Argos Users` Manual - Astronomy Program
Contents
1. 12 5 The starfield shows intermittant horizontal lines that look similar to electri cal interference It is interference and it comes from the refridgeration circuitry When the vacuum infront of the chip gets to low the cooling system must work overtime to keep the chip cool and the extra energy consumer affects the readout circuitry Ask Dave Doss to have the camera repumped 12 6 q11 updates intermittantly Only part of the image updates in q11 I have this weird dark region across one side of the chip My lightcurve shows stretches where the flux from my stars is exactly the same from one frame to the next This is an intermittant problem which is serious i e your data will be useless if you don t fix it but thankfully seems easy to fix It seems to be caused by the latest image from the camera not overwriting the previous one in memory on opus I don t know if the problem lies with the camera card or the Quilt software To fix it reboot opus while leaving the camera switched on This seems to fix the problem 12 7 hoth hangs when I shut it down You forgot to shut opus down first If you must reboot hoth for some reason unmount datal by typeing as root umount mnt opus For now use the reset button at the front of the computer 10 Opinions differ as to whether q12 should be left running during the day Terminating the program prevents crashes but also sends a command to the camera to turn off the thermoelectric cooler If2. 7 Turn on the tracking 7 Observing This section details the procedure for setting up on the first object of your run Although the process is similar for every other object you will observe there are many steps that you don t need to take every time 7 1 Zeroing the telescope This section is optional and usually unecessary If you experience persistent difficulty pointing the telescope to the correct position try this step 1 Log into nereid and load the cosmo program by typing cosmo prime 2 Find a bright object 6 mag or brighter which is easy to recognise A copy of the bright star catalogue is available in the control room Find the flexed coords of the star using the p command on nereid p hh mm ss dd mm ss Move the telescope to the flexed position Using the hand paddle move the telescope so the bright star is in the centre of the frame DO a A WwW On nereid type p z and then p 1 Repeat a couple of times because sometimes it doesn t catch X 7 2 1 7 3 Pointing Get the coordinates of your first object if it s a common object you may be able to get it s coordinates from the finderchart stored at hothm ccd findercharts Precess the coords using neried s p command usage p hrs mins secs degress mins sec e g p 22 14 05 00 25 01 The coordinates to point the telescope at are the flexed coordinates Also note down the track deviations Take care when moving the telescope not t
3. if your run follows a previous observer use feb05b VI 5 4 2 Setting up hoth 1 hoth should have been left on since the last run if not turn it on 2 Whenever hoth is turned off you need to manually remount the opus disk Log in as root and type mount opusm datal mnt opus Confirm that the mount was successful with df h Exit root immediately 3 Now that opus is mounted on hoth make sure you shutdown hoth before shutting down opus 4 The morning after program is responsible for checking the accuracy of the log and the timings of the previous night s data as well as extracting light curves and backing up the data to the remote machine First it needs to be told where to find the data cd bin mornafter vi mornafter pl Change the variable datadir mnt opus feb05 Change the backup directory to backup rocky as utexas edu smaug feb05 and edit the array of users who will receive an email for the minion every morning summarising the night s observing Remember to preceed every sign with a eg dew rocky fergall Qastro 5 Log onto rocky as ccd and create the directory smaug feb05 again replacing feb05 with the month of your run 5 4 3 Setting up luke Luke is much easier to set up Plug it in and turn it on you did unplug it before attaching the cable to the dome camera right Log in to luke as ccd with the usual password and type in the following two commands l
4. isn t turned on or properly connected Bring the telescope down to service position and check that the EL box is turned on If it is turn it off and check that all cables are correctly and securely attached Turn on the EL Box and try again XVIII 12 2 q12 hangs doesn t work This most often happens sometime during the day for reasons that are buried deep in the code and Ed doesn t care to find the solution First try to close the commands window by clicking on the x at top right Then type ps u ccd Note the PIDs 1st column of and programs called q11 runmode ds9A xpans setmode camstat Kill each and all of these tasks using kill KILL PID Be sure to kill every instance as the problem is often a halted program lurking in memory Restart q12 normally 12 3 q12 starts and quits immediately This could be any number of things Check to see that you have enough disk space left where you re putting your data After that ring for help 12 4 Image in q12 doesn t update If q12 is working normally except that the image isn t updating the problem is somewhere in the timing circuitry Most likely the timing card has come loose from opus It fits into LPT1 and has two co ax cables coming out the back one to the GPS box and the other to EL Box If this isn t the problem check that the co ax cable is plugged into the EXT SYNC socket on the EL box Else look for a loose connection somewhere else along the line See also 12 6
5. you need red box of screws Allen keys etc should be in the locker The combination is Right 16 Left 22 Right 16 7 It s a tricky lock so it might take you a few attempts to get it open 5 1 1 Cleaning CCD window Visually check the ccd window to make sure it is clean If you see any smudges dirt or dust you need to clean it di Unscrew the dome camera and its mount from the ccd camera case This hasn t been confirmed yet IV Replace the camera plate The number 1 Unscrew the camera from the camera plate Unscrew the top of the camera case Remember the orientation of the top wrt the rest of the case Wipe the window clean with a lint free tissue Replace the top of the case in the same orientation as you found it y etched on the camera plate should be to the upper right and on the camera case the arrow should be pointing up Replace dome camera with the lens pointing in the opposite direction as the ccd camera Attaching things The camera plate is attached to the Argos mount with two fixing pins and 4 captive screws First slide the camera plate with camera already attached onto the fixing pins Take care not to do this at an angle as it tends to get stuck You may need to wiggle it into position so the camera plate is sitting flat on the mount Once in position tighten the captive screws The Electronics box is screwed into a support strut projecting from the left side o
6. 666 rocky argosdata obsrun feb05 Then for each run on rocky create a quick look image of the data using wqanal run f A cron job will automatically find this image and post it on the archive s webpage 9 4 Burning DVDs Needs to be updated Periodically through the run you should compress your data and create CD images This proceedure has been somewhat simplified but is still pretty tedious 1 Create the images On opus scrubber pl data1 feb05 rh72 argos2 This compresses the data and groups successive runs into directories off 680Mb or less small enough to fit on a single CD It then creates CD images files that are burnt directly to CD and stores them at rh72 argos2 2 This program still has a couple of bugs in it so check that the images sizes are the correct size before burning cd rh72 argos2 du hs img 3 Log in as root su 4 Insert a CD into the drive 5 cdrecord v dev 0 0 0 speed 8 cdimagel img 6 eject the CD and reinsert Quickly scan through the contents of the CD to see if it is readable 7 On the CD write the month of observation e g Feb05 the runs stored on this CD and the number in the series e g CD 1 8 Repeat for each image you have 9 Caution Do not run scrubber at the same time that minion is running If you want to run both of them while you are asleep use sleep 5h scrubber pl datal feb05 rh72 argos2 XVII 9 5 Backing up Calibrations The calibration files are wrongly ig
7. Argos Users Manual Fergal Mullally fergal astro as utexas edu 3 Oct 2008 Version 0 60 Contents 1 What s new TIT Tei Version 0 62 aa a a td o E ok ee A Ola A A aloe SG III 2 Conventions Ill Dell BONUS tel A Boa Se BO ete a a Bie ec Boe Bs ds A III 22S COMmputers yeu a a pk a le eo ep ee a Ge Ble HS Ul 2 3 POSitions E od es Bo Re tee ie es ele e ee RR Sd Ill 3 Cautions IV 4 Packing up in Austin IV 5 Setting up on the first afternoon IV Bale Finding things sra a qe gh ole Seed Ree a A eel dot dae a IV 5 11 Cleaning CCD windows 256003 AA Rape piel Fee eS amp IV Bs Attaching Giese do sakes ah yea A hes ene Ce Ada Se eh oh coe V 5 3 Turning on Dry Nitrogen ee VI pA Setting up the Computers 4 sex eck Boek eee ES A a eS VI DAI Setting up Opus a s a sor e Bo en BS ee ee ao VI 5 4 2 Setting up hoth a panas gs oe eee A oe ge age a ES VII DAs Setting Up UKE seit mi eel a he DG Pb ae eee oe Sh VII DAA Setting up nereid ep serea YP Pe ee eee Se Es Se AS VII 04 9 SEttINE Up TOCKY ve pai po gp be cg Ly Bag Se AO de dete el eA a VIII 6 Start of night VIII 61 gt Using Quilt 12 a eo a dee a ee ae a ee A ae aia VIII 6 2 Talanerblases 05 Mf ae OE LA Bal oe A ee eS a N VIII 6 3 Waking darks uta gop piped ode Bria ew Se ee ee AAA e BE o VIII 64 Dakine flats ire ted o e Bee A a a a A eee eG ES Se Ee IX 6 01 Opening dome aia Ben A AA AAA A A el eke y X This document is and forever sh
8. IX 12 7 hoth hangs when I shut it down e XIX 12 8 The on line reductions aren t working 00000 pe eee eee XX 12 9 A dark patch appears in the centre of the starfield XX 12 10 There s 9 storii Comin 4 ty A a BO ee gi SE TEN XX 12 11 The dome camera won t Start XX 12 12 The Dome camera loads but only shows a blank image XX 12 13The Dome is stuck and won t move a e a XX 12 14 The focus button won t work a a XX 12 15When all else fails e XXI 12 16 Calling for Belpop irinse g ee he Re EE ek Eek PR BR RSLS EAE tn ey XXI II 1 What s new 1 1 Version 0 6 A lot has changed since the last version of this manual 1 The morning after program has been improved Temporary files are now written to a scratch directory which should reduce the chances of running out of disk space in mid reduction This is the most common reason the script failed 2 The data reduction program lqed has been replaced by the newer better and bug freer Wqed See 9 2 3 The blind monkey program has changed again The script is now located in splot and called as bmr path to run The intermediary files created now correspond to the Wqed format 4 The data acquisition software Quilt has updated to version 12 5 Instructions on how to properly archive your reductions have been added 2 Conventions 2 1 Fonts 1 Names of computers and prog
9. a different exposure time repeat procedure for each non standard exposure time 6 4 Taking flats Turn on the flat field lamp 1 Turn the dial on the flat field lamp all the way to the left off position 2 Switch on the lamp using the left switch flip up 3 Slowly turn the dial clockwise until the voltage reads about 40V Move the telescope into position 1 Open the mirror cover and insert the filter slide 2 Exercise great care when moving the telescope close to the horizon more than 3 hours under in HA 3 Bring the telescope to Dec 15 HA 4hr10 and rotate the dome so the telescope is pointed at the white square You are garaunteed to never crash the telescope if you move in the following order Move telescope to HA 0 Move Dec to 15 rotate dome move telescope to HA 4hr10 4 Turn off all lights in the dome besides the flat field lamp Check that the average number of counts per pixel in a 10 second exposure is between 20 000 30 000 if not change the voltage on the lamp Record 30 flat frames pt 1 Set the run name to fddmmm10 eg if today is the 30 February the run names is f30feb10 2 Set object to flat 3 Set the exposure time to 10 4 Take 30 frames SIf the telescope is stowed the quickest way to insert the filter slide is to bring the telescope to Dec 4 HA 0 climb up the walkway lean out and push the filter in Alternatively bring the telescope to the service position Note Inserti
10. ade Err on the side of writing too much this is the only source of information future users of the data will have If you need convincing of this take a look at the log for A0981 in jan05 The log excitedly mentions an eclipse that the observer could remember nothing about the day following the end of the run We ll never know what happened Some more explanation of what the object was and why it was being observed would have really helped Perform a timecheck at the start of every run and every 3 to 4 hours afterward Watch the weather On hoth the command wx and wx_gui bring up command line and graphical weather displays respectively Links to satellite maps radar etc are available off Fergal s homepage rocky as utexas edu fergal netsoc html click on More Astronomy but there s no substitute for going outside and looking Do what it takes to stay awake XIII 7 6 1 2 9 Changing targets Choose a new target and find its precessed position before stopping the current run Stop the data acqusition by clicking stop in the q12 window Enter the time of the end of the run in the log and the number of frames observed It is also often useful to mention why you stopped observing this is often a mystery to others analysing your data Stop IRAF s lightcurve extraction hsp_o by hitting Ctrl C in the appropriate window Repeat the above steps starting with pointing the telescope End of nigh
11. all be an early draft 7 Observing X 7 1 Zeroing the telescope a X Ted NA A ath BN Te A eA ae Me A E XI 7 3 Starting the observation ee a XI TA On line analysis accuse ee Peasy ee el oe ee BO a OR ee ee XII o While takine data uri ae Bac bie nes a a RE a XII O Changing targets a a 28 beter ke hes AR cea XIV 8 End of night XIV 9 Next day XIV JT The Minion es i sie A A ae ed eee A Aw he es XV 9 2 Reducing data sea 2404 ae edb ae eae a eG Se ee he aa XV 9 2 1 Don t use the Quilt reductions o oo a ee XVI 9 3 Archiving your Reductions 2 0 a XVII 9 4 Burning DVDs ote ee pet Ee oP A O es cD XVII 9 5 Backing up Calibrations 2405 15 4 40 fy Ao ee ee a es XVIII 0 6 The final EDS es se ae noe Bo het Ded a Pee GE Be Ha Re oe uha A XVIII 10 Closing conditions XVIII 11 End of Run XVIII 12 Trouble shooting XVIII 12 1 GA won DEA 204 28 gaani E a ek Bee ee ee A a Aaa XVIII 122 412 hanes y doesn Work xicas kaaos Ge as a ee ds XIX 12 3 q12 starts and quits immediately 2 0 20 20 e XIX 12 4 Image in q12 doesn t update XIX 12 5 The starfield shows intermittant horizontal lines that look similar to electrical interferenceXIX 12 6 q11 updates intermittantly Only part of the image updates in q11 I have this weird dark region across one side of the chip My lightcurve shows stretches where the flux from my stars is exactly the same from one frame to the Next cosa be wee ca Re ee we eR Ee a X
12. e file will be created in which you should note what the error was why it was made e g typographical error same object name as the previous run etc and what change was made Remember that any files changed must be copied up to the backup machine If the error is in the fits headers backup the entire directory again 9 2 Reducing data With such large quantity of data being collected on a clear night it is impossible for the human eye to examine everything This unfortunately means that some interesting or important events will be missed but has the advantage that all data is reduced in a consistent manner warts and all The tedious tasks of flatfielding and performing appeture photometry on each image have been almost entirely automated if you never do anything unexpected you will never have to worry about these steps however there are still a number of steps in the pipeline for which the human eye is required Argos uses IRAF s ccd_hsp package to produce lightcurves using a technique known as appeture photometry The output of ccd_hsp has to be massaged slightly before being reduced The following proceedure is performed on hoth 1 Change to the directory containing your data 2 If ccd_hsp was successful you should see a number of files names a0666pr8 or some variant of a0666 stands for the run name while 8 refers to the size of the aperture used in reduction Appetures will range in size from 6 to 18 3 First copy all
13. f the top of the telscope It is held in by 10 screws If you look at the support strut you will see many more than 10 screw holes Attach the box so it is as far away from the primary mirror as possible The on switch should face the primary mirror the cable sockets should face the sky Argos uses a Schott BG40 blue pass filter to help reduce noise from scattered light This is placed on the filter slide which slides into the mount There is a small piece which must be unscrewed first to allow the filter slide in and to stop the filter falling out during the night Take care to touch the filter as little as possible and then only on the sides There are two positions on the filter slide Ensure that you put the filter in the position so that when the slide is pushed fully in the filter is in the light path and the slide pulled out the filter is out of the light path slide in filter in slide out filter out The power and signal cables should be coiled up on the dome floor on the west side Pass these over the platform railing over the strut joining the telecope to the dec wheel that is closest to the primary mirror and up the tube of the telescope The top half of the telescope consists of heavy and light struts Go over the light struts and under the heavy ones Connect the high speed data cable to the 15 pin slot and the co ax cable to the EXT SYNC connection second from left of the four co ax connections Plug in the power cab
14. ficient a Start wqed by typing wqed a0666 wq A window should pop up showing you your lightcurve The white dots are the target star the red dots are your first reference star b Select the target star by typing 1 Remove obviously bad points by typing G for garbage and selecting the region to delete c Type 2 and repeat the process for the reference star Unhappy with your choice Hit CTRL U to undo d Select the target again and hit You can divide the target lightcurve by one or more reference stars by selecting the appropriate numbers Fit a second order polynomial to the divided lightcurve by typing F then 2 Save your reduction by typing SHIFT W then E g Type Q at any time to quit h PR A To create an FT of your output try fitle fitlc a0666 1c1 or wqplot wqplot a0666 1c1 Type to see a list of available commands or consult the manual 9 2 1 Don t use the Quilt reductions Reducing data is complicated and the observer may be tempted to use the extracted lightcurve created by Quilt instead This is strongly discouraged Currently there are two known flaws with the Quilt reduction Firstly the flat field algorithm is incorrectly implemented and makes no use of bias or dark frames Secondly Quilt uses a variable aperture photometry routine but does not perform an aperture correction In conditions of variable seeing so common at McDonald that it is frequently
15. files needed for reduction to a subdirectory red using the command mvlc a0666 where a0666 is the run name note lowercase 4 cd red The minon is a strict grammarian and will complain that 03 04 05 is different from 3 04 05 or 03 04 05 It is up to the observer to decide whether these differences are important enough to be changed XV 5 From each aperture file extract out the photometry for the target star extractCh a0666 The resultant file is called a0666 app 6 The optimal aperture size depends on the seeing during the run and the magnitude of the star There is no algoritm in the world which can choose the appeture yielding the lowest scatter as quickly and easily as the human eye Plotlcs converts the lightcurves to mean zero and plots them 3 to a page allowing you to choose which appeture produces the lowest scatter If you can t decide which of two or three lightcurves is the best don t worry if you can t see much difference there isn t much difference plotlcs a0666 app Each aperture is listed in order Enter cycles through the different aperture sizes Use z and Z to zoom in on the graphs 7 Create a Wqed file from this extraction lc2wqed A0666 0001 fits a0666pr12 if 12 is the best aperture This creates a file called a0666 wq 8 Your data is now ready for the Wqed data reduction program Wqed comes with a detailed manual that should be available on hoth but the following quick tutorial should be suf
16. ful to us because the bias level on Argos fluctuates significantly over the course of the night but we take them for posterity s sake 1 Start q12 if it s not already running 2 Set the run name to bddmmm eg if today is the 30 February the run name is b30feb Because biases are zero second exposures we don t specify an exposure time 3 Set object to bias 4 Ignore the exposure time q12 will recognise that these exposures are zero seconds 5 Take 30 frames by typing by right clicking on the go button and typing 30 into the pop up window 6 3 Taking darks Take a set of dark frames at the exposure length of your flat field frames usually 10 seconds and a set of dark frames at each exposure time used for your science frames during the night For consistency s sake take a set of dark frames at 5 10 and 15 seconds every night regardless of whether you take any science frames at those exposures A set of frames consists of 30 exposures VIII 1 Although this should be true from the night before make sure that the filter slide is pushed all the way in such that the opaque circle is blocking light from the CCD 2 Set the run name to dddmmmb eg if today is the 30 February the run name is d30feb5 3 Set object to dark 4 Set the exposure time to 5 5 Take 30 frames 6 Repeat procedure for 10 second darks d30feb10 7 Repeat for 15 second darks d30feb15 8 If you expect to take observations at
17. he night a computer program will check these values against the headers of the fits files saved by the computer and complain if they don t agree It is not a major problem if the format of these fields is wrong but it is a major source of confusion if the infomation does not agree with the fits headers Perform a timecheck by comparing the time displayed by opus with the observatory GPS clock Note when you perfomed a timecheck by entering Timecheck time OK into the log XI 11 7 4 Mention why you are observing this object if you expect to see anything unusual e g an eclipse or if this is a candidate pulsator and any other information that may help a future astronomer understand why you were using your time the way you did At the end of the run mention why you are stopping object too low more interesting object rising have enough data for what you need etc This simple step is invaluable for people browsing the Argos archive at a later date On line analysis Q12 performs aperture photometry on the target star that is acceptable in moderate to good observing conditions Historically however this was not the case and a large collection of scripts built up over the years on hoth to perform this function You are strongly encouraged to use these scripts because a they are of better quality than those produced by Quilt see 9 2 1 and b the proper calibrated reductions assume that they will be run Unfortunately the
18. if you choose more than 8 stars To change a field in an epar window use the up down arrows to select the field and type IRAF automatically overwrites the old value If you make a mistake hit ENTER and start again IRAF has no delete key in these windows XII 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 In ds9 type wq to quit xgterm ENTER wq xgterm yes if you are happy xgterm epar hsp_ol xgterm Change fname to A0666 0001 and set the integration time deltat 10 The rest of the parameters are unimportant xgterm Type go to start the extraction xgterm Kill the qview window that pops up Open a new xterm window and cd ccd splot Type bmr path where path is the path of your data mnt opus dec04 A0666 A pgplot window should pop up showing the beginnings of your light curve While taking data Keep an eye on the dome to make sure it isn t occulting the data Watch the seeing and if it degrades significantly try to improve the focus This will often be unsuccessful because the problem is usually bad weather Q12 attempts to untangle poor seeing from poor focus with the Focus Index indicator but don t rely overly on this estimate Keep close watch on disk space on opus datal Try to keep at least 10 free at all times Note any interesting unusual or significant details in the log file Prepend each note in the log with the number of the frame in which the log entry was m
19. istance calls you should not make long distance calls directly Instead use the phone card Dial 8 640 089 wait for the tone then dial the number you want area code number If you are not at McDonald dial 1800 252 9682 640 089 37 number Useful numbers include Fergal 512 554 3906 Cell Don 512 471 6417 Chairman s Office 512 310 5758 Home 512 461 9859 Cell Ed Nather 512 345 5108 Home XXI
20. le Secure loose cables with cable ties where necessary Attach the grey camera cable to the CCD camera and the EL box Clean up any loose tools and stow the ladder Make sure the dome will not crash into anything when it rotates 5 3 Turning on Dry Nitrogen Argos uses a dry nitrogen feed to prevent condensation forming on the chip even in conditions of high humidity The air supply should be turned on at the start of the run and left on until the run is over If the nitrogen isn t used for Argos it will be vented into the atmosphere anyway The valve is located on the west wall of the dome Turn the knob until the small ball rises to the number 1 position 5 4 Setting up the computers 5 4 1 Setting up opus Data is taken on opus With so much data it needs to be organised in a simple way Every observing run is named after the month and year it started So an observing run which started on the 28 February 2005 would be called feb05 lowercase If two observing runs start in the same month a blue month the first run is called feb05a and the second is feb05b It is the observer s job to create these directories on opus but the Quilt program will create the directories for the individual visits to each object 1 opus should have been left on since the last run If it wasn t turn it on 2 If you have just turned on the machine long in as ccd Open an xterm and su to root Type exportfs etc init d nfs start Log ro
21. ng the filter slide amounts to pulling the bar all of the way out The blue filter circle chould be over the CCD IX It is generally not a good idea to turn on the dome floodlights while preparing to take flats On some CCDs and likely for Argos this can cause hystereses where the recorded counts are unnaturally high for some time after being exposed to bright light Although not certain the bias flucuations during the night also appear correlated with previous exposure to bright light When finished turn off the flat field lamp 1 Turn the voltage slowly down to zero volts 2 Flick the power switch to off 6 5 Opening dome 1 The dome should be opened as soon as possible after sunset 2 Open the dome slit and raise the upper wind curtain fully Start opening the dome slit and if you don t hear anything falling after about 5 10 seconds start raising the wind curtain 3 The dome slit leaks and if it has been raining since the telescope was last used a considerable amount of water will collect in the wind curtains If it has rained recently do not point the telescope straight up while raising the wind curtains 4 Open the dome doors to improve ventilation 5 If you have not already opened the mirror cover and inserted the filter when you were taking flats do so now 6 Point the telescope The best thing to do is to point the dome and telescope down wind I often just point in the general direction of my first object
22. nored by most of the automatic routines Periodicly back up the calibration frames to the remote server compress the image files and move the calibrations directories to a directory called calib 9 6 The final CDs scrubber never makes the final CD never knowing whether you are going to take just a small bit more data This must be done by hand 1 Ensure all your calibrations have been backed up compressed and moved to the directory calib Ensure all your other fits images are also compressed 2 Usethe du ms A0666 command to find the size of each directory and group them into directories of sequential runs of size less than 680Mb the directory calib is always last in the list 3 Create images mkisofs r o rh72 argos2 cdimage img data1 feb05 cdimage 4 Burn the CD as above 10 Closing conditions 11 End of Run e Put the telescope in stow position e Ensure that all your raw fits files including your calibration files have been backed up onto rocky e Ensure that all your data is burned to DVD including your last run and your calibration files e Ensure that your reduced data has been archived If you haven t finished reducing it all that s OK but get it done as soon as possible e Tidy up the control room for the next observer e Log out of all machines e Go home You ve been here long enough 12 Trouble shooting 12 1 q12 won t start The principle reason q12 doesn t start is because the camera
23. o collide either end of the telescope with any hard object Turn on the tracking This is done using the track82 program on prometheus prometheus has a console on the dome floor and another in the control When you ve pointed the telescope remember to set the tracking deviation rates Find your object and a good reference star on the q12 chip image Try to keep stars you intend to take data of away from the edges of the chip and the bad columns at the top Starting the observation All of this section is performed on opus 1 2 3 10 Set the run name by clicking Next Set the object name Set the exposure time Mark stars using mark When finished hit ENTER Start using go This will take images until the disk gets full The command stop stops the data collection and abort stops recording and deletes all data collected on this run so far Don t get stop and abort confused In a seperate xterm window on opus cd ccd log Start a new log entry by typing logentry run e g logentry A0666 If this is your first run of the night you will be prompted for nightly information sunrise moonset etc You can find most of this data using nereid s skycalc program When you have entered the nightly information type Ctrl X to enter the main log Fill in each of the fields in the main log The date field should be entered as 2004 12 31 yyyy mm dd and the time as hh mm ss At the end of t
24. oad idcam load will prompt you for ccd s password You only need to type load the first time you log in after booting idcam is the program which runs the camera and displays the images You might find it convenient to log into luke from hoth and execute these commands instead of displaying the image on luke s screen After starting idcam type Ctrl Z This saves a copy of the most recent image which is then uploaded to rocky for display on the internet If for some reason you think the view out your dome is an intensely private matter don t hit Ctrl Z 5 4 4 Setting up nereid How many computers does one observer need Nereid is the observatory computer and has a couple of tools that are useful and necessary When you first log in type gt cosmo prime This loads the pointing program You can find the time of sunrise and sunset using skycalc and load a dinky weather monitor called wx_gui 5It is possible to automount drives but this is not done for hoth The reason for this is that hoth is primarily a backup machine in case something happens to opus If opusm isn t working you are probably in a pretty serious situation and don t want the added trouble of hoth trying to mount a non existent machine immediately after adding new hardware VII 5 4 5 Setting up rocky Rocky is the data archive server back in Austin The log in is ccd with the usual password In the data directory smaug create a directory for this
25. observing run e g feb05 Do the same in the reductions directory argosdata obsrun 6 Start of night Try to get up to the dome after dinner at least 30 45 minutes before sunset If you haven t already done so turn on the dry nitrogen 5 3 Quickly check that opus appears to be working well then start taking calibations Calibration frames are taken every night that data is taken and some cloudy nights too and are named according to the formula tddmmmn where t is the type of calibration file b bias d dark f flat dd is the day of the month mmm is the name of the month and n is the exposure time For example d11dec15 note lowercase are dark frames taken on the 11 December that have 15 second integration times The date you want to use is the UT date of observations UT is the same as civil date before about 6pm and one day ahead after that time 6 1 Using Quilt 12 Q12 can be started either by clicking on the two eyes icon on the task bar on opus or executing the command q12 05 q12 A total of 6 windows will pop up The main one is called Quilt 12 Enter run details in the left panel and review instrument status on the right panel Caution Details entered in the text boxes are not processed until you click on one of the other text boxes 6 2 Taking biases Bias frames are zero second exposures that measure the dc offset of the voltages been read out from the chip These frames aren t particularly use
26. on line analysis currently involves using IRAF All the following steps are performed on hoth You should do an on line analysis even if you don t think you want to see the data as the next day analysis requires one of the files you will produce here in order to complete its task Open an xterm and type the following commands 1 2 10 11 12 13 In the epar window set fname to A0666 0001 fits A0666 being replaced with your run name xterm ds9 amp xterm cd ccd hsp ccd_hsp xterm xgterm amp Commands to be entered in this window are prefixed by xgterm xgterm cl xgterm ccd_hsp xgterm cd path i e mnt opus dec04 A0666 A0666 being replaced by your run name xgterm epar mark 7 xgterm go Highlight the ds9 window and type w careful if you have already done this once it will prompt you for a change Making sure the ds9 window stays highlighted move your mouse over the target star and type r IRAF has a tendancy to annoyingly highlight other windows for you instead Move to the brightest reference star and type r again Repeat for other reference stars on the image Err on the side of having too many reference stars instead of too little You can always disregard them later on Avoid using as comparison stars those with peak counts above 40 000 the start of the non linear regieme but otherwise preferentially choose brighter stars IRAF does have a tendancy to crash
27. ot out 3 cd datal mkdir feb05 4 Check that there is enough space 40 on datal If there isn t delete the oldest run present Before you do check that the data is both backed up to rocky s raid array and burnt to CD If not you can temporarily move the data to opusm rh72 argos2 but remember to backup that data before the end of the run 5 cd log Edit the perl script logentry Look for first line where the variable homedir is declared and change that to the path of the data datal feb05 6 In the same directory edit the file template log changing the month of the run to February 2005 and the list of observers For more information on the logentry program consult the readme file 7 Start q12 cd q12 05 q12 Wait until an image pops up in the ds9 window and wait again until you can clearly see the image updating If this doesn t happen consult the troubleshooting section of this document 8 Change q12 s path to where you want the data stored In the setmode window typed datal feb05 amp 3The list of allowed NFS clients is stored in etc exportfs The Argos convention is to save all your data in a single directory named after the month and year in which your run started So for a run that stars on the 30 February 2005 the directory name is feb05 If your observing run straddles two months keep all the data in the same directory If this is the second observing run to start in the same month e g
28. rams are written computer 2 Commands to be typed in on computer are written in typewriter font 2 2 Computers Opus Data acquisition computer attached to camera and GPS box Usually has the hostname opusm Hoth Data analysis computer and web browser Hostname usually hothm Luke Dome camera controlling computer Hostname usually lukem Nereid Observatory Sun stores night report software precession calculator etc 2 3 Positions Service HA 0 and Dec as far north as you can go so the telescope is lying horizontal and prime focus can be accessed from the service position Shortly before the telescope reaches service an alarm will sound and the slew motor will cut out Push the small black button on the bottom right of the console to acknowledge the alarm and proceed carefully Stow HA 0 Dec 20 where the telescope is parked at the end of the night Zenith HA 0 Dec 30 pointing straight up Flat field HA 4hr 10 Dec 15 When pointing at the flat field postion point the dome north so the white square is in front of the telescope 1This convention is ignored regularly throughout this document HI 3 1 N 4 5 5 1 Cautions Always power off the camera using the switch at the electronics box This is the only safe way to power down If power to the camera is interrupted in any other way unplugging the electronics box removing the camera cable etc the camera may be destroyed Always power do
29. referred to as McDonald o metric seeing the measured flux varies by different amounts for stars of different brightnesses This introduces an artifical signal into your data Who knows why XVI 9 3 Archiving your Reductions It is possible that your data will be useful for something It is also possible that your data will be useful for another unintended reason For this reason it is important that there be an archive of observations that future researchers can refer to If you ran the morning after script your raw data will be copied to an archive disk in Austin However given the work involved in reducing raw data it makes sense to archive the finished results as well Archiving your data is mandatory if you are part of the white dwarf group in Texas but it is encouraged for other WD observers as well If you used the morning after program you must archive your reductions as well The reduction archive is stored on rocky as utexas edu ccd argosdata obsrun Login as user ccd and create a new directory there for your observing run using the same naming system described in 8 5 4 1 Create a sub directory for every run and upload the following files from each run wq lc log Don t upload any fits files they are already backed up The prep command on hothm simplifies the uploading process cd mnt opus feb05 prep This will create directories containing the files you need to archive Upload these to rocky using scp scp rC a0
30. t You should stop taking data when the divided light curve in your on line reductions shows a noticeable loss of quality By this point you have gone safely beyond the point of taking usuable data Sometime before this happens fill out the Night Report on nereid type xreport amp This is required of observers every night whether you take data or not and the mountain staff get quite prickly if you forget to fill it in Fill it in even if you spent the entire night down in TQ drinking beer Don t mention that you were drinking beer Just say it was cloudy or something Stop your run as described above in 7 6 Stop the telescope from tracking Close the dome doors close the slit lower the upper wind curtain to protect the telescope from rain close the mirror cover and move the filter slide so the dark slide blocks the light path filter out position Put the telescope in the stow position Dec 15 HA 0 and point the dome east Power off the telescope console Start the data analyis and back up on hoth by going to the directory hoth bin mornafter and typing mornafter pl 30feb or whatever date you used to name your calibrations For ex ample for data taken on UT 30th February you will have flat frames called f80feb10 so type mornafter pl 30feb This command will compare your log to the fits files check for timing errors flat field and extract your data produce lightcurves and back up the data to rock
31. the signal takes a while to stabalise after being turned on degrading your data quality If the power does go out when the camera is on try if possible to turn the camera off If the telescope is stowed very likely this is impossible and all you can do is reduce the load on the UPS battery by turning off everything else attached to the UPS hoth opus luke and anything else that is plugged in such as your laptop 12 11 The dome camera won t start Did you type idload before trying to run the program If yes check your connections 12 12 The Dome camera loads but only shows a blank image Check that you ve taken the lens cap off sounds dumb but it s happened 12 13 The Dome is stuck and won t move Yeah it ll do that Try pushing it the other way and see if you can t push it out of that rut Sometimes rocking helps 12 14 The focus button won t work Most likely the focus speed a dial on the control panel in the dome is set to zero The focus does stick sometimes especially North South Try setting the focus speed to maximum and jiggling the focus one way then the other XX 12 15 When all else fails If nothing seems to fixing your problem try the Microsoft Certified Software Engineer solution Quit qll and restart then reboot opus Then try cycling the power on the camera When you run out of ideas call for help 12 16 Calling for help Although the phone in the control room is not blocked from making long d
32. wn and unplug the computer Luke before removing the cable to the dome camera Failure to do this will destroy the dome camera Never move the dome when the telescope is in service position The camera can be sliced off the telescope Always make sure the interior catwalk the grey metal walkway all around the inside of the dome is clear of any obstructions The platform underneath the dome slit will eventually collide with any obstructions probably destroying whatever the obstruction was Exercise great care when moving the telescope close to the horizon more than 3 hours under in HA Always shut down hoth before shutting down opus Otherwise the NFS server will hang and hoth won t shutdown correctly Always close down in inclement conditions Closing conditions are posted in the control room and available on line In bad weather conditions check the weather report frequently Close if instructed or another observer closes for weather The damage to the telescope is not worth your extra 10 minutes of marginal data Thunderstorms are common at McDonald especially during the summer and frequently cause extended power failures If you expect a thunderstorm see the Troubleshooting section at the end of this manual Packing up in Austin Setting up on the first afternoon Finding things When you arrive you should find the CCD camera and electronics box sitting on a table in the control room Everything else
33. y for you If the program encounters difficulty finding calibrations files it will warn you and allow you to quit If you see no messages hit RETURN and go to bed See Mullally et al 2005 ApJ 625 966 for a full description of the data reduction process Next day The work never ends does it XIV 9 1 The Minion Mistakes are inevitable and cause untold confusion at a later date One way to reduce the confusion is to log everything unusual and some mundane explaining what you did and why Often the mistakes are typographical and the minion helps to spot these The minion compares the common entries between the log and the headers of the fits files and alerts you to any typographical differences Where the log and the fits headers are in disagreement the offending entries must be corrected the next day You should receive an email from the minion every morning after you run the morning after script If you don t see 5 4 2 e Errors in the log can be easily corrected However make copious notes in the log about what changes were made and why Errors in the fits headers i e the information entered in the setmode window of q12 are more difficult to fix On opus cd to the data directory and use the command afedit For example if you observed the star GD666 but mistakenly called it GD999 type afedit OBJECT GD666 The header will be changed for each fits file and copies of the original will be stored in a subdirectory A readm
34. you elect to terminate the program at the end of the night remember to start it about 30 minutes before taking your calibrations the next night to allow the camera to cool again XIX 12 8 The on line reductions aren t working Probably an IRAF problem Exit IRAF and carefully go through each and every step in Section 7 4 12 9 A dark patch appears in the centre of the starfield You are getting condensation on the chip i e a small droplet of water is forming on the ccd window Any data taken after this point is useless because condensation affects different parts of the chip differently Shut down the telescope and close the dome The condensation problem is alleviated by the introduction of the dry nitrogen tube and you shouldn t see condensation below a humidity of 95 in which case you should be already shut down If condensation is a problem at a lower humidity check that the nitrogen is flowing 12 10 There s a storm comin Thunderstorms are common at McDonald especially in summer and frequently cause extened power outages The UPS will supply power to the camera for a limited time but eventually the battery will drain effectively turning off the camera without using the switch The only remedy to this is to turn off the power using the switch on the electronics box when you are expecting a storm You have to guess the weather and sometimes you will get it wrong However don t turn off the camera unnecessarily as
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