What's new at the 61"?

This new procedure is outlined in the Kuiper 61" Operating Notes

There is now another monitor mounted in the control room. This is a dedicated display for telemetry and telescope status.

If the webpage is not being loaded (and the network is fine), try power cycling the clear case raspberry pi located behind Gerard monitors.

The Mont4k was baked out and had an extended pump time

The Mont4k filters were cleaned

The Mont4k guider box was cleaned

You now open Azcam using the desktop icon, “start mont4k”. A red window comes up like before, but now there are 3 options you must select from. Most users will use “mont4k standard mode” by typing “1”. RTS2 users will choose “mont4k for RTS2” and type “2”. CSS users will choose “mont4k for CSS” and type “3”. This window, and how you make selections, is very similar to bigguider's startup.

To do a focus sequence you can type “focus.run()” in the red window. Make sure you hit enter in the red window until you get a prompt to type at before doing this.

To set the focus sequence parameters type “focus.set_pars(“exposure time in seconds”, ”# of exposures“, “focus_step”, “detector_shift”). So for example you could type in the red window focus.set_pars(3,7,40,30)

Observing scripts and templates are now located in the C:/data/mont4k directory.

Telescope tab-header info is no longer available here, the only thing you can do here is “enable telescope”. Note this doesn’t enable the telescope drives, just allows telescope info to be transferred into headers on IRAF.

Instrument tab- Instrument header info is no longer available here. You can change filters here and enable/disable instrument. Enabling instrument allows instrument header info to be written in IRAF headers.

Please refresh yourself with the 61” Lightning Shutdown procedure

On the west side, two power strips are now plugged into the two outlets. Those are what need to be unplugged for lightning shutdown on this side.

The all cords are labeled and have matching outlets on the power strips. Please follow this convention when connecting and disconnecting everything for the M4K

The M4K CCD power supply AC power cord is the only cable plugged into the east orange outlet. It will need to be unplugged for lightning shutdown. Note - this is the only item to be plugged into the east outlet which is new.

The focus is no longer operating off the orange extension cord that plugged into the powerstrip on the south end of the scope, it’s hardwired in, so you don’t have to worry about it.

The emergency stop plug (bright yellow) no longer needs to be unplugged when going into lightning shutdown.

The gray GPS power cord still has to be unplugged every time we go into lightning shutdown (no change)

There’s a small white Trendnet adaptor plugged into the orange plugs by the GPS, leave that plugged in

CSS will be utilizing the 4 monitors now mounted on the east wall.

All stereo equipment, books and shelving have been moved to the west wall.

The control room patch panel has been moved closer to the UPS room but is still on the east wall.

There is now a website where you can view the video finder scope, and the dome camera

Upstairs you can access the video feed using the laptop, and new monitor located on the top of the console on the north end of the platform. There is a desktop icon “Finder scope” on the laptop which will bring up the webpage. This monitor does not have to be unplugged during lightning shutdown. The laptop still needs to be unplugged for lightning shutdown

In the control room on Gerard there is another desktop icon that you can use to access the dome camera and the video finder scope feed.

The Dome TV Camera and Video Finder Scope monitors downstairs still work. The Video Finder Scope monitor is now located on the counter top. Both monitors work but the connections have been getting very flaky lately. There is a longer term plan to replace these, but for the moment, if they stop working, we have the website as a backup.

Once you open the webpage use the drop down menu under the “Video stream or PTZ preset” to select the views you are interested in. “Quad Stream” shows up to four video feeds. Video 1 (dome camera) and video 3 (finder scope) will be shown together. Currently video 2 and video 4 are not in use. If you would like to just display the dome camera or video finder scope by itself select “Video 1” or “Video 3” respectively.

We re-aluminized the mirror this year! Please ensure the coating is well cared for by not letting it rain/snow in the dome, not staying open during high windy/dusty conditions, not observing past the humidity limit, etc. etc. It needs to last another 3 - 5 years!

Please remember that if you are planning an observing run, and have not observed in over a year at the start of your run, you must take a refresher course

We need to receive your observer request forms prior to your run. These help Operations better serve you and allow us to plan ahead.

Displays in large font information that astronomers want!

It is still in the process of being developed