===Focusing the spectrograph===
Before each night's observations, you should focus the spectrograph. This is done using a scripted Hartmann testsequence, which moves a shutter halfway into the beam, takes an arc exposure; then blocks the other half of the beam and takes a second arc exposure. The arc lines are then cross-correlated to measure the shift between the two. The procedure is repeated at a range of camera focus positions until the line shifts are minimised, indicating best focus. This procedure can be performed manually or automatically. For an auto focus run:
# Above the grating setup, select slit width 7: 1.05" (or smaller) from the dropdown meny and click "Go".
# In the "Exposure/CCD info" "Advanced" subtab, select CCD modes "Faint" and "Slow" from the dropdown menus, and CCD Binning "1x2".
# In the "Exposure/CCD info" "Main" subtab, select "Exposure type" = ARC from the dropdown menu, and enter e.g. ..... 20 seconds in the "Exposure time" box.
# Move the arc mirror into the beam and switch on the appropriate arc lamp for your grating setup.
# In the "Instrument Setup" section of the SpUpNIC GUI, select the "Auto" tab.
# Enter an "initial focus position" (e.g. 3.....80), a "focus increment" (0.... 05 is recommended) and a number of "steps" (try .... 7 iterations) and click "Run". As The GUI will grey out and not be available during the procedure runsHartmann focus sequence, but you will see the current "Camera focus" field changing, and the Hartmann shutters indicate "Moving", ... # On completion, in the SpUpNIC Quick -Look GUI, in the log box to the left of the spectrum display window, you will see a list of focus positions and their corresponding pixel shifts. Best focus corresponds to a shift of zero.
# Enter the best focus into the "requested" Camera focus box on SpUpNIC Control's "Instrument Setup" window and click "Go".
# Switch off the arc lamp and move the arc mirror out of the beamby clicking on the arc mirror in the schematic.# Does The Hartmann test end ends with shutters the shutter out of the beam......?
The Graphical view
Normal operations are performed in the "Main View" tab of the SpUpNIC Control interface. On the right-hand-side is a graphical representation of the instrument, which shows the light path through the various components controlled by the GUI. You can click on the guide mirror, arc mirror, rear of slit mirror and Hartmann shutters to move them in and out of the beam, and on the arc lamps and slit illumination to switch them on and off. A blue border surrounding the graphic indicates that the spectrograph is in "Acquisition" or "Calibration" mode, i.e. some component is in the beam that would obstruct its path to the science detector.
==Observing setup==