaDome go to the AutomaDome section in Tom s Corner as it is very helpful and also addresses a few of the known issues and bugs that sometimes appear after installation AutomaDome File Dome Help Setup Link Air Go Ta Par Open Sit Sync Find Home Park Abort Fic 41 AutomaDome s main window Author In order for the dome to properly talk to AutomaDome the DomeAPI dll file was installed from the Observa DOME installation CD and not from Software Bisque s AutomaDome installation The way we checked that the correct DomeAPI dll was being used was by doing a file search for the name of the file Observa DOME s DomeAPI dll file xiii AutomaDome 2009 Software Bisque Inc G
130. tter Connect to the dome If the link fails be sure that the COM port number is correct The default is COM4 DSO 14 uses COMS Select the Enable box under Azimuth Control Type 0 in the Input box Press GoToAzimuth If the home offset is correct the dome should be pointing due north If it does not point due north then the home offset is wrong Type the number of degrees from the home sensor to due north Press Set Home Repeat step 5 until the offset is correct Disconnect from dome and exit ODL Dome Control 167 CHANGE SET PARK POSITION FOR MOUNT IN THESKY6 This sets the mount park position for TheSky6 When the TheSky6 parks the mount it automatically disconnects itself from the mount Terminator needs to have the mount continuously connected to TheSky6 To set Terminator s park position for the mount go to the next procedure 1 Slew the telescope to the desired park position 2 From the Telescope menu in TheSky6 select Options Set Park Position Click OK to set park position Normal sky TheSky6 File Edit View Orientation Data Tools Telescope Help Setup Doe el he S eur Se Motion Controls Options Server Settings Belse oR E Sl oaaae P RRE Telescope Line Editor AbBlal LS o ZUP Py Focus Control Park Set Park Position Find Home Star Search PEC slg F ProTrack Status Ctrl K Tracking Abort Slew RA 23h 0
131. turned off so that none are automatically installed or even downloaded preventing unwanted restarts or use of network bandwidth However Windows updates are manually done on a regular basis Software updates like new versions of NET or Java are only installed when the developers at Skynet say that it will not cause problems with their scripted programs The computer time is set for the global time standard of Universal Time Coordinated UTC To synchronize the computer clock we have installed Dimension 4 a freeware program developed by Rob Chambers at Thinking Man Software Using Dimension 4 the clock is synchronized every 15 minutes to a public time server at Research Triangle Park North Carolina 192 101 21 1 ncnoc ncren net Dimension 4 2004 Rob Chambers Thinking Man Software http www thinkman com dimension4 80 To reduce the amount of processing the computer must do the X10 Control Modules Boltwood Cloud Sensor and SBIG AllSkyCam each discussed in 9 are not controlled by the TCS computer Only the essential equipment the telescope dome camera filter wheel and focuser are controlled using the TCS computer Fic 39 Fic 39 The TCS computer inside of DSO 14 s control room Author 81 7 2 Tom s Corner For several sections we reference and highly recommend that the Tom s Corner page on Software Bisque s website be used to set up the control software on the TCS computer Tom s
132. tware Bisque 173 The Optical Center i The Dome _ Fic 84 The AutomaDome geometry terms superimposed on top of a Paramount ME Author Roll Axis Elevation For an equatorial mount that is in RA and Dec mode as opposed to Alt Az mode this is just the site s latitude in radians instead of degrees It is very important there be four significant figures after the decimal Dome Radius The radius of the dome Offset of Mount from Dome The position at the center of the dome is called The Dome The point on the RA counterweight bar that meets the axis of rotation that the bar moves around is called The Mount Xm The distance from The Mount to the N S centerline of The Dome Ym The distance from The Mount to the E W centerline of The Dome Zm The distance The Mount is above or below the base line of the dome 174 e Offset of Telescope from Mount The Optical Center is the point where the line that runs through the RA counterweight bar meets the optical axis the line that runs through the center of the corrector plate on the OTA down to the instruments e Xt The distance from The Optical Center to the N S centerline of The Mount e Yt The distance from The Optical Center to the E W centerline of The Mount This is not shown in the diagrams and is normally zero for typical setups e The Offset of the Optical Axis from
133. ur website we need to write a script to take kernel compress and convert the image to JPEG in order to make it usable for animations or websites Lastly this model of SBIG s AllSky Meteor Camera the second version by SBIG is now discontinued due to a manufacturer stopping production of the lens used in the camera The new model camera one of which we hope to install at RSO has many i Santa Barbara Instrument Group 147 A Castilian Drive Santa Barbara CA 93117 http www sbig com Mi hitp www sbig com products allsky htm 133 improved features including a fisheye lens optional color CCD and the ability to automatically save the images as an AVI video file for distribution on the internet Fic 76 Fic 76 An image taken by SBIG s AllSky MeteorCam The image has had a 2x2 kernel filter to get rid of the dark noise The date and label in the bottom right corner were added later with a different program Author 134 9 7 Remote Desktop and RealVNC Access Each of the previously discussed programs is run on their own individual computer separate from the TCS computer Because all the computers are linked to the internet we can easily access them and use them as though we were physically in the control room with them We make use of this through Window s Remote Desktop and VNC Remote Desktop is what the Skynet administrators typically use to access DSO 14 s computers With it we can open TheSky6 and MaxIm DL
134. vation time the total light curve can be obtained In coordination with spectroscopic telescopes to obtain radial velocity curves solving the physical parameters of 33 the binary system gets easier Orbital mechanics and relativity can cause the period to change over time and in addition to old or inaccurate times of minimum previously published by astronomers the eclipse can get lost Re finding the period of a system can be difficult without a telescope that guarantees continual monitoring of the system Appalachian State University has a history of publishing the times of minimum light of neglected binary star systems Smith amp Caton 2007 Caton amp Smith 2005a and also occasionally publishing period corrections Caton amp Smith 2005b In addition to monitoring old systems we have also found previously undiscovered binary star systems which we continue to monitor and use software programs to develop physical models 34 3 2 3 Exoplanets in Binary Star Systems As discovering exoplanets has become more common place in astronomy today only a very few exoplanets have been found in binary star systems Two different orbital models show planet formation in binaries to be possible The first model is the P type model Dvorak 1986 which has the planet orbiting around the outside of both stars The second the S type model Holman amp Wiegert 1999 has a planet orbiting one star as they both orbit around another star They
135. ver again The LSST will create 30 terabytes of data per night over 10 years that can be combed through for any number of different projects Borne et al 2008 Currently there are other smaller surveys going on such as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey SDSS that have similar goals but even more similar problems with data reduction Shamir amp Nemiroff 2008 Human identifications of astronomical objects through thousands of images a night is practically impossible Computer algorithms are being put to work in RT networks to process the images taken These algorithms act as data reduction pipelines that automatically reduce the images almost immediately after they are taken and before they are available to the user However even though every astronomer knows that data reduction is necessary almost every astronomer has their own individual method for image reduction Hege et al 2003 There is no standard software or method for data reduction and this leads to complications for users of various RT networks Because of this even though it is not an efficient use of data and is almost contradictory to the nature of a robotic telescope it is 23 essential that RTs take the required dark frames and flat fields again explained in 6 1 for image error reductions and make them available to users who prefer to have the raw images and process the data themselves 24 2 8 Observational Projects Suited for RTs Networks of RTs allow for nove
136. weather or equipment it could be possible to monitor the system for as long as a couple of days Not only would this cut down on the number of nights a system would need to be observed it would efficiently make use of the time available on the telescope Our Sun goes through an 11 year solar cycle which at the peak has increased solar activity of sunspots and massive solar flares Observations made in May 2006 using DSO 32 showed an increase in the rate of observed stellar flares Nelson amp Caton 2007 giving evidence that the eclipsing binary star system CM Dra might also go through a solar cycle Fic 13 However more continuous observations are needed to confirm this therefore DSO 14 is currently using much of its available idle time to continuously monitor the star CM Dra for stellar flares These observations actually started as a search for transits of 40 exoplanets in the CM Dra system as reported by the TEP group Schneider amp Doyle 1995 Deeg et al 1998 CM Dra Flares by Year 2 Z FJ o gt 2 B 6 K e e B B N N 2 D gt 2 3 Z B B B 2 B b 4 gt R R RJ RJ R RJ R R f f 5 0 LII I I 2 i j J I Jj J J I lt a _ b Bi I I Laua S l 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 FIG 13 Chart showing the number of observed CM Dra flares per year T Nelson 41 4 MOUNT AND TELESCOPE HARDWARE 4 1 Software Bisque s Paramount ME The Paramount

Thesis - Dan Caton - Appalachian State University

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