******************** * Setting Up PFCAM * ******************** 22 August 2001 - Notes from check-out on 08.21.01 ------------------ A. Assorted Facts ------------------ 1. See observing log for login. 2. Instrument field of view is about 10' x 10'. 3. The TV camera FOV is 30' north of the science chip. This is why you set-up on the field with a snapshot, rather than looking at the guider. 4. On the TV display, W is up and S is to the right. 5. You can't mess with the filter wheel during readout. It automatically locks, so as not to add read noise. ---------------------- B. Instrument Set-Up ---------------------- 1. Login as "pfcam". Start up the software with "pfcam start". (To kill the software, open an xterm and type "pfcam stop".) 2. The three GUIs are the data taker (at lower right), the mos window (at lower left), and the dashboard (top). 3. Set-up the mos window. (You'll only fiddle with the top few options in this window. Most of the items deal with the multi-object spectrograph, and so are irrelevant to imaging with pfcam.) a) The focus will be some number between 3.0 and 3.2. This is referred to as the "top" focus, and is separate from the instrument focus. You'll focus this at the beginning of the night basically by eye-balling a star on the guider. You might need to re-focus halfway through the night. b) Set "adc mode" to "track". Do this at the beginning of the night, and leave it. This will not be in "track" mode at start-up!! c) The only lamp you'll care about is the quartz, for taking flats. If you find that the lamp is too bright, that means that they forgot to swap at the lamp for the spectrograph mode. Holler, and someone will take care of this. 4. Set-up the data taker window. Well, there really isn't much set-up here, and the fields are all pretty self-explanatory. A few facts: a) "Obs type" only offers "dark" and "normal". Take your biases in "dark" mode, and all else in "normal". b) There's no auto baseline subtraction, ever. Ignore the error message about this. c) The only useful field in the "other commands" option is the field that allows you to specify observer names, etc. Take care of this first thing. 5. Set-up the dashboard. Again, there really isn't much set-up here, and the fields are all pretty self-explanatory. A few facts: a) Most people want the TV filter to be in "blank". The other option is the Spinrad R filter. b) The dewar focus is some number between -6 and 6. Best focus is generally found in the 3 to 6 range. The focus step values are such that 100 = 1 mm. When focusing, move in steps of 15. ----------------------------- C. Observing Order of Events ----------------------------- 1. Start up the software. Set-up the three GUIs as described above. 2. Take dome flats. Take biases. Note that the shortest allowed integration time is 0.5 seconds. 3. At twilight, take twiflats. Standard order is short -> long wavelength (i.e. B -> V -> R -> I, depending on your actual needs). 4. Go to focus star (probably your standard). Get a bright star on the TV camera and focus the top end (in the mos window). Focus the instrument with the "shoot, pause, change focus, dither, shoot" algorithm. When done, use the focus software to find your focus minimum. Try steps of 15. 5. Hit your standard. The acquisition algorithm is: a) Ask TT to go to field. b) Go to 4x4 binning to save read-out time when verifying field. c) Take a snapshot. Verify that you are on the field. (You will be; the pointing is so good that we left this step out most of the time.) d) Find desired center in snapshot. Make the move, if necessary, and verify with another snapshot. e) Return to 1x1 binning. f) Look for guidestar on TV using the TV horizontal slider on the dashboard. g) Put star in reticle and go on guiding. h) Go! 6. Do rad science. Maybe some twi's in the morning. Sleep well. Get famous. Make parents proud. -------------------- D. Trouble Shooting -------------------- 1. Want to log out then log back in? Open an xterm and type "pfcam stop" to kill the data taking software. 2. If you find that the quartz lamp is too bright, that means that they forgot to swap at the lamp for the spectrograph mode. Holler, and someone will take care of this. ----------- E. Scripts ----------- The only script for pfcam at the moment is a loop which will take some number of exposures according to the setup in the data taker window. This is useful for biases and dome flats, mainly. Here's how to do it: 1. Setup the data taker window for your bias or dome flat, or what have you. 2. Open an xterm window. Login to SHANE as USER. 3. At the prompt, type "vista". 4. At the next prompt, type: "rp pfcamloop". 5. You'll get a prompt that looks like "GO:". Type "go". 6. Now you'll be prompted for the number of repetitions in the loop. Type in some integer. 7. Watch with glee and as the loop bangs off your biases / flats...