'''1.''' Follow the facility [[#Start-up recipes|start-up procedure]].
'''2. ''' Check that the selected target is within the [[#Telescope pointing limits|pointing limits]]. If you're not sure, or want to find out the exact altaz of your target, you can enter the coordinates into the input boxes on the upper left panel of the Controls tab, then click "Visibility...". This brings up a panel that shows the altitude and azimuth of the target at that moment and the times at which the target rises and sets at the 30° altitude limit.
Then/or, either:
'''3(a) ''' In the TCS '''Controls''' tab enter the RA, Dec and Equinox into the boxes on the upper left panel and click '''Go'''.
or:
'''3(b) ''' In the TCS '''Controls''' tab click on the box labelled '''Targets''', then select the desired object from the dropdown list. To populate the dropdown list, see the [[#Target catalogue| catalogue instructions]].
The telescope will slew to the target, and its movement will be plotted in red dots on the schematic in the right-hand panel. The "Go" button will become a "STOP" button, which you can click to stop the telescope. Once it reaches the target coordinates, the telescope will start to track and yellow dots will show the track progress on the visibility plot. If nothing happens, the target is probably outside the observing window - return to step 2.
'''4. ''' The telescope will track the target until you click '''STOP''', or until it reaches the lower altitude limit (note that the TCS will not warn you if this happens, so keep an eye on the visibility plot). To run SHOC, follow the instructions on the [https://topswiki.saao.ac.za/index.php/SHOC SHOC wiki].
'''5. ''' Lesedi's pointing is excellent, so your target should land very close to the centre of the SHOC image. The '''image orientation''' with no "flips" applied in the SHOC software (check the Advanced tab of the SHOC control) is usually North up, East to the left with SHOC, but will change to North down, East to the right for a short time after passing through the meridian.
To adjust the pointing (e.g. to position a target and comparison star in the field), in the TCS Controls tab, click on the three dots beside "RA offset" (to shift the image horizontally) or "Dec offset" (for a vertical shift), enter the size of the required offset in arcsec, then click on the North, South, East or West button to move the telescope in the desired direction. When you're done, clicking the three dots again will hide the offset boxes.
'''6. ''' The focus position is reported in the central status panel on the Controls tab. A reasonable starting point for SHOC focus with a filter in the beam is ~2000μm, or ~1800μm without a filter. Once you're close to focus, a reasonable increment for small adjustments is ~5μm. Focus the telescope using the '''Adjust Focus...''' button, which brings up a box in which you can enter the focus increment, then click '''+''' or '''-''' to add or subtract e.g. 5μm to the focus position.
== Autoguiding ==