1 General Guidelines and Preliminary Information

1.1) About This Manual

1.2) Graduate in One Night!

1.3) Technical Problems

1.4) Transportation and Area Maps

1.5) Accommodation and Meals

1.6) Observing Preparation Form

1.7) Telephones & Fax

1.8) Publications

1.9) Sending Documents and Parcels To MDM, Also location of AURA lot

2 What Every Observer Should Know

2.1) Observing

2.1.1) Obtaining the best seeing!

2.1.2) Limits on observing conditions

2.2) Weather Conditions

2.2.1) Weather radio

2.2.2) Weather Monitor II

2.2.3) What to do during bad storms.

2.3) Emergency Conditions

2.3.1) Telephone help

2.3.2) Emergency radio

2.3.3) Emergency generator and the UPS

3 Telescope Specifications

3.1) Historical Introduction

3.2) Optical Specifications

3.3) Mechanical Specifications

3.4) Geographical Coordinates

4 Telescope Control & Data Acquisition Computers

4.1) Introduction

4.2) Basic Operating Instructions

4.2.1) Turning the machines on

4.2.2) Re-booting from a computer ``crash''

4.2.3) Turning the machines off

4.3) The Telescope Control Computer

4.3.1) Logging on

4.3.2) Directory structure

4.3.3) Disk storage space

4.3.4) Starting the Telescope Control Software

4.3.5) Restarting individual windows

4.3.6) A primer on windows

4.4) Some Useful Computer Commands

4.4.1) Internet Access

4.4.2) Storing Data on DAT or EXABYTE tape

4.5) Quick Look and Data Reduction

5 NEW Telescope Control System (TCS)

Preliminary (useable but under Construction)

         5.1) Introduction.
        5.2) New TCS.
        5.3) Starting the TCS.
             5.3.1) New TCS Commands.
             5.3.2) Opening the dome, dark hatch and Mirrors covers.
        5.4) Estop.
        5.5)  Guiding. 
        5.6) Homing telescope, dome and focus.
        5.7) Hand paddle GUI and telescope hardware hand paddle.
        5.8) When things do not work.

6 The Multiple Instrument System (MIS)

6.1) Introduction

6.2) The MIS Cameras

6.3) The Multiple Instrument System Control Software, xmis

6.4) Finder

6.4.1) Wide field acquisition of astronomical objects (Obsolete)

6.4.2) Spectroscopic calibration

6.5) Guider

6.5.1) xmis guider parameters; preset pop-up menu

6.5.1) Off-axis guiding for direct imaging

6.5.2) Slit plate guiding for spectroscopy

6.6) How to Focus the Finder (Obsolete), Guider, and the Instrument

6.6.1) Focus procedure: direct imaging

6.6.2) Focus procedure: spectroscopy

6.6.3) Coarse focus of the guider

6.7) MIS Filter Wheels and Filters

6.7.1) Two-inch filter wheel

6.7.2) Four-inch filter wheel

6.7.3) The MDM 1999 2" UBVRI filter sets

6.7.4) The MDM 2004 4" UBVRI filter set

6.8) Technical Reference Section

6.8.1) Guest instrumentation and the MIS mounting plate

6.8.2) MIS Controller: FORTH commands (for staff use only)

6.8.3) xmis software configuration (for staff use only)

7 The Auto guider

7.1) Introduction

7.2) The Pentium PC-Based Autoguider

7.2.1) Introduction

7.2.2) Basic Startup and Operation

7.3) Marking the Field Centers with the Guider

7.4) Field Orientation Maps

7.5) Troubleshooting

7.5.1) Autoguider is unstable or oscillating

7.5.2) Autoguider is taking a long time

8 The Instrument Rotator

8.1) Introduction

8.2) Moving the Rotator

9 The LN2 Storage Dewars

9.1) Pressurizing LN2 Storage Dewars

9.2) Hints on Filling Instrument Dewars

APPENDIX A: Startup Checklist

APPENDIX B: Shutdown Checklist

Emergency Lightning Shutdown Procedure

Updated: 2009 March 24 [Barr/mdm]