D Imager
The manual was created with the help of Betsy Green, and is based
on her extensive notes on the operation of Mont4K.
There are several links to these notes scattered throughout the
following sections.
Dave Trilling, Jim Grantham,
Mike Lesser, and Bob Peterson also contributed to this
guide.
Comments and suggestions for this manual should be directed to Paul Smith.
The "Montreal 4K" (Mont4K) CCD Imager was made possible through
the support of the University of Montreal and the Canadien Research Council.
If you require help or advice concerning the use of the Kuiper 61" telescope or
facility instrumentation,
please contact the following people (in this order):
After hours phone numbers of these individuals can be found in the 61"
control room.
There MUST be a certified observer present in order to operate the
telescope and instrumentation.
Observers should be especially alert to potential hazards
while at the observatory since
usually there will be no one else at the site during normal operations.
In addition,
help is many minutes away even assuming that you can successfully
call for help in an emergency.
Please remember that moving telescopes and domes are heavy, unforgiving
pieces of machinery that can do serious damage.
The observatory staff does its best to make the site as safe as possible,
but we urge you to report any potential hazards immediately.
Please report any problems encountered with Mont4K
in that night's Trouble Report.
Be as detailed as possible.
It also helps in diagnosing problems if suspect CCD images
are identified so that they can be found and examined by
support/technical personnel.
There are three major threats to Mont4K:
If there is a danger of ,
make sure that
Mont4K and its associated computers are powered off
.
Please follow the lightning shut down procedure
for the observing facility.
The CCD dewar requires a fill of liquid nitrogen (LN2) every
24 hours (i.e., the hold time for the CCD dewar is >24 hours).
Make sure that the LN2 fill is documented on the
whiteboard on the observing floor.
STATIC ELECTRICITY :
The CCD is exceptionally sensitive to static discharge.
ALWAYS ground yourself using the metal supports of the
observing platform safety chains, hand paddle pole, and/or clamps for
the instrument rotator before touching the CCD dewar, filter wheel,
or electronics boxes.
For dewar fills, ground yourself and wear the supplied grounding wrist
strap before inserting the fill tube into the dewar.
For safety,
do not leave the observing floor until the fill
is completed and all valves are closed.
If there is not enough pressure in the storage dewar to transfer
LN2 to the CCD dewar, attach the the dry nitrogen tube (to the right
of the south pier) to the pressure relief valve on the storage dewar.
Turn the green valve handle to increase the dewar pressure.
Make sure that all valves are closed when the CCD dewar fill is
completed.
More detailed instructions can be found here if you need to reconnect cabling after a
lightning shut down or encounter problems
following the startup procedure listed below.
All of these windows can be arranged, minimized, and re-labeled as desired,
but do not destroy any of them. The quotation marks used above are NOT part
of the commands.
At the finish of all of this there should only be one ds9 open for the
display of CCD images.
Important:
see the detailed kuiper login instructions to learn how
the processes that kuiper controls need to be initiated and to troubleshoot unexpected
problems with the operation of Mont4K.
Note: make sure that no other ds9 windows exist before starting "dataserver".
The filter wheel holds up to six (6) 5"x5" filters and is controlled
from the kuiper computer.
The current
available filter set includes a standard UBVRI bandpasses.
These filters are parfocal and there are available adapters so
that 3"x3" and 2"x2" filters can be inserted into the wheel.
Filters should only installed by a member
of the 61"
Operations crew.
Observers are requested to inform Operations of their selection of
filters for their observing run by submitting an Observers Request Form
several days prior to the start of their run.
The current default filter compliment in the filter wheel (i.e.,
this is your likely filter wheel configuration if you do not specify
your filter choices):
IMPORTANT NOTE:
When the power is turned on to the filter wheel box, it always starts
up in Load
mode, even when the Run/Load
switch is flipped to Run.
The process that makes the current filter position available to the CCD
computer (galilserver)
won't work properly unless the
filter wheel is in Run mode.
Therefore, whenever the telescope power
is turned on or the power to the guider/filter wheel boxes has been
turned off,
it is necessary to
flip the switch on the filter wheel box to the LOAD position,
and then switch it back to RUN.
If you can't see these words in the red LED on the northwest corner of
the filter box, you may have to turn
the LED display power switch on first.
The operation of Mont4K is largely controlled by the observer with the bigccd
computer using
AzCam.
However, the filter wheel and guider mirror position adjustments are
controlled using the GUI on kuiper
provided by the Galilserver.
Observers should find the following help pages of use in acquiring and examining
data with the Mont4K:
The Kuiper Telescope CCD guiding system is designed to be used along with
the Mont4K imager and is essential if exposure durations longer than about
5 minutes are desired. Please refer to the BigGuider operations manual for information concerning the capabilities and use of this facility system.
At the end of a night of observing:
1. Introduction and Acknowledgments.
This manual is intended to be a convenient reference guide for
observers certified to use the Kuiper telescope and CCD Imager (Mont4K).
Contact the Steward Observatory (SO) operations office (621-5136;
bpeterson@as.arizona.edu)
or
Paul Smith (621-2779;
psmith@as.arizona.edu)
if you need to be certified.
Emphasis is placed on the safely of observers and the equipment in this
document. A hardcopy of this manual is located in the 61" control room.
In the event of a discrepancy between the Web and hardcopy versions of
this manual, the Web version will take precedence.
Back to the top of the document.2. Basic Information About Mont4K.
Back to the top of the do
cument.3. Observer and Instrument Safety (In case you need assistance...).
IMPORTANT: Please read the
Guidelines
for Observing at Steward Observatory telescopes.
In case of problems with the Mont4K CCD Imager:
Back to the top of the document.4. Weather Considerations.
We ask observers to adhere to the Mt.
Bigelow observing facility guidelines to
protect the telescope and instrumentation from weather that will damage
these valuable research facilities.
Back to the top of the document.5. Filling the Dewar.
Back to the top of the document.6. Starting Up Mont4K.
Back to the top of the document.7. Filter Wheel.
Position in wheel Filter
1 U
2 R
3 B
4 V
5 I
6 Usually F555W or Schott 8612
Back to the top of the document.8. Flat Field.
Back to the top of the document.9. Observing
Betsy Green has written several
scripts that observers may find useful when using Mont4K.
These scripts can be found on kuiper in the /home/bigobs/sdb/com/ directory.
Please contact Dr. Green directly
for more information.
Back to the top of the document.10. Guiding
Back to the top of the document.11. Shutting Down Mont4K.
Back to the top of the document.
Back to the 61" Operations Manual.
Back to the 61" Home Page.
