CAMELOT: IAC80 TELESCOPE CCD User Manual
Contents
1. shutter and filter wheel is controlled by an application see figure 4 namely the control interface To open it just click on the CCD_JUNZ2009 icon Before starting two points should be checked The filter wheel is in position 1 and the light in the filter information panel current filter is green The Cooler is ON the light in the Status Panel is blue and the temperature is around 105 C The pressure is less than 0 02 torr Use the option EXIT to exit the interface otherwise some processes could remain active 7 23 amp 1 S Image SDK modificado 08 09 V3 v1 File Mamos Form Achar TINN ae i Nueve r Oe Acquisition Panel T vn kwo hio ro enon EES LIR EXIT Eo Pe ae aaa mee Acquisition time sec _ Acquire Image jours Taza 0 gn Z Ha alje 9 9 W Cursor zoom TE RNN Se SESS SS GS SESS ae ma Sa SSSR X SNNN SS seal Exposure time 0 zs EE as Sama Abort maw oe SS Rendoutg vw 700 SS m3 ct GC om comments SS ort Sess Object Comments Caer EE S I SS Ses TE L Lec Options Panel __ Status Panel __ S G TE SESS Read Out speed T Gain 1 25 e adu Cooler ON P 7 E 170 Sees 200 KHz 3 37 e mms windava 1803 Ss ee ong Seemann Rar 1 chanel me Seemann Binning Off 1405 Sines S CS R 3 SAS araen 1303 SS Se SS SA aasa LEE 2 e SNS a SS 110 5 Soe SSS Time remaining2. Figure 7 Filter wheel panel in the CAMELOT control interface It shows four steps in the changing filter process 5 6 Menus SI Image SDK VI File Macros Foca Advanced TTNN Figure 8 CAMELOT interface control menu There are five menus in the upper panel of the interface figure 8 The fields GPS and Cooling into the Advanced menu and the menu TTNN are only accessible for the staff The different options of the menu are summarized in table 2 10 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 a Se File Exit Exit the interface _ Open Open macro see section 5 6 2 New New macro see section 5 6 2 Foco Start Open focus task see section 5 6 3 Advanced GPS Only staff Cooling Only staff Window _ Window the CCD see section 5 6 4 Binning Binning the CCD see section 5 6 4 _ Change filter file Only staff Change noise file Table 2 Options of the CAMELOT interface menu We will explain these options in detail 5 6 1 File Exit Exit the interface 5 6 2 Macros Macros Open This option allows the observer to open pre existing macros created with the task Macros New or using a text editor from a file browser see figure 9 We recommend the observers to create a specific directory for their macros and only macros The selected macro is opened to be edited if needed see figure 10 select macro file to load 3 s Mis sitios de red Tipo Custom Patter ma
3. S E cla f 100 SSS 7 00000 k See SS Filter Wheel Panel Se We SSNS So mo SSE DN soss 9 l l urrent Filter M S aa E SS e E ean anos Sesame zs Se PE neea SS E s 202 SS SSS soss i PE N SSS S Taai d S Ga eE pas St an SSS a F 3035 L EA i 10 100 1000 wp as fw icon olaia Hatred 24 Huevo Gs s WAA Control Panel TIME LIMIT CONTROL AIR anan Information Pamel 0 a a ern liem zs STOP TELESCOPE NL 1BLES EGET cep Temperature 105 109C Pressure 0 00 torr Ce mas oaa Name ae OFF MAME UE ERATE Operation mode Normal 0 2147 0 2047 No Binning L 1 L a STATUS stopped NEW PCOS 00 00 00 00 AR 0 0 apr E 19570 00700 00 00 pec DO pect l ss f taan f 1 065 memory Woe 80 95 Sb free Figure 4 CAMELOT control Interface 5 2 Acquisition Panel Last image saved CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 Fiker Image Tyee Comers Sais I REPEAT oe From this panel see figure 5 the observer can select the exposure time and the image type OBJECT DARK FLAT BIAS or TEST If BIAS is selected a zero second exposure time image without opening the shutter is taken A DARK image neither opens the shutter but exposes the desired exposure time FLAT OBJECT and TEST ask for similar exposures but these different fields will be stored in the images headers TEST are temporal images because all the te
4. filter Operation mode area of the window in pixels and binning Instrument status which action is carrying on Name of the last saved image 5 8 Display Panel Figure 15 shows the Display Panel The observer can move the red or blue cursors over the image and see in the upper left corner of the display the current x y location of the cursor and the counts in that position Furthermore if the user wants to offset the telescope from one place to another mark the current position of a given target with the red cursor the desired position with the blue one and finally click on Move star from to in the Control Panel see section 5 9 Images are automatically displayed and autoscaled The observer can also set manually the display range by moving the bar in the lower part of the window Left and right buttons set the minimum and the maximum levels respectively Instead of moving the bar it is also possible to put the desired values in the windows located in the right side of the bar By clicking on the Auto adjust button the initial fit is recovered The Open Image button in the upper right side allows the user to open images already saved with this application The name of the image is displayed in the small window on the right Other functions in the display panel are The button allows the user to select one or another cursor or both at the same time When a cursor is selected it will show a green dot on i
5. main building The support astronomer must carry the filters up to the telescope and bring them down again It is possible to verify which filters are installed at any time at this address http www iac es telescopes tcs Rueda actual IAC80 html Except in exceptional occasions six positions are always occupied five of them by Johnson Bessell s or Sloan broad band filters and one always free white light Therefore six positions are available for narrow band filters A list of all available filters is located in http www iac es telescopes tcs filtros htm FiltrosIAC80 If the visitor astronomer wants to use his her own filters or to purchase a new one to be used with CAMELOT please contact the support astronomer in advance 4 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 3 INITIALIZING THE SYSTEM There are two PCs in the control room one labelled as iac80ccd to control the instrument under a Windows XP environment and the other one called asteroide working under LINUX environment To log in both computers proceed as follows PC IAC80CCD CCD control 1 Login as e User user e Password look for a label at the monitor 2 It automatically starts the time synchronization program GPS Then open the CCD control interface by clicking on the CCD_JUN2010 icon 3 Select the default option and click OK on the message The camera must now be initialized PC ASTEROIDE Data analysis 1
6. 2 allows to move the selected area in the display and to press and move the mouse over this area fwo haoo hano o bladad 0030910_0007 0007 owt 5490 rao oao ET PG want a Figure 15 Display Panel 5 9 Control Panel To activate the options on this panel the user has to move the switch 1 to the left Then the green light turns on and the buttons shown in figure 16 become accessible When clicking on any of these buttons do it persistently 16 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 otherwise it is possible that the instructions cannot be sent properly to the control PC There are the following options Stop telescope 2 stops the telescope Tracking 3 starts the tracking It is a very useful option when the telescope cannot reach the demanded position but instead blinks between two points near the final coordinates New focus 4 changes the telescope focus If the focus is selected from the control PC the value displayed here remains the same unless the panel is turned off and on with the switch 1 Point telescope 5 move the telescope to the position selected on the fields AR and Dec with format AR hh mm ss Dec dd mm ss or AR hh mm ss Dec dd mm ss The object can be named by filling the field name Move star from to 6 moves the telescope from the position marked with the red cross to the one marked with the blue cross To do it go to the image display see section 5 8 move the red curso
7. CAMELOT IAC80 TELESCOPE CCD User Manual Send comments and suggestions to Cristina Zurita czurita iac es or to the Support Astronomer Group ttnn a iac es CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 INDEX TINE 51 31 69 Ee oarre A E E OAA 3 1 1 Channels and readout speed 3 TE OSC T e e E AEE AA E EAA E EEA 3 1 3 Windows 3 rre elre TT 4 9 FICTER WHEEL enct stasis ica cease stcicosacsscadaadoameincuteazesatosonnicnsspetaaiaaseineetanat 4 3 INITIALIZING THE SYSTEM 5 2 IHE OPS aeia e A E a a 6 5 GRAPHIC INTERFACE INSTRUMENT CONTROL SOFTWARE 7 EN Tae TT ec a a a a a 7 5 2 ACQUISITION Panel 8 aes ellen T ee a Aa NANEN 9 T DAES AION ari AE EE E EEEE 9 5 5 Filter wheel Panel 10 S6 MENUS caa E EEA A 10 R H T T 11 KOZ MACOS soeren EEEE EEE EEE E EEEE EEEE E 11 5 6 3 Foco Start 13 SAREE LE O SO E E E E E EE EE E 13 5 7 Informative Panel sees 14 29 SPU FANE TTT 15 9 9 CONItTrOl Panel ienero iseni NTE Oe Pe 16 ela ATT 18 6 1 Bias and Darks os pastsn ste ucedacete io octenub to sinteaeeseauds date doeochguubtodateaaedousetedatedoaet 18 6 2 Flat EiIeldse s 18 DS FOCUS eir A ee ee ee ee eee ee 19 0A CENCE IMAGES nn eee nee ere 19 POATA alesse ees ede se geese eee aes 20 7 1 Writing format Image headers sss sese 20 Th OS OT VIN lOG oaar 21 r DAA CODY ennendrenner T a ETT TEES pe 7 4 Data reduction 22 2 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 1 THE DETECTOR The det
8. Login as 1 1 User obstcs1 1 2 Password look for a label at the monitor 2 From this PC the observer can analyse their images in real time Both the display window DS9 and the analysis software IRAF can be opened from a xgterm terminal in the default directory nome obstcs1 where the file login cl is located e obstcs1 asteroide gt ds9 amp e obstcs1 asteroide gt ecl 3 The observer can access their data from the scratch by typing e obstcs1 asteroide gt cd iac80ccd 4 And then go to that night s directory For instance to access the data taken in 2009 December 1st type e obstcs1 asteroide gt cd 09dic01 NOTE If necessary the disc in asteroide can be mounted by typing e obstcs1 asteroide gt sudo mount iac80ccd 5 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 using the password labelled at the monitor 4 THE GPS The CAMELOT control PC is equipped with a PCI card that receives the time signal from the GPS so the time synchronization of the observations is excellent The system automatically starts when the observer logs in the PC as user default user for the camera It is always convenient to verify that the GPS system is correctly working before continuing with the observations It has the appearance shown in figure 1 Meinberg Radio Clock Monitor v2 12 Setup Help Time Adjustment Time Service Windows Time Zone Log file PC system time Tu 07 03 2006 12 21 26 92 Hora es
9. al 21 01 2011 Options Panel Status Panel __ Read Out Speed Gain 1 25 e fadu Cooler OWN 200 KHz F Moise 3 37 e rms ical Window Off 4 Attenuation Beep 2 chanels 1 chanel 0 1 lt Binning Off p REPEAT Number Exp Time Filter Image Type Comments Status A eee e a occa CT See SEE Sc ESS Time remaining Pos ds F Fasi w0 M T 0 25 48 Filter Wheel Panel 6 7 5 Ha iz Oll S0076 Current Filter Figure 11 Macro status panel 5 6 3 Foco Start This menu opens a window to determine the best focus for each filter Input parameters are the focus absolute value and the focus offset Although this option is currently available we instead prefer the telescope control software for focusing See section 6 3 for details 5 6 4 Advanced Advanced Window This option controls the CCD windowing i e the portion of the chip actually read out The observer has first to click on window off and then write in this panel the window origin bottom left corner and size both in pixels figure 12 When the camera is operating in windowing mode the blue light in the status panel turns on Note that in windowing mode one single amplifier is used during the readout and there is no saving in readout time unless a small enough i e less than 1024x2048 window is defined Window wm x columns Y rows _ fo Origi
10. e shutter is about 10 milliseconds 10 ms for opening and 10 ms for closing in the centre However this feature represents only a 2 3 in expositions of 1 s To take flats select the FLAT option in the acquisition panel figure 17 Flat images will be stored with the prefix F and the corresponding image number 18 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 6 3 Focus Although the CAMELOT interface has a specific task for focusing we recommend the observers to do it by typing directly the focus value in the telescope control software or in the New Focus option at the Control Panel section 5 9 Preset the telescope to a field with not too bright stars 7 8 magnitude near the zenith and take an image of at least 10 seconds exposure time for averaging the seeing effects Change the telescope focus in steps of 25 or 50 um by typing the absolute value until get the minimum width half maximum FWHM and ellipticity see figure 18 One tip is decreasing the focus when the contours are elongated North South and increasing when they are elongated East West Use IRAF imexam in the asteroide computer to analyze the image Out focus In focus Out focus increase decrease focus focus Figure 18 Stellar contours in and out focus When the observers intend to use different filters during their observing run they should focus the telescope with the R filter in the light path and then when using a different filter add the corres
11. ector is an E2V Technologies CCD42 40 back illuminated device with 2148x2048 pixels of 13 5 x 13 5 um pixel each equivalent to 0 304 per pixel at the IAC80 There are two pre scan regions of 50 pixels each at both sides of the detector Therefore the effective area is a square of 2048 x 2048 pixels equivalent to an 10 37 square field of view on the sky Windowing and 1x2 2x1 or 2x2 binning are also possible Eventually an overscan region can be created by enlarging the image although this option is not available for the observer 1 1 Channels and readout speed Two low noise amplifiers in the readout register one at each end channels A and B are available for individual A or simultaneous A B use Different readout speeds can be selected 100 200 500 or 900 kHz to optimize for low noise or high speed operation Table 1 shows the characteristics of the detector The default readout speed is 200 kHz Readout Readout Gain Readout Dinamical range Relative noise kHz time s e adu noise adu x10 e adu 269 S Ea 2 70 as a ss ia no j o e0 24 m67 129 088 12100 oo Table 1 CCD operational characteristics Note In windowing or binning modes one single amplifier is used during the readout and there is no saving in readout time unless a small enough window is defined 1 2 Prescan The IAC80 CCD has two prescan regions of 50 columns wide at both sides of the detector formed by physical pixel
12. er if the Beep button is activated a beep will go off at the end of an exposure or a macro if a macro has been launched The default readout speed of 200 kHz and the 1 channel mode are recommended unless the observer requires series of high temporal resolution Options Panel Read Out Speed Gain 1 25 e fadu 200 KHz nF Noise z i Attenuation Beep 2 chanels 1 chanel o lS 9 Binning off 60 2 o Necs 75 2 F ffltscio f 10 S n ee Es 5 F Flas 10 i Filter Wheel Panel 6 7 5 Ha 12 OIII SOO7 6 Current Filter Figure 6 Options red frame and status panel green frame in the CAMELOT control interface Time remaining 0 25 48 5 4 Status Panel This is an information panel see green frame in figure 6 which shows the cooler status blue light when cooler is on and also indicates if the window Window on off or binning Binning on off options have been selected 9 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 SSR N 5 5 Filter wheel Panel The filter can be selected from this panel first turning the knob to the desired position and then clicking on the NOVE button The observer can turn the knob clock or anticlockwise although the filter wheel movement is always anticlockwise and so changing from 3 to 4 1 singe step is faster than changing from 4 to 3 11 steps These steps are indicated in the bar below the MOVE button see figure 7
13. fference 0 000s Reference clock TCRS510PCI v2 05 c Meinberg 04 CCO0h State of time service active Time Adjustment 0 000ms s System time set Tu 07 03 2006 13 13 48 4 UTC Offset 0 000s Radio Clock IRIG In COM Port Init Revision Radio Clock TCRS510PCI v2 05 c Meinberg 04 CC00h z Radio Clock time Tu 07 03 2006 13 15 48 73 UTC Last Sync Tu 07 03 2006 13 12 21 00 UTC man Mode No Input Signal State Synchronized after last RESET Clock running on Xtal oscillator Figure 2 GPS interface when the system has not input signal Meinberg Radio Clock Monitor v2 12 Setup Help Time Adjustment Time Service Windows Time Zone Log file PC system time Tu 07 03 2006 13 14 52 48 Hora est ndar GMT Reference time Tu 07 03 2006 13 14 52 46 UTC Time difference 0 000s Reference clock TCR510PCI v2 05 c Meinberg 04 CCO0h State of time service active Time Adjustment 0 010ms s System time set Tu 07 03 2006 13 13 48 4 UTC Offset 0 000s Radio Clock IRIG In COM Port Init Revision Radio Clack TCR510PCI v2 05 c Meinberg 04 CCOOh Radio Clock time Tu 07 03 2006 13 14 52 64 UTC Last Sync Tu 07 03 2006 13 12 21 00 UTC mean Mode free running State Synchronized after last RESET Clock running on Xtal oscillator 100 Figure 3 Interface when the GPS is in working order 5 GRAPHIC INTERFACE INSTRUMENT CONTROL SOFTWARE 5 1 Initializing The whole instrument detector
14. iting format Image headers The data are saved in FITS Flexible Image Transport System format with 16 bits pixel The header parameters are summarized in table 4 SIMPLE T Fits standard BITPIX 32 Bits per pixel NAXIS 2 Number of axes NAXIS 1 2048 Axis length NAXIS2 2048 Axis length EXTEND T File may contain extensions ORIGIN NOAO IRAF FITS Image Kernel July 2003 FITS file originator DATE 2010 06 28T06 45 14 Date FITS file was generated IRAF TLM 2010 06 28T06 45 13 Time of last modification OBJECT Kepler Name of the object observed FILENAME 0100627_0068 fits FITS file name DATE OBS 2010 06 28 date yyyy mm dd of obs 01 00 36 981 Universal time 18 18 44 Sidereal time 19 11 51 Right ascension 41 53 03 Declination EQUINOX 2010 490526 Epoch of RA and DEC 2455375 5 Julian day 8 47196608965186E 5 CD1_1 1 11042971207493E 7 CD1_ 2 1 1273410660210E 7 CD2_1 8 47220705344157E 5 CD2_2 956 5 CRPIX1 1006 5 CRPIX2 CTYPE1 RA TNX CTYPE1 CTYPE2 DEC TNX CTYPE2 20 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 RADECSYS FK5 RADECSYS CRVAL1 285 197500 CRVAL1 CRVAL2 41 884167 CRVAL2 ZD 17 21 04 Zenith distance AIRMASS 1 048 Airmass PRESSURE 769 Barometric pressure TELFOCUS 19301 Telescope focus TELTEMP na 11 Telescope temperature WINDSPEE 9 Wind speed WINDDIRE 321 Wind direction HUMIDITY na 2 Humidi
15. k Figure 9 Window for browsing macro files 11 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 INET Gw Macros New This option allows the observer to create a new macro by filling the fields in the editor window shown in figure 10 MACRO Number Exp Time sec Filter Image Type Comments a 6 60 2 O NGC 326 10 7 9 2 F Flats cielo 5 120 5 O 10 5 5 F Flats I P Prueba mak Bloc de notas NGC 326 Flats cielo Flats I v Figure 10 The observer can create a macro using the CAMELOT editor window back or any other text editor front Each row should be filled as follow 1 Number of exposures 2 Exposure time in seconds 3 Filter Select the number assigned to the filter instead of the name For instance in the configuration shown in the image we will write 4 to select the R filter 4 Image type Object Flat Bias or Dark or the initial of these words O F B or D 5 A comment A macro starts running when the OK button is pushed When a macro is running a display activates to show the macro and the status of the observations The observer can know the time left until the end of the macro Moreover the button REPEAT allows the user to repeat the macro as many times as desired The repetitions can be selected also when the macro is running Finally the display Time remaining shows the time remaining to finish the observations figure 11 12 23 CAMELOT user manu
16. ld Torun the macro just type in the directory iac80ccd gt python redcam py directory speed channel bin Where directory is the name of the directory with the images with the date format yymmmdd speed is the selected readout speed of the CCD possibilities are 100 200 500 and 900 kHz channel is the number of readout channels 1 or 2 and bin is the bin factor 11 12 21 22 for binning 1x1 1x2 2x1 and 2x2 respectively For example gt python redcam py 10may02 200 1 11 The reduced images will be stored in the scratch of asteroide in the following directory scratch iac80ccd directory REDUCED_ speed channel bin In our example 22 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 scratch iac80ccd 10may02 REDUCED 200 1 11 In any case CAMELOT data reduction is a standard procedure The PC asteroide has the software IRAF from where the user could make her his own data reduction On the CAMELOT web page there are some specific files to make some steps easier Bad pixels mask badpixels dat Photometric fit calibration fitdat dat Typical flats field and bias images Limit magnitude obtained with the CCD 23 23
17. lication could be launched by typing on a terminal obstcs1 asteroide gt viewlog viewlog_iac80 amp It is recommended to launch the application from one directory before where the images are stored i e iac8Occd Then the output a postscript os and a tex LOG file will be created in that directory Users just need to type the date of 21 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 the observations and a name for the output file in the viewlog interface All other fields are optional Each new record can be overwritten or added to an existent file Viewlog application also works on real time during the observations All the new records will be shown just after refreshing the window by clicking on the enviar button 7 3 Data copy IAC users can connect via ssh with the asteroide machine access the folder with their observations named as iac80ccd yymmmdd where yy is the year mmm the three first letters of the month in Spanish and dd the day and then copy the images to their own computers Non lAC users have to transfer the data to their own ftp A DVD copy of the data can be provided at the telescope if needed but the users should ask for it to the telescope operator at the beginning of each observation night 7 4 Data reduction In asteroide the linux PC at the AC80 control room there is a python script to automatically reduce the CCD images at the IAC80 telescope subtract bias and correct flat fie
18. n 7 0 Window Off Figure 12 panel for selecting a window 13 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 The readout time can be calculated as follows T s Number of pixels including prescan Readout speed Hz For instance because there are 3 pixels in one arc second on the CCD a window of 1 arcmin has 60x3 32400 pix so at 100kHz it lasts 0 324 seconds reading out Advanced Binning Binning i e adding the counts of several pixels is also possible in the format 1x2 2x1 y 2x2 This is useful to optimize the signal to noise ratio for a very weak object when spatial resolution is not needed However because of the design of CAMELOT the binning does not reduce the total acquisition time The binning is selected from the window shown in figure 13 Binning Figure 13 Window for binning the CCD When the camera is operating in binning mode the blue light in the status panel turns on 5 7 Informative Panel Information Panel memory Temp Press Filter Operation mode Normal 0 2147 0 2047 No Binning RE ELCHE 105 20 0 00 torr I STATUS stopped 08 03 2006 128 43 Gb free Last image saved scratch O07mar06 0070306_0494 fits Figure 14 Informative Panel in the CCD control interface This is an information panel which shows figure 14 e Day and time e Used and free memory 14 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 Detector temperature Detector pressure Current
19. ponding offset given in the table 3 Note that this table is not complete so we will appreciate the observers to inform the Support Astronomer Group ttnn a iac es on new measurements of focus offsets Telescope focus depends on temperature so we encourage the users to check the focus several times during the night Johnson UBVRI es eee Ha iac 12 Table 3 Focus offsets for different filters 6 4 Science images An observing night comprises the following steps 19 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 e Insert all the targets of the night in the telescope catalogue or object by object in the Name RA and Dec fields at the control panel section 5 9 e Generate a macro if desired as described in section 5 6 2 with the sequence of observations e Take a proper number around 20 of BIAS using exactly the same operation mode desired for the targets Same reading speed window and binning We recommend the observer to take bias at the beginning and at the end of the night to check their stability see section 6 1 e Take dome or sky flats see description in section 6 2 e Focus the telescope section 6 3 e Finally point the telescope to the desired field and switch on the autoguiding system FOVIA for exposures longer than a few seconds see information about FOVIA in http www iac es telescopes fovia fovia html When telescope is guiding observers can start their scientific observations 7 DATA 7 1 Wr
20. r to the first place the blue one to the other position and finally click on Move star from to in the Control Panel It is advisable to take another image to be sure that the offset was made correctly Although this option is very useful note that the offsets sometimes are not exact due to the telescope mechanical precision Time limit control 7 turns on and off the time to limit control If the time remaining until the telescope reaches the limit is less than 5 min an alarm will go off but only if this option is selected as shown in figure 16 the telescope will also stop The clock shows the position of the telescope as function of the time to the limit Besides the display on the right shows the airmass Control Panel TIME LIMIT CONTROL AIR MASS a5 STOR ELESCOPE POINT s5 ELESCOPE 3 TRAKING OBJ_NAME WAME OFF_WAME OFFSET NAME 4 NEW FOCUS 00 00 00 00 sr 00 art a FI Me q 19570 00 00 00 00 per 0 0 pert 5 185 0 094 1 000 Figure 16 Control panel in the control interface 17 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 6 OBSERVING 6 1 Bias and Darks To take a dark current image select DARK in the acquisition panel figure 17 and introduce the exposition time In any case dark current is negligible in CAMELOT so in general dark images are not necessary A bias image is taken selecting the BIAS mode In 2 channel observing mode we strongly recommend the observer
21. s not exposed to the light The prescan is used to determine the bias level for each channel since it is sensible to the electronic signal of the CCD 1 3 Windows It is possible windowing the detector to get just part of the total frame i e reading only an area of the detector To do so the observer has to select the 3 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 window origin and size See section 5 6 4 for additional details The readout time follows this relation T NP VL Where T Readout time s NP Number of pixels including prescan RS Readout Speed Hz In any case to calculate the time resolution in a series of consecutive images the observer has to take into account that the system requires about 6 seconds to save each image in disc 1 4 Binning Binning i e adding the counts of several pixels is also possible in the format 1x2 2x1 and 2x2 This is useful to optimize the signal to noise ratio for a very weak object when spatial resolution is not necessary However due the CAMELOT characteristics the binning does not reduce the total acquisition time See section 5 6 4 for additional details 2 FILTER WHEEL The CAMELOT filter wheel has 12 positions in which 50 mm round and 50 or 60 mm square filters can be installed The observers must contact their support astronomer at least one week before their CAMELOT run with their filter requirements The filters are stored in the optics laboratory at the IAC s
22. st will be saved with the same name test fits NOTE All images will be saved with the following format Pyymmdd_xxxx where P is a prefix indicating the image type object O dark D bias B flat F yymmdd is the date of the observation and xxxx is the image number in crescent sequence Once the image type and the exposure time are selected the total acquisition time readout exposure time appears in the right top panel side The exposure is started when clicking the Acquire Image button Two blue status bars will then show the percentage of time already exposed or read 8 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 Acquisition Panel Acquisition mode Acquisition time 51 OBJECT s 612 41 Exposure time Exposure time 100 Abort S d Readout 100 Comments s S24 Figure 5 Acquisition panel in the control interface Acquire Image When an exposure stars it can be cancelled by clicking Abort It is possible to cancel an individual or all the exposures if a macro has been launched But the user should have into account that if an image is aborted before the integration ends the unfinished exposition will not be stored but lost 5 3 Options Panel From this panel red frame in figure 6 the observer can select the readout speed by opening the Read Out Speed menu and the readout mode by moving the 2 channels 1 channel button for reading out 2 or 1 channel respectively Moreov
23. t The control lis for determining several cursor attributes as colour stile posting type line type line width In addition this control shows the option of bringing the cursor to the image centre The button 87 is used to link the cursor to the left bottom corner of each pixel in this way the position display X Y shows always integer values This control is unlink by clicking on it again then the cursor can move again within a pixel The buttons 15 and L are autoscale buttons for each axis They are used to send the image back to its original scale after a Zoom has been done The buttons 755 and allow to modify the format and the axis accuracy The four diamond group amp are for moving the cursor or the cursors pixel to pixel selecting in the desired direction along the image 15 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 gt 1 are the controls of the Graphics palette They are for determining how the mouse interacts with the image When one of them is selected it turns darker and the green point appears in the left corner of the button The first of them a selects the cursor mode when the pointer is in the image display This mode allows to move the cursors of the image along the image display The button E is the zoom and shows the following options which allow to zoom the selected region to zoom just the X axis to zoom the Y axis and to do the image larger or smaller Finally this button 7 22
24. t ndar GMT Reference time Tu 07 03 2006 12 21 26 71 UTC Time difference 0 205s Reference clock TCR510PCI v2 05 c Meinberg 04 CCOOh State of time service Waiting till clack has synchronized Radio Clock TCR510PCI v2 05 c Meinberg 04 CCO0h Z Radio Clock time Tu 07 03 2006 12 21 26 63 UTC Last Sync Tu 28 02 2006 07 02 26 00 UTC Mode free running State Not synchronized after last RESET Clock running on tal oscillator Figure 1 GPS interface just after being initialized We should verify 1 There is a signal the bar at the bottom of the window must be black 2 The signal is being synchronized the difference between the PC and the GPS time is slowly decreasing If there is not signal a message like the one shown in the figure 2 Non Input Signal and a red bar indicating 0 of signal will appear in the GPS window In this case please contact the support astronomer in charge When the system is totally synchronized time offset is 0 000s the GPS is in working order and the interface has the appearance of figure 3 If the application is accidentally closed it is possible to reopen it by double clicking on this icon Fi ab GPS 6 23 CAMELOT user manual 21 01 2011 Meinberg Radio Clock Monitor v2 12 Setup Help Time Adjustment Time Service Windows Time Zone Log file PC system time Tu 07 03 2006 13 15 49 46 Hora est ndar GMT Reference time Tu 07 03 2006 13 15 49 48 UTC Time di
25. to use the bias frames for reduction instead of the prescan regions For BIAS the exposure time is by default equal to zero It does not matter what filter is selected since the shutter will not be open The dark and bias images are stored with the prefix D or B and the corresponding image number aca OBJECT Acquisition P fat RARE Acquisition time 5 Acquire Image BIAS TEST 16 00 Exposure time Exposure time 100 J X O Comments S E K Figure 17 Acquisition panel in the control interface 6 2 Flat Fields In the IAC80 dome and sky flats can be considered equivalent To take dome flats we recommend to switch on the dome red lamps but not the fluorescent ones using the exposure times labelled in the switch in the control room If sky flats are preferred point the telescope to the East evening or to the West morning and start tracking Offsetting the telescope between exposures 10 arcsec is enough is recommendable to clean out the possible stars in the field During the evening the flat fields should be taken in the following order narrow band filters UBVRI During the morning the order should be the contrary The objective is getting around 30000 counts for dynamical range from 0 to 60000 counts Flat images with less than 5 s of exposure show a vertical bright band around the image centre This is due to the exposition in the centre is 20 ms longer than in the edges since the time to open and close th
26. ty TELESCOP IAC80 Telescope name INSTRUME SI600 CCD Camera Instrument name DETECTOR E2V CCD42 40 Bl Detector model CAMTEMP 105 30 Camera Temperature C INSFILTE V l Instrument filter IMAGETYP object Object Flat Dark or Bias OPENTIME 01 00 36 981 UT Open Shutter Time ms CLOSTIME 01 04 46 981 UT Close Shutter Time ms EXPTIME 250 000 Exposure time sec ELAPSED 2 71 484 Total elapsed time sec READTIME 21484 Readout time ms 200 Readout Speed 100 200 500 900kHZz 1 Number of CCD 1 Number of ports 1 2 0 Analogue chain total gain 0 2 3 1 25 electrons adu average 1 24 electrons adu of channel A 1 25 electrons adu of channel B RDNOISE 3 37 Readout noise electrons rms average RDNOISEA 3 40 Readout noise channel A electrons RDNOISEB 3 35 Readout noise channel B electrons DARKCURR 0 0003 Dark current electrons pixel sec CCDSUM 1 1 Binning DETSIZE 1 2048 1 2048 Maximum Imaging Pixel Area CCDSIZE 1 2048 1 2048 CCD image chip size DETSEC Detector image size CCDSEC 51 2098 1 2048 CCD image size DATASECC 51 2098 1 2048 CCD imagen section COMMENTS Comments Table 4 Image header example 7 2 Observing log If the user wishes it there is an application to visualize the observing log that can be launched in asteroide It automatically opens a new file for the observations during the night The app
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