General
Start-up procedure
Draft of
Arriving
at WIRO
Connect the ethernet cable on the rear of the
electronics rack in the control room to enable wireless internet
bridge between WIRO and UW. Turn on breakers at each of the three
breaker boxes; control room breaker(only turn on the water pump),
hallway breaker(turn on all switches unless otherwise marked), dome
breaker(inside Spectrograph room, turn on all switches unless
otherwise marked). DO NOT TOUCH anything else in the spectrograph
room!! A lot of work has gone in to calibrating each instrument. Plug
in the telescope encoder rack(yellow plug into power strip) at the
south end of the dome behind the telescope. Plug in UPS power supply
in the rear corner of the control room(there are 2 yellow plugs),
turn on computers: Horatio is the telescope control computer.
Filling
the dewar
Ensure that the LN2 dewar is ready by making
sure there is a compressed dry N2 tank supplying overpressure, this
will allow for a faster fill by pushing the LN2 into the CCD dewar.
Also, ensure the LN2 dewar top is securely attached and that the
safety cord is attached to the body of the dewar in case of over
pressurization.
•Securely
attach the end of the tygon fill tube to the fill valve on the rear
of the CCD dewar, and flip the black switch on the LN2 dewar up to
allow overpressure from the dry N2.
•Turn
on the dry N2 tank by turning the knob on the top of the tank. Turn
the regulatory pressure valve on the dry N2 tank to supply ~5-6 psi
to the LN2 dewar(any more than this
may
cause the LN2 tank to become over pressurized and make the top pop
off(safety cord comes in handy).
•Turn
on the LN2 dewar by turning the black knob, this will start filling
the CCD dewar. You should see the fill tube start to freeze and gas
being ejected from the overfill tube of the
CCD
dewar. It should take <5 minutes to fill the dewar.
•While
the dewar is filling take the lens cap off the prime focus corrector
by loosening the 4 allen screws and twisting the cap and gently
pulling it off. DO NOT TOUCH the front lens
element
of the corrector.
•While the
dewar is filling plug in the camera electronics by plugging in the 2
power supplies. There are 2 orange extension cords running along the
support truss of the telescope(note
on
the extension cord with 2 available slots: the side slot doesn't
work--use the one on the end). The power supply cables should be
attached to these extension cords and to the power
supply
boxes mounted on the prime focus ring. Turn on camera power by
turning on black switch on the black power supply(just under the
power supply cord).
•Stop
filling the dewar when the dewar starts sputtering LN2 from the
overfill tube—it is full. Turn off the LN2 tank and flip the
black switch to the down position. Turn off the dry N2
tank
and loosen the regulatory valve until loose. Wait until the fill tube
is thawed(~2 min) before removing it from the dewar or it may break
and place it gently back on the LN2 tank.
If
the tygon tubing has pinhole leaks or is in poor condition it should
be replaced by another tube.
If the dry N2 tank is empty it can be
replaced with a full N2 tank by swapping the regulator. First, USE
CAUTION and THINK before acting. Ensure that the current dry N2 tank
is completely off by turning the top knob on top clockwise tighlty.
Disconnect the hose leading to the LN2 tank and bleed the remaining
pressure between the N2 tank and regulator by turning the regulator
knob clockwise. Remove the regulator from the N2 tank carefully, when
removing parts from under pressure they tend to 'fly' off, it is a
good idea to tie a safety cord to the regulator to keep it from
flying far or against a wall. NEVER ATTEMPT to remove the top from
the N2 tank itself, it could result in serious injury. Replace the N2
tank by removing it from its wall mount and placing a full N2 tank in
its place. Attach the regulator on the new N2 tank and reconnect the
hose to the LN2 tank.
Computer
Interface
Log onto Horatio: user and password are
posted. Open a terminal and log in as super-user, password is
posted.
[horatio~]\$su
Set the current
time
[horatio~]\#date MMDDHHmmYY.ss
where this is
local time, date -u MMDDHHmmYY.ss is in universal time.
Note YY is not a necessary input parameter and need not be present(YY
is the suffix assuming 20YY). Log off
super-user.
[horatio~]\#exit
Start the tracking
loop for the computer
[horatio~]\$start
The
lights on the IO Tech Micro 488 interface(little black box at the
bottom of electronics rack in the control room) should come on and
blink, and the last thing you should see in the terminal is 'entering
trackloop'. If this is the case the telescope display on the shelf
should come to life with all the pertinent information about the
telescope and you can hit enter to return to a command line. If this
is not the case, at the terminal type kill all occurances of
track,
[horatio~]\$ps -ef | grep track
[horatio~]\$kill
###
then unplug the encoder rack(yellow plug from power
strip) behind the telescope, cycle the power on the IO Tech Micro 488
box(black button at left rear), and plug the encoder rack back in. A
bunch of red lights should come on on the south rack and the ethernet
interface on the south rack should have good status(no light
indicating an error). Type start again,
[horatio~]\$start
if
this didn't work try again.
Telescope
Control
This is only a brief overview of telescope
controls more information can be found in the WIRO General
Manual(White binder on the shelf). Flip the switch on the bottom side
of the South pier(controls at the base of the telescope) up to supply
power to the telescope. Make sure there is nothing that will obstruct
the motion of the telescope off the platform(ie. hold-down straps,
chairs, fill tube) then push the green 'ON' button on the console. If
the telescope is too low and the white override button is not
depressed an alarm will go off and the telescope will not move. If
power does not come on and the breakers are on open the front panel
of the South pier. Along the top there is a thermistor that cuts off
power to the telescope if the weather is too cold for too long. With
the switch to the pier in the up position hold the thermistor for a
few seconds to warm it up and try pressing the green 'ON' button
again and the power should come on. Hold down the override button and
switch to local control and slew the telescope north to zenith then
let go of the override and switch to remote. From the observing
platform switch to local telescope motion control and line up the
fiducial marks on the telescope axes(RA and DEC) to line up with the
'Index' arrows on the telescope mount by holding the center white
button and either N,S,E,W to move the telescope, once aligned switch
to remote. Using either the computer on the platform or in the
control room type:
[horatio~]\$zero ; zenith ;
index
[horatio~]\$g
The telescope should
move so that the telescope fiducials now line up with the 'Zenith'
arrows, if the telescope did not move make sure both the south pier
and observing platform controls are set to remote and that the
breaker powering the telescope is on. If the RA arrows don't line up,
the telescope may have lost a turn.
[horatio~]\$turn-ra
This should bring the arrows pretty close if not try
either turn-ra, turn+ra, and similarly turn+dec, turn-dec if the
declination axes don't line up. Alternatively, one could try again by
moving to index and re-issuing the zero ; zenith ; index ; g command.
If the arrows still don't line up try again.
Useful
Telescope Commands
zenith
.................................................................
moves telescope to zenith and stays there.
service
............................................................... moves
telescope to service position and stays there.
nn ##
.................................................................
moves the telescope north in DEC ## arcseconds.
ss ##
...................................................................
moves the telescope south in DEC ## arcseconds.
ee ##
..................................................................
move the telescope east in RA ## arcseconds.
ww ##
................................................................ move
the telescope west in RA ## arcseconds.
icol
.....................................................................
computer will use current offsets when moving(makes desired position
actual position).
follow ##
............................................................slews to
and tracks to item ## in current loaded catalog
fixed xx.xxxxxx
yy.yyyyyy ................................moves telescope to HA of
xx.xxxxxx and DEC of yy.yyyyyy
fixed xx.xxxxxx yy.yyyyyy follow
.................... moves to RA of xx.xxxxxx and DEC of yy.yyyyyy
and tracks (Note: xx.xxxxxx is expressed in decimal hours and
yy.yyyyyy
is
expressed
in decimal degrees).
clrusr
..................................................................
clears user commands from the bottom of the screen.
s
..........................................................................
stop - turns telescope off.
g
.........................................................................
go - turns telescope on.
dome init
.............................................................initializes
dome azimuth to current telescope azimuth.
dome on
..............................................................turns
dome on so that it moves to the desired telescope azimuth.
dome
off
..............................................................turns
dome off.
Computer
header sharing program
Currently the tracking
computer(horatio) does not communicate with the image acquisition
computer(claudius). To initiate a program that dumps the telescope
tracking information into a core file that is read by the acquisition
computer do the following.
1.
On Claudius as root user run the program server located in
/home/observer/WIRO/WIRO_information_sharing_program/testing.
[claudius~]\$cd
/home/observer/WIRO/WIRO_information_sharing_program/testing
[claudius~]\$./server
9999
'listening
to socket' should appear indicating a successful execution.
2.
On Horatio run the program client located in the same directory as
above from the directory
/home/observer/wiro/track.
[horatio~]\$cd
/home/observer/wiro/track
[horatio~]\$/home/observer/WIRO/WIRO_information_sharing_program/testing/client
10.212.212.110 9999
'data
sent successfully' should appear repeatedly indicating that the core
file is being sent successfully.
The terminals running the program
should be left running and monitored to ensure they are working. This
program does not excuse keeping regular observing logs, the program
is fallable and should only be used as a tool for writing some of the
header information, it should be scrutinized before trusting.
Dome
slit and wind screen operation
Upon arrival the
dome orientation should be such that the slit is in the E-W
direction. Both windscreens should be overlapping at the top of the
dome. Rotate the dome to the south from the observing platform by
aligning the center of the upper wind screen(denoted by a joint in
the dome) to the apex of the North polar axis support structure while
the telescope is at zenith. The azimuth of the telescope at zenith is
180°(south). On Horatio initialize the dome,
[horatio~]\$dome
init
this will initialize the dome's azimuth to 180°.
Turn the dome on.
[horatio~]\$dome on
Tthis will
enable the dome to automatically rotate to the telescope desired
azimuth. It is worth checking from time to time the the dome slit and
the telescope are aligned, if the dome occults the primary in any way
it will result in bad data. Open the dome slit(on observing platform
or service platform) with the windscreens still overlapping above the
telescope and with the mirror covers closed to protect the mirror
from possible falling stuff. Lower the lower wind screen from the
service platform while the dome is facing south and watch the cables
as it is lowering and check that the cables don't do anything bad if
you have ANY doubts stop and consult with the other
observer or call for assistance. Move to the observing platform and
raise the upper wind screen, again watch the cables, if you have ANY
doubts stop and consult with the other observer or call for
assistance. Open the mirror covers(either south pier or observing
platform) and make sure both shutters open, if only one opens close
the mirror covers and try opening again.
Dome
Flat Screen
To use the dome white spot for
dome flats the dome needs to initialized. The dome should be rotated
to an azimuth of 142° and the telescope should be
moved to an hour angle of 0.0 and a declination of -25° i.e.
[horatio~]\$fixed 0.0 -25.0
There are four neutral
density filters lamps on the front end ring of the telescope. The
lamps are controlled with a rheostat in the control room. If any of
the bulbs burn out, there are replacements in the WIRO lab(do not
touch the lamps when replacing, hold them with the packaging they
come with). Taking flat fields with any filter varies, however here
are some documented
settings:
Filter Setting Exposure Counts
U 100V 2s ~32,000
B 60V 1s ~21,000
V 40V 4s ~36,000
R 40V 1s ~40,000
I 20V 2s ~32,000
OIII 70V 5s ~27,000
5200 70V 3s ~22,000
8132 35V 5s ~15,000
8199 35V 5s ~15,000
8615 35V 5s ~17,000
8685 35V 5s ~18,000
Collimating
the Telescope
Collimating the telescope should be done
each time there is a top end ring change in going from cassegrain to
prime focus. It will be easiest to collimate on a star near the
zenith, this way the collimation screws on the rear cell of the
telescope are more accessible from the observation platform. There
are three collimation screws located in the primary mirror cell I
will denote E, NW and SW(cardinal direction). Each screw is locked in
place by use of a nut and has a limited range of motion. It will be
necessary to move the camera(guider for cass and the main imager for
prime) far enough out of focus to see the donut(actually the image of
the primary mirror) well defined with the central obstruction and
spider vanes--it will be necessary to adjust the exposure time to get
a good enough signal so use a moderate to bright star. The goal is to
place the central obstruction as close to the center as possible.
This means, as you get closer, measure how close the central
obstruction is to the edge of the 'donut'(be cautious of measuring
from the bottom since the filter wheel juts out a little) along the
edges to determine its position precisely.
How To
Collimate: Unlock the nut preventing the screw from turning,
an adjustable wrench works well(I like a 15/16” wrench). Then
turn the screw using a 1/2” wrench. As of 04/22/06 there are
fiducial marks on the collimation screws indicating where and how
much to turn each bolt to achieve collimation for cass and
prime.
The following is a how to in case the marks become
unreliable. NOTE: it doesn't take much to change the collimation,
only an 1/8 of a turn can be significant! Take an exposure and
compare to the previous, if it is better—GREAT! if it is worse
undo what you did and try the other direction or a different screw.
There is a limited range on each screw, if it starts to get tight and
hard to turn—STOP!! the primary may be pinching, if it gets
sloppy loose—STOP!! there may be nothing supporting the mirror.
Remember you can always go to another screw and do the opposite to
achieve a similar result. As collimation proceeds the images will
shift around on the display as a result of tilting the primary so try
to keep the star centered by using the 'nn','ss','ee','ww' commands.
Once the central obstruction is well centered start moving back
towards focus. Continue to take images though and watch that the
central obstruction remains in the center because as you get closer
to focus the 'donut' is more sensitive to collimation. Remember to
tighten the locking nuts after you are done.
Shutdown
Procedure
Move the telescope to service by first moving
it close to the meridian and then issuing the 'service' command. Once
the slew is complete type 's' to turn off the telescope and 'dome
off' to turn the dome off. The reason for moving it to the meridian
first is because from low declination and/or at high hour angles the
telescope gets close to hitting the service platform. Close the
mirror covers and from the south pier switch to local control and
while holding down the white limit switch slew the telescope south
until it is almost touching(6 inches) the service platform. Turn off
power to the telescope by pushing the switch down on the bottom of
the south pier. From the service platform raise the lower windscreen
while watching the cables as they wind around the capstan an ensure
they are winding properly. Place the cover back on the corrector and
tighten the 4 allen screws holding it on. Turn the camera interface
off and unplug the camera electronics(2 plugs). From the observing
platform lower the upper windscreen until it overlaps the lower
windscreen, again watching the cables wrap around the capstan. Close
the dome slit and rotate the dome to face East-West. Unplug the
encoder rack and turn off the breakers in the dome, the hallway and
the control room(unless otherwise marked). Close the camera
interface(s) and the filter wheel/focus gui(s) and turn off the
CompuMotor controller box and log off all the computers and remove
the 2 plugs from the UPS and unplug the ethernet. The purpose is to
protect the electronics from possible lightning strike. Make sure all
data is copied to CD/DVD before departure, it takes a long time to
transfer via sftp/scp/ssh. It is a good idea to have someone check
that the shutdown looks good, it easy to forget something at the end
of a long run.
Creating
a data CD/DVD
Xcdroast is used on Claudius to write
data to a CD/DVD.
[claudius~]\$xcdroast
Click
on Master tracks and drag the desired folders to the left column.
Select the type of media you wish to write to: CD or DVD and the
size, type, etc. Click on Master to Image File, this will create a
temporary image file on the hard disk. Select the image file just
created and click Write Tracks. Verify the tracks were written using
Verify Tracks. The software requires a key to burn DVD's, if the key
is out of date(last updated 3/7/2006) get an updated key from
xcdroast.org and run xcdroast as root and copy/paste the key in the
setup location.
Water
Pump
The Water supply for WIRO is a 10,000 gallon tank
that rests in near the main entrance to WIRO. The water tank is
filled via a truck hauling 1,000 gallons of water during the Summer,
when the road is easy to pass, requiring multiple trips. The water
pump transfers water from the holding tank to two holding tanks under
the main entry to WIRO. A water meter gauges the amount of water that
is transferred and should be check to ensure water levels. Access to
these indoor tanks is obtained through the floor hatch located in the
storage area next to the entrance. When the floor panel is removed a
light switch is released turning lights on under the floor. There is
heat tape wrapped around some of the pipes and a space heater that
are constantly running to prevent the water from freezing in the
pipes. There is light switch panel that controls the heat tape. If
anything seems wrong contact WIRO personnel.
Troubleshooting
Nothing is moving!
If what you are trying to move isn't moving check that the platform you are on is set to local control and that other platform is set to remote. If that is not working check that all breakers were properly switched on.
