1.0m

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User Manual

Notes for the reader

This manual is intended to supplement the existing TCS and instrument user's guides, filling the void of information about the telescope and facility, and providing recipes for observing with the telescope-instrument-TCS combination.

For detailed information about the TCS and instrument software, please refer to the manuals listed below, which are available in the warm room, the hostel library, and are linked to on the 1.0-metre section of the following web page:

http://www.saao.ac.za/observing/operating-manuals

  • "1.0-m Telescope Control Software: A User's Guide" by Stephen Potter & Hannah Worters
  • "SAAO CCD Camera Control Program, version 1.2" by J. W. Menzies
  • "SHOC User Guide", by Rocco Coppejans

Much of the manual assumes that the user has never before set foot in the dome, and has no local human to guide them. This is particularly true for Chapter~\ref{chap-tour}. {\bf If you are familiar with the telescope, you may wish to skip Chapter~\ref{chap-tour}, but please read Chapters~\ref{chap-limits} and~\ref{chap-faults} as some things have changed(!)}. Observing recipes are given in Chapters~\ref{chap-start} to~\ref{chap-end}, which may prove useful as checklists for experienced observers and novice users alike.

Please send comments/requests/omissions to hannah@saao.ac.za.


A guided tour of the 1-m dome

The purpose of this section is to introduce you to the facilities and equipment you will need during your run. The tour begins at the front door of the 1-m dome. To aid orientation, the domes of the 0.5-m, 0.75-m and 1.0-m are aligned East-West, perpendicular to the main road that passes SALT at the Northern end of the plateau and leads to the ``Robotic Row of telescopes in the South.

Ground floor power & light switches

  • The main power switch for the telescope and lighting circuits is just inside the second front door on the right. Switch this on when you enter. A red light will illuminate above the switch.
  • Foyer and stairwell light switches can be found on the same wall, just around the corner to the right, at the foot of the stairs. There is a second switch for the stairwell/foyer lights at the top of the stairs.

Ground floor facilities

As you enter the dome on the ground floor, you will find the following facilities:

  • Fire extinguisher: mounted to the wall on the right as you enter.
  • First aid kit: on a shelf to the left as you enter the dome.
  • Toilet: through the first door on the left as you enter the dome. The light switch is outside the door on the right. (Don't be alarmed if you discover that these facilities are occupied during the night; the neighbouring IRSF does not have its own
 toilet.)
  • Kitchen: located beyond the staircase on the right. It has recently been refurbished and has a sink with running water, a microwave, coffee maker, kettle, toaster, snackwich and an array of cutlery and cheerful crockery. There are jars of teas, coffees, hot chocolate, sugar and creamer. The kitchenware is cleaned daily by the hostel staff, except at weekends.

Upstairs light switches

  • Light switches on the left at the top of the stairs. One is for the stairwell/foyer lights; the other for the observing floor incandescents.
  • The switch for observing floor fluorescent lights is located inside the small door facing the stairs, next to the controls for the air conditioning.
  • The switch for upper dome fluorescent lights is on the grey Observing Floor Control Panel on the wall by the North pier.

The Observing Floor

At the top of the stairs, you will find the telescope on the "observing floor". The North pier is nearest the stairs. Familiarise yourself with the following:

  • Blue console on the East side of the North pier. You will use this console to slew the telescope to your targets. The
 telescope power switch and dome rotation controls are also on this console.
  • Grey box by the blue console. If the telescope reaches its safe operating limits, the red light on this box will flash, an alarm will sound and the telescope drives and dome rotation will be disabled. There is an override key attached to the box, used to allow the telescope to be moved out of the limits -- see Section~\ref{sec-limits}.
  • Emergency stop button on the grey box. There is a large red button to press if the drive motors fail to stop. If you have reason to press this, call a technician to investigate.
  • XY-slide reset button on the grey box. On the top of the grey box with the emergency stop button is a small blue button to
 press if the TCS XY-slides fail to respond.
  • PC monitor to the right of the North pier. This screen displays pointing information, including your target coordinates and
 current telescope coordinates, for use when slewing the telescope.
  • Observing Floor Control Panel. On the North wall by the North pier there is a grey box labelled "Dome Shutter and Windblind
 Control", which has red buttons for opening/closing the dome shutter and raising/lowering the windblind.  One must first switch
 on the telescope power (blue console) and press the top button labelled "Request Local Control" to activate the panel.  The red
 indicator will illuminate when the panel is active. To open/close the dome, push and hold the appropriate button until the shutters stop moving and you hear a beep.  To raise/lower the windblind, push and hold the appropriate button until the blind reaches the desired height.  Do not raise the windblind while pointing into the wind; first rotate the dome by 180°, raise the blind then rotate back.  There is also a switch for the upper dome lights.
  • Yellow hand paddle on the wall facing the stairs. As of October 2011, the yellow paddle is no longer in use. The Observing Floor Control Panel should be used to open/close the dome and raise/lower the windblind.
  • Dome flat lamp switch. On the North wall, just above and left of the monitor, is a dimmer switch that controls the incandescent lamp used for taking dome flats (see Section~\ref{sec-domeflats}).
  • A red balance weight on a rope, which can be hung from an appropriate place below the primary mirror cell if the telescope jumps while tracking (usually when tracking around the zenith).
  • Tall and short wheeled ladders for hanging the weight and for accessing the reset buttons on the Merlin transputer crates.
 Make sure the ladders are clear of the telescope while observing (the taller ladder is usually stored on the West side of the
 observing floor under the catwalk, the other is pushed to the East side of the North pier).

The Telescope

On the telescope itself, identify the following:

  • Mirror cover motor: on the East side of the telescope below the primary mirror is a button to open/close the primary mirror covers.
  • Acquisition/guider box and autoguider camera: the former is a large black box mounted directly below the primary mirror cell. The XY-slides and acquisition/autoguider camera are mounted on the South side of the guider box.
  • TCS Merlin crate: above the autoguider camera is a small blue electronics crate. This is the Merlin transputer for the TCS. On the side is a red reset button that should be pressed if the TCS encounters a "Merlin error".
  • Filter wheels: The blue metallic box below the acquisition/guider box contains the filter wheel(s), labelled on the East and West sides.
  • Instrument: SHOC, STE3 or STE4 (or your own instrument) will be mounted below the filter box.
  • STE3/STE4 has its own blue instrument Merlin crate mounted to the cylindrical dewar. There is a red reset button on
 the side of the crate that should be pressed if the instrument control software hangs, crashes or reports a "Merlin error".
 There is no need for observers to fill the dewar with liquid nitrogen; this is done by technicians in the morning and afternoon.
  • SHOC does not require liquid nitrogen; it is peltier-cooled. It has no Merlin crate. The control PC ("shocnawe"
 or "shocndisbelief" is mounted in a crate below the primary mirror cell.

Filters

The blue metallic box below the acquisition/guider box contains the filter wheel(s), labelled on the East and West sides. Each wheel has 8 filter positions; position 1 is the reference and position 8 is always empty. Filters must not be removed from the filter wheels.

You will have been allocated the appropriate wheel(s) for your run based on the filters specified in your observing proposal. A filter wheel rota can be found pinned to the notice board on the South pier. It details the filter in each position of each wheel and the name of the wheel(s) you have been allocated. If the incorrect wheel is in the telescope, please contact a technician. Please direct any other filter-related enquiries to hannah@saao.ac.za.

The Warm Room

The warm room is situated on the East side of the observing floor. The light switch is a dial just inside the door on the right as you enter. Here you have the following resources at your disposal:

Computing facilities

In the warm room, you will find:

  • If using STE3 or STE4, a PC labelled imag40, running the CCD Camera Control software.
  • A thin client with monitor labelled ltsp that saves the data from the instrument PC and can be used to run a web browser,
 ds9, etc.  For SHOC, it can be used to run the instrument control software via a web browser.  It is possible to download your data to a laptop on the network from this PC (use scp or sftp ccd40@ltsp.suth - the monitor is labelled with the password).
  • A PC running the Telescope Control Software (TCS) for acquisition and guiding. Associated with this are a second monitor
 on a shelf (which displays the target and telescope coordinates, etc.) and hand paddle for fine adjustment of the telescope
 coordinates while acquiring an object.
  • Several network cables and power sockets for use with laptops.
  • A black & white printer. Print command: lpr -Ppr30in filename

At present there are no DVD writers, USB ports or DAT drives in the dome for copying data from ltsp.

Current known issues (last updated Nov 2013)

Telescope pointing problems/time server error

If you encounter telescope pointing problems, check the time and date displayed on the TCS, as the cause could be the time server. If the date/time is wrong, please call the electronics technician for assistance.

Latest pointing zeropoints

Date: 29/10/2013

RA zeropoint (s): -127

Dec zeropoint ("): 41

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