1. Startup: Carried out late afternoon. Bring up the control system in the control room. Fill the camera dewar on the observing floor. Do starting calibrations (“startcal” from prospero), verify the central wavelength and check focus of spectrograph.

2. Twilight Setup: Open dome, power up telescope. Initialize tracking, move to bright star to reset encoders. Focus telescope.

3. Night-time Observing: towards end of twilight, begin observing (a) targets, (b) flux standard stars. See suggested program section 5, page 21. Periodically check telescope focus, seeing, and weather conditions. Keep an electronic log.

4. Shutdown: Stop tracking, move telescope to stow position. Close the mirror cover. Move the dome to the stow position and close the shutters. Fill the CCD dewar with LN₂. Take final calibrations (“endcal” from prospero). Write data to DVD. Fill out the observing report and any trouble report forms on the MDM webpage. Email the log to Kelly Denney and Brad Peterson.

1.2 Site Safety Rules

The observer is responsible for protection of the telescope and instruments. This responsibility is exceeded only by responsibility for human safety on the site.

The telescope must not be used if any of the following conditions apply:

1. The wind speed exceeds 40 mph.

2.Humidity exceeds 85%.

3.There is condensation forming on cold metal surfaces such as railings or cars.

4.Dust/fog is visible in a flashlight beam.

5.There is a threat of rain or lightning.

6.There is snow on the dome.

In the threat of lightning, there is a written lightning shutdown procedure that must be followed. Make sure you ask the mountain support staff to show you this procedure.

1.3 A Note on Scripts

Prospero command scripts have been provided for most of the observing tasks in order to optimize the observing process and reduce the possibility for mistakes or inhomogeneous observing practices among different observers. You are required to use these scripts as described below. To see what scripts are available, enter “agnhelp” in Prospero.

The scripts are implemented as custom Prospero commands (e.g., “agnhelp”). Type the script name and then follow the prompts within the script. When the script is finished, a message will be printed to the ~~Prospero~~Prospero screen, and the ~~Prospero~~Prospero prompt will return.

1.4 Data Requirements

Because we will be acquiring~~recording~~ a large amount of data for this campaign, there are a number ~~couple~~ of procedures that need to be followed every night that will greatly ~~, which will drastically~~ help with the flow of data through the spectral reduction pipeline ~~we’re~~ .

File Naming Convention

All raw FITS format files will be named “ccdsYYMMDD.####”, where #### is a sequence number that should be set to begin with 0001 at the beginning of each night (the system adds “.fits”, so you don’t have to). The date code YYMMDD is the date of the “observing day” which runs from noon to noon in local time. For example, on the night beginning at sunset on March 21 and ending at sunrise on March 22, the date code is “070321”, and files will be named “ccds070321.0001.fits” and so forth.

Do not deviate from this file name convention. We use the filename to organize the data by the date of observation, and mine the information from the FITS headers when running the data through the pipeline.

The images sequence number start at 0001 with the first calibration image taken during the afternoon and increment ~~count up sequentially~~ from there. There is only ONE EXCEPTION: when focusing the ~~for any~~ spectrograph with “focseq”, you will be instructed to ~~focus images~~ ~~or test images (if something goes wrong and you’re trying to troubleshoot)~~, change the filenames ~~with prospero command ‘filename’~~ to ‘focus.####’ ~~or ‘test.####’ as needed~~. MAKE SURE to change the filename back to ~~where it was (~~ccdsYYMMDD._#### ) after you are done focusing. Since focseq should be executed before any afternoon calibrations are taken, you need to reset the filename to the correct format above before proceeding.

AGN07 Observing Scripts

~~ward.~~Scripts should be used whenever available (for basically everything). Here is a list of available scripts and what they do:

a. ~~agncal – take post-AGN calibration observations (Xe and flat)~~

a.startccds – startup CCDS for a night’s observing (also run after a shutdown or system restart)

b. focseq – take CCDS collimator focus spectrum sequence

c. startcal – take the start-of-night calibrations

d. ag~~nhelp – lists these scripts and what they do, just like seen here.~~

a. agnsetup – setup CCDS for AGN spectral observation

e. doagn – take an AGN spectrum

f. chkfocus – take a CCDS focus-check Xenon lamp spectrum

g.dostd – take a sStandard sStar sSpectrum

h. endcal – take the end-of-night calibrations

i. agnnhelp – lists these scripts and what they do

All of these scripts are implemented as custom Prospero commands, and are available on startup.

Seeing Estimates

Please make regular estimates of the seeing during the night. You can query the 2.4m observer for seeing estimates, but better is to estimate them from the CCDS Acquisition Camera images as described in (see Appendix, section 4, p. 30).

Weather Conditions

Please keep a detailed log of weather conditions in the “Notes” section of the logsheet (e.g. cirrus, wind buffeting, seeing, poor guiding due to these issues, etc.). You should also consult the weather station display in the control room for parameters you may think are relevant, like wind speed and direction, changes in temperature, etc. that might be factors.

Logs

Please keep an electronic log via excel (if you have a laptop) or open office on McGraw. Use the template from the previous observer, or use /lhome/data/AGN07/070324/070324.xls as a template, resaving it as /lhome/data/AGN07/YYMMDD/YYMMDD.xls. If this is impossible for some reason, keep a written log using the blank logsheets provided and fax them to the OSU Astronomy department the following day at (614) 292-2928. If no blank logsheets are available, you can print copies by typing:

“lpr -# 10 /lhome/obs13m/logsheets/agn07log.ps” (this will print 10 copies).

1.5 INSIDE THE CONTROL ROOM: What is all this stuff?

Figure 1: Main telescope control monitors.

Figure 2: mcgraw workstation screen.

Figure 3: Telescope sStatus and gGuider mMonitors and telescope controls and focus.

2. Startup Procedures

2.1 Startup Procedures: Inside the Control Room

1. Make sure that ~~We assume that~~ the Instrument Computer (IC) (in the computer room) is running functioning and that the CCDS is ~~installed and~~ working. See the CCDS manual (“CCDS and TIFKAM Data Taking Startup Procedure inside the front cover of the binder) for info on how to start the data-taking system if needed.

2. Make sure that the data-taking system (Prospero and all its friends) are running on the Linux workstation (mcgraw), and connected to the CCDS.

3. ~~We will further assume that prospero (the data-taking system) is operating. If any of these assumptions are incorrect, please consult (1)~~ ~~Appendix, section 1~~. (2) the 1.3-m Telescope manual, (3) the Prospero manual, and (4) the Boller & Chivens CCDS manual. Hard copies of (2) and (3) are available in the white loose-leaf notebook labeled “Telescope Manual” in the observing room. Do not be afraid to ask for help.

1. Turn on power supplies and monitor for guide cameraM (see Fig. 3). Everything else should already be turned on.

4.Go to the xtcs window ~~window o~~onn mcgraw, click on the pink “setup” button, then select “clear link” from the menu. Click again on “setup” and this time select “set UT”. You should see the words “UT set on TCS” in the xtcs status bar (bottom of window).

5.~~Use Prospero command ‘jd’ to list the current Julian Date and take note of the integer JD on the log sheet. For example, at MST 2005 January 25 18:00 the JD is 2453396.~~

1.Initialize the observing session by entering “startccds~~RUNINIT~~” in the ~~prospero~~Prospero command window. ~~on the computer McGraw.~~ You will be prompted with several questions and should respond as below (text in boldface):

a. “Initialize Session <y|n>?” Answer: y

b. ~~“Enable Writing Files to Disk <y|n>? Answer: y~~

a.“Image Directory Path” Answer: /lhome/data (note: letter before home is lower-case ‘el’)

i. ~~This is where the data will be stored.~~

i.~~If changed, it will be on the dry erase board in the control room.~~

i.~~Current set path is displayed in prospero status window (above the command window).~~

a.“Root file name for image: Answer: ccdsYYMMDD, where YYMMDD is the current date (local time noon-to-noon) as described in Section 1.4 abovejdNNNN. (where NNNN are the least significant digits in the current Julian Day number. Don’t forget the trailing period. Current Julian day number can also be read from the TCS monitor. For example, at MST 2005 January 25 18:00 the JD is 2453396 so NNNN = 3396. It is IMPORTANT to get this right for our own bookkeeping purposes. Note that Julian date begins at 5:00 am MST; the rootname we use is that for the beginning of the local night. For example, on the night beginning with sunset on 2007 March 21 and ending at sunrise on March 22, type “ccds070321”..

b.“Starting image number” Answer: 1 (unless you are restarting, then it should be number for the NEXT image to be acquired).

c. “Observers names” Answer: last names (e.g., Smith and Jones)

d. ~~“FITS header comment card for tonight: Answer: ‘MDM Reverberation jdNNNN’, where as above, NNNN is the last four digits in the Julian Date.~~

a.“Save setup <y|n>:” Answer: y

2.We use the 350 l/mm grating in first order. These will be set by the “startccds” command, but you should see confirmation of this in the Prospero command window and in the Prospero status window.

NOTE: if you have to restart the data-taking system for any reason during the course of a night (e.g., restarting after a lightning shutdown or recovering from a system crash), you will need to run the “startccds” script again, but this time take extra care to answer “Starting image number” with the number of the NEXT image to be written in sequence. For example, if after restarting the system the last image written to disk is /lhome/data/ccds070321.0069.fits, then answer “70” for “starting image number” above.

~~The grating and order may not be listed in the~~ ~~Prospero~~ status window, if it has been restarted since the previous nights observing. These parameters can be updated by entering “grooves 350” and “order 1”. The central wavelength will also need to be entered. How to determine this is described in the next section on how to check the spectrograph focus.

2.2 Startup Procedures on the Observing Floor

Fill the camera dewar on the observing floor (see Figure 5, below):

Figure 5. Insert the fill tube into the fill port of the camera dewar, gently pushing it in as far as it will go (upper left). Turn on the fill valve (upper right) on the liquid nitrogen tank. The camera dewar is full when liquid N₂ pours copiously onto floor. Turn off fill valve. Do not attempt to move the liquid nitrogen tank until the fill tube has completely thawed or it will shatter. Fill tube will fall out when it has thoroughly thawed out. Return liquid nitrogen to stow position on platform. Record the fill time on dry erase board in control room (lower left). If the tank is getting low on liquid nitrogen, inform the support staff immediately so they can get you another tank.

2.3 Startup Procedures: Check Spectrograph Focus

Before you take any calibration data you need to check the spectrograph focus as follows:

1. Change image filename to ‘focus’ by typing “filename focus.0001” in the ~~Prospero~~Prospero window.

2.Note the current collimator focus in the ~~prospero~~Prospero status window on mcgraw. The dial units are the ones in square brackets (e.g., [860]).

3.Run the script ‘chkfocus’ or follow steps (a) to (d) below:

a. Place the finder mirror in the beam by flipping the Finder Mirror switch to “in”. The finder probe takes 20 seconds or so to insert, to please wait.

b. Change the slitwidth to 1 arcsecond by entering “setslit 47” (47 microns = 1 arcsecond) in ~~Prospero~~Prospero window.

c. Turn on the Xenon lamp by clicking the “Xe” button in the MIS Lamp window. Check the slit-viewer monitor to see that the lamp comes on.

d. Enter “exp 120” to set the exposure time and enter “go” to start the exposure.

4.Go to the IRAF command window and examine this exposure by entering “implot filename.nnnn” where ‘filename.nnnn’ is the name of the comparison lamp exposure you just took.

5.In the IRAF graphics window, enter “: a 20” and “:l 350” (letter ‘el’) to display the average of 20 rows around line 350 (where the spectra appear on the CCD).

6.Measure the line widths of the arc lines using key ‘p’: place the cursor at the base of the blue wing of the line, hit ‘p’ and place cursor at the base of the red line wing and hit ‘p’ again. The line width and center will be displayed at the bottom of the graphics window.

7.Repeat this for the other lines taking note of the line widths.

8.For a good focus the line width should be about 2.3-2.5 pixels. If the line widths typically have this value, the focus is good. If not, you’ll have to refocus the spectrograph (go to Appendix Section 2 at the end of this manual).

9.Once the focus is good, you are ready to take the afternoon/early evening calibration data. See the next section for this task.

10. Once done, turn off lamps (if on).

11. Change filename to be ready for beginning of the night calibrations by typing “filename ccdsYYMMDD~~jdNNNN.~~.0001” (where again, YYMMDD is the observing day date (see §1.4 above).

2.4 Startup Procedures: Determine central wavelength (if unknown)

At this point (when the spectrograph is focused) you can check or determine the central wavelength as follows:

1. With a well-focused Xenon arc lamp plot the spectrum with “implot”.

2. Find the Xenon spectral line atlas in the CCDS manual that covers the range from 4000Å to 6000Å (also reference Figure 6 below). Using this atlas identify two well-defined spectral lines at either end of the chip. Good reference lines are the 4501Å, 5028Å, and 5823Å lines located at approximate pixel position 134, 531, and 1124, respectively.

3. Using key ‘p’ as before (in task “implot”), determine the centroid of two lines (e.g., the 4501Å and 5823Å lines) and take note thereof.

4.In ~~Prospero~~Prospero run script ‘xwave’ and enter pixel and wavelength positions as the script queries for them (Note: central pixel is 600). The script will return the central wavelength and the approximate linear dispersion. Note: the central wavelength is only accurate to within a few Ångstrøms.

5.You can update the central wavelength value in the ~~Prospero~~Prospero status window with command ‘newcenter center-wavelength’ where ‘center-wavelength’ is the central wavelength you just determined.

6.If the central wavelength is significantly different (>20 Å off) than what it should be (5150Å), call Rick to make sure he OKs you moving the grating center, and then you can move it by typing “center 5150”. Although, PLEASE NOTE that you really shouldn’t have to do this, since NO ONE should be moving the grating center!

Figure 6: Xe spectrum with center at 5150A.
2.5 Startup Procedures: Calibration Images [startcal]

There are a number of calibration images that need to be taken at the beginning of each night: (a) long Xe and Ar lamp spectra that will be used for primary wavelength calibration, (b) long flat-field exposures, and (c) bias frames to detect any zero-point offset. These can all be taken in the afternoon or early evening, but should be done before it is dark enough to observe. You can take these data using script ‘startcal’ or follow the procedure described below.

1. Before beginning calibrations, make sure you have run “startccds” from prospero and that next image filename is “ccdsYYMMDD~~jdNNNN~~.0001”. If it isn’t, change it to this by typing “filename ccdsYYMMDD~~jdNNNN~~.0001” (see Section 1.4). Also make sure that dome lights are off and all doors to the dome are closed.

2.All calibrations should be taken by running the script “startcal”. Type this command and follow the instructions. startcal will take about an hour to execute and is interactive throughout. You must be present for most of it.

3. Twilight Set-Up

3.1 Opening the Dome

Make sure that the dome in the stow position, azimuth = 51° (the red marker in the middle of the dome slit will line up just to the right of the 50° azimuth marker). The shutter can only be opened/closed at the stow position.

2. Set the main shutter switch to open.

3. Press the main shutter control button. Wait until the shutter all the way open.

4. Press and hold the dropout shutter control button till dropout is completely open.

5. To move dome, select left or right motion.

Figure 7. Dome in the stow position at 51 degrees azimuth (left); note alignment of the contacts at azimuth 90 degrees. Right side shows electronics out of contact, where the shutter won’t work

Figure 8. Dome controls. Open main first, then dropout.

3.2 Opening the Mirror Cover and MIS Hatch Cover

The dome must be opened entirely before the telescope is opened (to keep any debris on the dome from falling on to the mirror).

1. Make sure that the telescope is pointed toward the zenith (approximate is good enough).

2. Refer to Figure 9 (below). Open the mirror cover. You will need a ladder to reach the mirror crank, which is in the northwest corner of the telescope platform (refer to diagram below). Be sure to move the ladder back to its stored position when you are done, completely out of the way of the telescope. You are responsible if you hit anything with the telescope.

3. Open the MIS hatch cover above the mirror hatch (accessible from the east side of the telescope, see diagram). Open and closed positions are clearly marked.

Figure 9. Open the mirror cover by turning the mirror cover crank (top). Open the MIS box hatch shutter (bottom).

3.3 Power-up the Telescope.

1. Before doing anything, make sure that there is nothing on the floor that can interfere with the motion of the telescope. In particular, make sure that the liquid nitrogen tank and the ladder have been moved to the northeast corner of the platform by the TCS, and make sure that the platform is down.

2. Make sure the dome encoder is reading properly (50.6 at the home position). If not, in the xtcs window, select Setup->Set Az Encoder. Enter 51 and press return. If it fails during the middle of the night, you can either send the dome home and reset it for the best precision, or eyeball the center of the dome slit with the marks on the inside of the dome and set it to that value.

3. Turn off the AC.

4. Refer to Figure 10 (below), Telescope Control System (TCS). Turn on power.

5. Press start (note: not on uninterrupted power (UPS). May need to be reset after even short outage). If the telescope stops tracking during the night, this is likely what happened. Just restart the power to the telescope.

6. Set tracking rate to 60 Hz setting by turning tracking rate knob to farthest clockwise setting.

7. Move telescope to desired location using speed and directional controls. You should ALWAYS be watching the telescope when you slew. The instrument can run into the floor, and the telescope can run into the north pier.

a. Slew: high speed moves. Moves more than a degree or so require simultaneously holding down the slew button and directional button

b. Set: medium speed moves (< minutes). You must hold down the set button and a directional button.

c. Guide: low speed moves (seconds). Hold down the directional button only.

Figure 10: The Telescope Control System on the observing floor of the 1.3-m telescope.

3.4 Check the Telescope Pointing

Check the pointing of the telescope on a bright star during twilight while it is still too light to observe. This procedure can also be followed at any time during the night when you find that you can’t find your target because the pointing is off.

1. Using the 2007 Astronomical Almanac, select a bright star near the zenith.

2. Use the “point13” program on mcgraw (run it in an xterm) and enter the coordinates and equinox (for example, 2007.5 equinox for cords from the 2007 tables). It will return the J2000.0 equinox coordinates of the target corrected for the telescope pointing model. Write these down.

3. In the xmis window, press the “Preset” button, and select “Center” from the menu. This will move the guide into the science beam center (between the sky and the CCD slit). Turn the guider camera intensity all the way down.

4. In the dome: point the telescope to the coordinates given by point13. Rotate the dome so that the telescope is looking out through the shutter. Be aware that there have been recent problems with the encoder. DON’T BLINDLY TRUST THE DISPLAY.

5. In control room, slowly turn up the guider camera intensity. If all is well with the pointing, the star should appear on the guider monitor. You’ll know if it is – it’s a VERY bright star and will quickly saturate the guider monitor. If not, you may need to search for the star using the telescope hand paddle.

6. Once you find the star, place the star on the black grease pencil dot on the guider monitor with the hand paddle, move the guider to the origin, then place the star on the tape mark on the CCDS acquisition monitor.

7. If you can’t find the star, use the tilt meters in the computer room to set the telescope to Zenith (000 on both meters). Reset the encoders to RA=current sidereal time, and Dec = 31 57 00 and the current epoch (ie J2007.22). Then begin with step 1 again.

8. In the xtcs window, enter the RA(nn nn nn), Dec(nn nn nn), and Equinox of your bright star (if you used point13, this should be 2000.0).

9. In xtcs, click “Setup” and select “Set RA/Dec Encoders” from the menu. You should be able to see the RA and Dec listed on the TCS Monitor change to the ones that you just entered.

3.5 Focus the Telescope

1. Select a star near the zenith from the SAO Catalog, somewhere in the range of 8-10 mag. Use point13 to correct the coordinates for the 1.3m pointing model and write these down.

2. In the control room, the guide probe should still be in the preset ‘center’ position, but if it’s not, move it there. Make sure that the guider camera intensity is turned all the way down.

3. In the dome, move to the position of the star returned by point13.

4. In the control room, slowly turn up the guider camera intensity and the star should appear on the guider monitor. If not, search for it using the hand paddle.

5. Once the star is correctly identified, move the star inside the white circle guide probe to the out position (‘origin’ or ‘slit’ preset positions).

6. Start a short exposure on the Slit-Viewer/Acquisition Monitor as follows:

a. Click on “Focus” on the CCDOps Toolbar.

b. Choose an exposure time; 1 or 2 seconds should be long enough for a fairly bright star. The star should appear in an image in a new window on the Acquisition monitor. Note that the star may fall on the slit, so moving the telescope toward the East or West should make the star be reflected off of the slit jaws.

7. Record the current telescope focus.

8. Now use the focus switch on the hand paddle to run the telescope focus to LOWER numbers (Don’t worry, it’s normal for it to make a horrible sound!). Watch the star image as you do this, and you’ll see it become a “doughnut” as the telescope moves out of focus.

9. Now move the focus towards larger numbers and note where the focus is optimal (i.e. star is round, as small as possible, and non-doughnut-like). Run through the focus to higher numbers until again the image becomes a doughnut again.

10. Repeat this process until you feel that you have found the best focus position.

11. Move the focus to a value somewhat lower than the optimal focus, and then move to the optimal focus from lower numbers.

12. Check the focus throughout the night, for example, when you are observing flux standards. The focus will change during the night as the temperature drops (focus decreases by about 1.5-2.0 units per degree drop in F), so keep an eye on it.

4. A Routine Observation

1. Keep a record of all observations in the excel (or open office) template. If you can’t for some reason, write it down on the logsheets in the control room. You can print copies by opening an xterm window on mcgraw and typing

“lpr -#4 /lhome/obs13m/logsheets/agn07log.ps” (this prints 4 copies)

Note: if you ONLY keep the paper log, you must fax a copy to Kelly Denney in the OSU Astronomy department the following day at (614) 292-2928.

2. In Prospero, type “agnsetup” to widen the slit to 5” for observations (it also makes sure the filter and prefilter are retracted, turns off any lamps you might have left on, and reminds you to retract the finder mirror if you forgot).

3. Make sure that the TCS epoch (in the TCS monitor) corresponds to the epoch of your target coordinates (generally 2000.0). If it is incorrect, in the xtcs window click on “TCS Equinox” and change the “Display Equinox”.

4. Correct your target coordinates using point13, and then go into the dome and point the target to these corrected coordinates. Rotate the dome so the telescope is looking out of the shutter.

5. In prospero, type “agnsetpup” then “doagn” (or “dostd” if observing a standard star) and follow the prompts. The appropriate IDs are on the finder charts.

6. Start longer exposures with the acquisition CCD by clicking on “Focus” in the CCDOps Toolbar on the acquisition Monitor. Guidelines for appropriate acquisition exposure times are listed on the finder chart.

7. Move the guider box (the square with the hash marks coming out all four sides, on the Guider Monitor) to the (xbox,ybox) coordinates given on the finder charts. The current position of the box can be found in the lower right-hand corner of the Guider Monitor (top number = x; 2^nd number = y). Then move the guide star inside the box with the paddle (it should already be fairly close to the box. This gives pretty good placement of the object in the slit, and makes sure the spectrum doesn’t fall on any major detector defects. However, the precise numbers shift slightly over time, so they should only be used as a guideline. Always make sure the object is entirely in the slit and positioned at the tape mark on the CCDS Acquisition camera monitor before starting an exposure.

8. Once the star is in the box, press “s” to start guiding.

9. Watch the images on the CCDS Acquisition Camera monitor for several cycles to make sure that the guider does not pull the target out of the slit. If it does:

a. While still guiding, move the guide box using small steps with the arrow keys and then watch the slit view – if you are moving in the right direction with the guider box, it will pull the target back into the slit. Note: moving the guider box up, moves the object down with respect to the slit, and vice versa.

b. See the Appendix, section 1 for more guiding tips.

10. Once an observation is complete, watch the CCD display monitor as the image is readout. Do 3 exposures for each target and two for each standard (more if there are clouds). Check for quality to make sure a repeat is not needed. Check also that the data are written to disk.

5. Typical Night of Observing

This is the typical sequence of observations during a night. Names of scripts that will do these tasks are listed in square brackets.

1. Take calibration data in the afternoon [script: startcal]

2. Standard star (Feige 34 or other, nominal 2 ´ 300 sec) [script: dostd]

3. Object 1 (priority 1 target, nominal 3 ´ 1200 sec) [scripts: agnsetup, doagn]

4. Object 2 (priority 1 target, nominal 3 ´ 1200 sec) [scripts: doagn]

5. Object 3 (priority 1 target, nominal 3 ´ 1200 sec) [scripts: doagn]

6. Object 4 (priority 1 target, nominal 3 ´ 1200 sec) [scripts: doagn]

7. Standard star (Feige 56 or other, nominal 2 ´ 300 sec) [script: dostd]

8. Object 5 (priority 1 target, nominal 3 ´ 1200 sec) [scripts: agnsetup, doagn]

9. Object 6 (priority 1 target, nominal 3 ´ 1200 sec) [scripts: doagn]

10. Object 7 (priority 2 target, nominal 3 ´ 1200 sec) [scripts: doagn]

11. Object 8 (priority 2 target, nominal 3 ´ 1200 sec) [scripts: doagn]

12. Standard star (Feige 98 or other, nominal 2 ´ 300 sec) [script: dostd]

13. End of night calibrations after closing everything up [script: endcal]

6. Shutdown Procedures:

1. Make sure that the camera intensity is turned all the way down on the guider camera. Turn off the power on the guider monitor and stop exposures on the Acquisition CCD.

2. Move the telescope to the zenith.

3. Turn off the telescope tracking by turning the tracking knob on the TCS all the way counterclockwise to the off position.

4. Remember to keep the lights off in the dome until the dome is closed. Do not take any calibration images while the interior dome lights are on since the instrument is not light-tight.

5. Close the MIS box hatch shutter.

6. Close the mirror cover using the hand crank on the telescope.

7. Move the dome to its stow position at azimuth = 51° (the red marker in the middle of the dome slit will line up just to the right of the 50° azimuth marker). Open/close functions work only at stow position. See Figure 7 above.

8. Set dome main shutter switch to close. See Figure 8 above.

9. Press and hold dropout shutter control button till dropout is completely closed. Make sure that the dropout is completely closed before closing the main shutter.

10. Press main shutter control button to close the main shutter.

11. Move the telescope to the true zenith as follows. Use the hand paddle in the control room while watching the tilt sensors (the small LCD displays in the computer room at the top of the second rack from the right - see Figure 11 below). Both displays read 000 when the telescope is parked at the true zenith.

12. Turn on the AC.

13. Take the end-of-night calibration observations. [script endcal]

14. Submit an observing report. Open the Firefox web browser and go to http://mdm.kpno.noao.edu and click on “Submit a Nightly Observer’s Report”. This is mostly self-explanatory. Be sure to report ANY problems you have by mentioning in the observing report and filling out an additional trouble report.

15. Write your data to CD (detailed instructions follow in Section 7, pg 23) and also create a tar file of the data directory for downloading OSU later that day.

16. Fill the CCD dewar and record the time it was filled on the dry erase board in the control room. DO NOT leave dewar unattended during fill process.

17. Make sure all the lights are out on the observing floor and in the control room. Make sure that the fill valve on the liquid nitrogen tank is closed.

Figure 11. Tilt sensor readouts in the computer room.

7. Writing Data to CD/DVD:

1. Go into computer room and insert disk into hill (See Figure 12, pg. 30).

2. On hill, left click on the desktop, and select CD & DVD tools then K3b CD/DVD Writer.

3. In the very top search prompt line (NOT the lower line that says ‘filter’ next to it), type “/home/mcgraw/data/”. All files in this directory, including the night’s raw data, will appear in the white box below prompt line.

4. In the bottom half of screen, select “New Data CD Project” or “New Data DVD Project” depending which kind of disk you are using.

5. Click and drag your night’s files from the top window to the bottom window.

6. Click on the “Burn” button in the bottom right corner of the screen.

7. Keep default parameters and choose “Burn” again.

8. Remove your disk and exit K3b.

9. Re-insert the disk, mount it, and check to make sure your data are there with the commands:

a. mount /media/cdrecorder

b. ls /media/cdrecorder

10. Unmount it with the command

a. umount /media/cdrecorder

11. Label your finished disk with the local and Julian Date from the beginning of the night.

12. Move all the night’s data to /lhome/data/AGN07/YYMMDD and delete any ‘focus’ images you might have taken. DO NOT DELETE BAD FRAMES. You don’t want to risk it, disk space is cheap, so save everything, even crap, and we’ll sort it out later.

Appendix

A1. Miscellaneous Hints and Pointers/Troubleshooting:

~~Prospero~~Prospero Status: If this window shows red, it means one or more parameters are in error. In particular pay attention to the row of flags 2^nd from the top (ISIS Link: et al.) and the “Flags” line at the bottom of the second box (the IC and CB flags). Red means something is wrong with one or more data-taking system states, and any data you attempt to take could be compromised in one way or another (either it won’t take data at all, or it will take data just fine, but telescope or other info will be missing from the FITS headers.

On the second line, all the various data-taking subsystems should read UP in green. If any are down, try doing STARTUP in Prospero. This should resynch the system. If not, you will get error messages as part of the STARTUP procedure. Pay attention to these, as they suggest corrective measures. Until all the flags in this line show GREEN, you cannot start taking data.

Some examples:

IC or IE are down: See if the IC is running and responsive to keyboard commands (keyboard in the computer room). If so, type STARTUP and see if you can do a warm restart. If not, reboot the IC, wait for the CCDS% prompt, and then type STARTUP in Prospero when it comes back. If this fails, exit out of all data-taking programs on mcgraw (in order: Prospero, Caliban, MCMTCS Agent, and ISIS), then reboot the IC and follow the cold restart procedure below from the step where the IC is up and ready and xtcs and xmis are up and running. You do not need to kill the xtcs or xmis, they don’t play a role in this process, but they do have to be running.

You see –TCSLink in red (sometimes along with TC: Down in red): Make sure that the MDMTCS agent is running, and that it returns useful information in response to a “tcstatus” command. If it claims the link is down, type “tcinit” then “tcstatus”. This usually recovers the TCS link, though in rare circumstances you may have to restart the MDMTCS agent. Then type STARTUP in Prospero and it should set the flag green. It is also a good idea to make sure that the xtcs program is running and initialized (a simple mistake to make).

You see –TCStoIC in red: If +TCSLink is green, this means that the TCS interface is up, but the IC doesn’t know this. To correct, go to the computer room and on the IC keyboard type “tcinit”. After a brief pause you should see correct TCS info returned. Then in Prospero type “STARTUP” and it should clear things up. This usually happens after a cold restart of the system, as the IC is slow to see the TCS interface on startup. Sometimes, just typing STARTUP again in Prospero clears it, but this fix is more explicit.

The second set of status flags is in the instrument status box (2^nd from the top) along the bottom of the box where its says “Flags:”. There are two sets of status data for CCDS, one for IC and one for CB.

IC should show +SEQ and –MOVIE in green. If you see –SEQ in red, this means the CCD controller “sequencer” is not correctly initialized. In this case, to into the computer room and on the IC keyboard type “seqinit”. This should start the sequencer. If successful, in Prospero type STARTUP and it should clear the fault. If the sequencer does not initialize correctly, try stopping and power cycling the IC, and repeat the cold restart procedure from the point where xtcs/xmis are running (you will need to quit out of Prospero/Caliban/MDMTCS and ISIS in order).

CB should show +SYNC and +SWAP. The most common problem is –SYNC appearing in red. This means that Caliban and the IC have have not synchronized the transfer disks. One way to correct this is to open the Caliban window and type “>IC PING”. This should be followed by a lot of chatter as the disks synchronize. If this fails, leave Caliban running and then restart the IC (cold restart) and follow the usual warm restart procedures.

If you cannot get a particular process working after following the suggestions in startup and above, you may have a real problem that requires external help. Before doing that, quit out of and power off the IC and do a cold restart EXCEPT for rebooting mcgraw (you almost never have to reboot the Linux workstation). If this fails at long last, call for help.

Grating Center: As was mentioned in Section 2.4, you should never need to change the grating center (Prospero will need reminding after a restart, but this is done for you by running “startccds”), but if for some reason you should have to reset the grating central wavelength, note that the grating behaves like the focus, in that you need to approach your desired center from LOWER values. Therefore, if you are at, say, 5300A, but are supposed to be at 5150A, then you need to move below 5150A, and come back up to it, and you should do so by overshooting by more than 200A (i.e. type ‘center 4800’ and then ‘center 5150’).

Images looks funny (i.e. something is wrong): Although we can’t address every possible problem that may go wrong with your observations, there are a couple of problems which seem to reoccur with CCDS which we will address here in the hopes of curbing your frustrations if one such problem should occur while you’re observing.

1. You only see the top half of your image, and it fades (i.e. there’s not a sharp cutoff) to black on the bottom, or fades out in the middle, though the top and bottom of your image look normal: Most likely, this has happened because the finder mirror got stuck halfway between ‘in’ and ‘out.’ If this happens, move it back to its previous position (e.g., it was ‘out’ and you moved it ‘in’ to take a calibration spectrum and it got stuck, so move it back ‘out’), wait about 30 seconds, and then try again to move it to your desired position. Then repeat your previous spectrum. This should fix the problem. If it continues to get stuck or just doesn’t seem to move anywhere, you should call one of the people on the emergency list (section i), as you may need to go out to the telescope and do something there.

2. When your image is reading out, the pixels shift sideways so that your image appears to slowly jump to the left as you go down columns, where the breaks are sharp cuts at a certain row: this means that CCDS has started to hate you, like it does me, or, if you’d really like a more technical explanation, there has been a readout error where the charge is not transferred correctly across the CCD chip as it reads out. In this case, just try taking another image, it could have been a single, freak, readout failure. However, if it is followed by errors in ~~prospero~~Prospero and/or it keeps happening, type “seqinit” on the IC keyboard, then if successful type STARTUP in Prospero. Try to take a test image of Xe, and see if it looks better – it should. If not call for help.

Guider camera intensity voltage: The guider camera intensity voltage has a tendency to decrease by itself, which may cause you to lose your guide stars if you do not notice. So it is a good idea to keep an eye on the guider voltage and continuously adjust it such that there is good signal for guiding. Hitting key ‘?’ on the PC keyboard will tell you how to use keys “1, 2, 3, 4” and “Z” and “z” to adjust the brightness level on the guider monitor which the guider PC is also using. Good guiding requires a count level between 12000 and 20000. It is OK that some of the pixels in the box are saturated.

Guide stars: If for some reason the guide stars provided do not work for a particular position on the sky (e.g., too close to the moon), you may need to search for a new guide star by scanning the field after having positioned the target at or near the slit. This is done by positioning the guider probe in either “Origin” or “Slit” position (MIS window) and then using the DX and DY windows to move the probe. Click on either of these boxes and enter a value of 1000, which is a good step size. Each time you hit enter while the mouse is in either the DX or DY window the probe will move 1000 steps in X or Y, respectively. Do not hit enter too quickly after one another. At the same time keep an eye on the Guide Probe monitor to look for suitable guide stars: not too faint or so bright that they bleed too much (the guider will tend to guide off of the bleeding flux and then pull your target off the slit; however, you can try adjusting the guide camera gain level using keys ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’, ‘4’, ‘z’, and ‘Z’). It is a good idea to scan in one direction first, say in X, and step up or down in Y when you reach the end of the guide probe range, and go back (enter “-1000” in DX) in the X-direction. Alternatively, you can start off placing the guide probe at, say, X=1000 and Y=3000, then enter ‘25000’ in the X position which makes the guide probe move from X=1000 to X=25000. Keeping an eye on the guider TV you can scan the field and click “Stop” in the guider control window when a suitable guide star appears in the field. NOTE: If the guide probe has a Y position greater than 13,000 it will start occulting the light beam and you cannot observe your target. The free range in the X-direction for a given Y-direction is not properly mapped out yet so always keep an eye on the looping exposures being taken with the Acquisition CCD as well to ensure you have not found your favorite guide star too close to the target field thereby occulting your field of view.

Once you have found a suitable guide star, note its X and Y position and continue to set up the observations as described in the main manual (page 16).

Guider TV Monitor: Just as a sanity check, if for some reason you think everything is correct, but you can’t see any stars on the Guider TV Monitor, check the following: Is the finder mirror ‘out’? Is the guide probe at preset position ‘center’? Is the telescope looking out of the shutter? If you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions – there’s your problem. Also, remember to always move the guider probe back to preset ‘center’ position before you move to your next object! Otherwise, you may go insane thinking the telescope pointing is REALLY off, when nothing on the guider monitor looks like what’s in your finding chart.

Slit Viewer/Acquisition Monitor: Likewise to the Guider TV Monitor, if for some reason you think that you have everything set up correctly, but you can’t see any stars in these CCD images, check the following: Is the finder mirror ‘out’? Is the guider probe OUT of the center (i.e. somewhere with Y < 13,000)? Is your exposure time long enough (1-2 seconds for stars; 5-10 seconds for target galaxies)? Again, if you answered ‘no’ to any of these questions, now you know what to fix.

Dome Encoders: TCS monitor lists the dome encoder value. If this is clearly wrong (for example, the telescope is pointing out the dome shutter but the TCS monitor indicates it is NOT, then you’ll have to reset the dome encoders. The location of the dome is that of the red marker in the middle of the shutter. Just below the dome rails the azimuth is indicated. Note the position. In the control room, in the xtcs window click the “Setup” button and select “Set Dome AZ encoders”. Enter the dome position in the window that pops up and hit enter on keyboard. If the dome position does not update on the TCS monitor, you need to restart the xtcs window by doing the following: Click “Setup” again and select “QUIT”. Using the left mouse button with the mouse positioned in the background, select “Telescope Controls”, and then select “xtcs”. A new xtcs window will appear with a big button labeled “INITIALIZE”. Click this button and wait until a message appears in bottom of the xtcs window that the initialization is complete. Repeat the exercise to reset the dome encoders by clicking “Setup” and follow the instructions above. If this does not reset the dome encoders properly you will have to return the dome to the home position (azimuth 51) and repeat the exercise. Once dome encoders are correct you can return the dome to the desired position for observing.

Guiding tip (in conjunction with CCDS Acquisition Camera): The new acquisition camera/CCD is much better than the old, continuous feed, TV Monitor, in that the sensitivity is much greater because of the ability to adjust the exposure time. However, moving your object into the slit can be more difficult because of the time you must wait between exposures to see your object move and then realize you’ve moved it too far, and you feel like you’re continuously moving the object back and forth and can’t get it just right. Therefore, here’s a tip that we’ve found to work quite well. Move your object to roughly the position that you want it near the slit. Then start guiding on your guide star. Now, every time you move the box on the guider TV monitor with your star in it – you’re also moving the telescope! Now, by moving the box on the guider monitor while guiding, you can slowly, with much more controlled motions, move the object into the slit. There are a couple things to remember with this method, however: 1.) Whenever you move the box, it takes a moment for the telescope to catch up, so wait 2-3 exposures on the acquisition monitor before you think about moving again. 2.) Object motion directions: if you want your object to move ‘down’ on the acquisition monitor (i.e. object is above the slit), move the box on the guider monitor ‘up’ and vice versa; if you want your object to move North, move the box on the guider monitor toward the ‘N’ marked on the side of the monitor and vice versa for South.

A2. Focusing the Spectrograph

The best spectrograph (collimator) focus value is typically around 860. To check that the current setting holds (this can change with temperature changes) run through a focus sequence as follows. This should only be done by experienced CCDS observers if you suspect the focus has changed substantially. If you are a first-time CCDS user, or have never done a focus sequence before, you should consult with personnel at OSU before proceeding.

1. In an xterm, cd to /lhome/data and delete any focus.####.fits files you find there.

2. In Prospero, run the “focseq” script and follow the instructions. When the sequence is done, you will have 7 images named focus.0001.fits through focus.0007.fits in /lhome/data

3. Open an IRAF xgterm (if you haven’t already got one open), and issue the following commands at the IRAF prompt:

cd /lhome/data

nmisc

epar specfocus

Once inside the parameter file edits, change the parameters to the following values:

images = “focus.000?.fits”

(focus = “820x15”)

(corwidth = 20)

(level = 0.5)

(shifts = yes)

(dispaxis = 1)

(nspectra = 1)

(slit1 = 340)

(slit2 = 360)

(logfile = “logfile”)

Save the parameters and quit with “:wq”

4. Run the specfocus task to compute the best spectrograph focus by typing “specfoc”. You will be shown a graph that should be a parabola with a minimum arc line width at what is supposed to be the best spectrograph focus and several smaller diagrams with line profiles for each spectrograph collimator setting and with the average line width of that image labeled. The title will say which setting gives the best average focus setting (for these images and parameter settings) and what the best average line width is. You can print the plot by entering “=” with the cursor in the graphics window. Put the cursor on the plot and hit “q” to exit.

5. If you think this focus looks good, it is usually around 860 or 865, in Prospero type

setfocus xxx

where “xxx” is the best focus value returned by specfocus. Also remember to record this focus value in the nightly log.

6. After having completed the spectrograph focusing, change the filename back to the one to use for that nights observing (ccdsYYMMDD.####.fits). For example, if it is observing day 070321, and the last image with this name is “ccds070321.0021.fits” in /lhome/data/, in Prospero you would type:

filename ccds070321

newext 22

Since the NEXT image to be written is ccds070321.0022.fits. You must be very careful not to overwrite existing data. In fact, if the system tries, it will instead use an UNIQNAME, something awful with numbers and letters.fits If you see such files in the /lhome/data directory, check the headers, they might be some “missing” files you or someone else was looking for. The data-taking system will print warnings, but most people don’t notice these.

7. Specfocus can be fooled, especially if the focus settings used are way off, if one or more of the images were contaminated by light in the dome or somehow corrupted, or even if all the arc lines are in one half of the spectrum (as is the case, for example, with the Xenon lamp). Therefore it is a good idea to check the image which the “specfocus” program selects as being the best focus image. Check the image by entering “implot filename.nnnn”. This will allow you to examine graphically the image. With the cursor in the graphics window type (no quotes) “:a 20” and then “:l 350” (letter ‘el’). This will plot the average of 20 lines centered around line 350 (where the targets are positioned on the chip). You’ll see a comparison lamp spectrum with the various emission lines. Measure the line widths of the lines from the blue (left) to the red (right) by placing cursor at the very base of the line on the blue side of the profile and hit ‘p’; repeat for the red side. The measured line width and center will appear at the bottom of the graphics window. Go through especially the stronger lines to ensure that there is NOT a large spread in the line widths or a systematic increase or decrease in the linewidths. With a 1 arcsecond slit and a good focus the linewidths should be around 2.3 - 2.5 pixels (1 pixel is approximately 1.3366Å).

A3. “Cold Start” of the Data Acquisition System

Refer to Figure 12 below for computer info. Note: the IC computer is the only one that has a keyboard in the computer room. If all of the computers are up and running, go directly to step 5. If you are powering up the computers from all off (e.g., after a lightning shutdown), start with step 1

1. Turn on the CALIBAN disk enclosure. It must be powered on before any of the other computers are turned on.

2. Next boot up the Linux workstations mcgraw and hill by turning them on. Monitor the progress of the boot up on the respective monitors in the control room. Wait for mcgraw to boot completely to the login prompt before proceeding to the next step.

3. Turn on the IC computer in the computer room. You should see it boot up both on the IC monitor in the computer room, as well as on the Monitor in the control room that usually displays the current CCDS image. Wait for it to boot completely to the instrument selection prompt (on the LCD monitor in the control room) before proceeding.

4. Once the IC computer is up and asking whether to start “CCDS or TIFCAM or 4k”, enter ‘c’ on the IC keyboard in the computer room. This starts the CCDS program. Wait for it to come up. It should show a blank image on the display in the control room. Watch the IC’s monochrome monitor in the computer room for error messages. If there are problems with the IC reboot, they will usually appear here first. Wait until you see the “CCDS%” prompt on the IC’s monochrome monitor in the computer room before proceeding.

5. Now startup the telescope interfaces (xtcs and xmis) as follows:

a. Start the Telescope Interface by left clicking on the desktop, and from the menu select ‘Telescope Control’ and then ‘xtcs’. When the xtcs window appears, press the red INITIALIZE button, and wait for it to finish before proceeding.

b. Start the MIS Interface by again left clicking on the desktop, and from the menu select ‘Telescope Control’ and then ‘xmis’. When the xmis window appears, press the red INITIALIZE button, and wait for it to finish before proceeding.

6. Now startup the Data Acquisition software. These consist of four programs that must be started in the order specified below:

a. Left click on the mcgraw desktop, and from the menu select ‘Data Acquisition’ and then ‘ISIS’. When the window appears, wait for it to finish its startup chatter. If all goes well, you should see “PONG” responses from the IC and IE. Minimize this window by clicking the “-“ button on the upper right-hand corner of its window.

b. Left click on the mcgraw desktop, and from the menu select ‘Data Acquisition’ and then ‘MDMTCS Agent’. When the window appears, wait for it to finish its startup chatter. If all goes well, you should see “PONG” responses from the IC and IE. Once this window comes up, type the commands ‘tcinit,’ and then ‘tcstatus’. Verify that the TCS info returned is the same as on the TCS control monitor. You can then minimize this window as same as you did with the ISIS window.

c. Left click on the mcgraw desktop, and from the menu select ‘Data Acquisition’ and then ‘Caliban’. When the window appears, wait for it to finish its startup chatter. There will be a lot of communications with the IC synchronizing the disks. When you get the CB% prompt, type “info” and look at the two entries for “Transfer Disks”. Both should read “Synched=Y”. If not, follow the transfer disk synchronization procedure described below. You should minimize this window like the others, but you may need to open it during the night if for some reason you fail to see data making it to the /lhome/data directory.

d. Finally, left click on the mcgraw desktop, and from the menu select ‘Data Acquisition’ and then ‘Prospero’. This will launch two windows: the Prospero Command Window and the Prospero Status Window. Move them around to suit you.

7. In the ~~Prospero~~Prospero Command Window type “startup” at the prompt. Everything in the ~~Prospero~~Prospero Status window should turn green. If it doesn’t, see troubleshooting tips in Section 1. of this Appendix.

8. At this point everything should be up and running and you are ready to run “startccds” and continue the setup for the calibration and/or observing.

9. If everything does crash, here is a list of “other” windows that you should bring back up to facilitate your observing:

a. On the same desktop as Prospero, xtcs, xmis, etc, it is sometimes helpful to bring up the autolog (a log of what you’re doing that runs in the background and gets saved in /lhome/data/Logs/YYMMDD.log. You can view this autolog (and watch it update automatically as you observe) by opening up a terminal and typing ‘tail –f /lhome/data/Logs/YYMMDD.log’

b. On another desktop, it’s useful to have an xgterm open with IRAF and ds9 running, so you can inspect the images as you take them. Open an IRAF terminal by clicking on the icon that is a red box with the white star in it on the bottom toolbar of KDE. Open ds9 by clicking on the icon next to the IRAF icon that looks like a ‘sun’ on a blue background.

c. In the 3^rd desktop, you can bring up point13 by opening a terminal and simply typing ‘point13’. Along with this, you should open up the text file where all the target, standard, and bright star coordinates are printed, so you can simply cut and paste them into point13. Open a text editor (such as emacs or xemacs) and open the file ‘/lhome/obs13m/agn07coords.txt’. Finally, we’re keeping track of which objects we observe each night, so please open and add to the file ‘/lhome/data/AGN07/target_cadence.sxc’ with Open Office.

Software: Microsoft Office

Figure 12. The computers in the computer room and their identities

A4. Checking the Seeing with the CCDS Acquisition Camera

The seeing should be checked periodically throughout the night and noted in the observing log. The best time to do this is when you’re already pointed at a star – so during your standard star observations is the logical time to do this.

The best way to get a quantitative estimate of the seeing is when observing a target or standard star with visible, unsaturated stars on the slit image. In the CCDS Acquisition Camera control program (CCDOps), do the following to capture the current image of the slit with stars relatively close to the slit (the slit images degrade away from the slit). One good way is to move the standard star off the slit, and shorten the acquisition camera exposure time (say 1sec or so) so that this star is not saturated.

Then do the following:

1. Pause the acquisition camera loop if running (click on the Pause button on the Focus window), and close the Focus window.

2. Click on the “Save” button on the CCDOps Toolbar

3. In the dialog box, give the image a name, like “slit070321_0142.fits”, where “070321” is the current observing day (same as for CCDS filenames) and “0142” is the approximate UTC time the image snap was acquired (no need to get this perfect, the info we need will be in the FITS header). Then click “Save” and another box will pop up. In this box, in the “Object” field, put in “CCDS Slit”, and for Comment enter “Seeing check”. Click ‘OK.’

4. Resume Focus mode in CCDOps

5. On the Linux workstation (mcgraw), open an xterm window and cd to /lhome/data, then type

cp /data/slit13/slit070321_0142.fits .

this will copy the slit image you just took (using the example filename from step 3) to the mcgraw data disk.

6. Use IRAF to display the image in ds9 and measure star PSFs using imexamine. The pixel scale of the acquisition camera is 0.41 arcsec/pixel. Record the FWHM of the stars as an estimate of the seeing in your log, and be sure to note the image it was derived from.

7. These slit images will be part of the data stored with the night’s CCDS images, as they allow us to go back and re-measure the seeing estimates later.

A5. Quick Guide (if everything is working correctly)

1. In the afternoon, fill the dewar,

2. Type “startccds” from prospero, and follow the prompts

3. Use the xenon lamp to check the collimator focus and verify the central wavelength.

4. Type “startcal”. This takes ~50 minutes and you must oversee the whole process.

5. Fill in the observing log template with the appropriate information and save it as yymmdd.xls.

6. At sunset, follow the startup procedures as written in this manual, or for a quick reference, see the startup checklist: http://mdm.kpno.noao.edu/13_manual/mghA.html

7. Find a bright star in the almanac close to zenith to check the pointing and focus with ‘point13’

8. Using point13 and the coordinate list: /lhom/obs13/agn07coords.txt, determine the correct coordinates for your object and go there.

9. Type “agnsetup” in prospero, followed by “doagn” (or just “dostd” if doing a standard). The IDs for each object are on the finder charts.

10. Record ALL exposures in the log; DO NOT DELETE ANYTHING. If a frame is screwed up, put a note in the “Notes” column of the log (ie: forgot to turn off the lamp).

11. Repeat steps 8-10 for as many objects as you can. Be sure to record the seeing and monitor weather/focus throughout the night. On a good night, you should get 3 standards and 7-8 targets.

12. At sunrise, follow the shutdown procedures in this manual or reference the shutdown checklist: http://mdm.kpno.noao.edu/13_manual/mghB.html

13. Type “endcal” in prospero.

14. Burn the night’s data to DVD.

15. Move the night’s data to /lhome/data/AGN07/yymmdd

16. Fill out an observing report (http://mdm.kpno.noao.edu/cgi-bin/Report/repform.pl) and, if necessary, a trouble report (http://mdm.kpno.noao.edu/cgi-bin/Report/trform.pl).

17. Email the log to Kelly Denney and Brad Peterson ("Kelly Denney" <denney@astronomy.ohio-state.edu>, "Bradley Peterson" <peterson@astronomy.ohio-state.edu>).