21” Trainer’s Checklist for Basic Certification (DRAFT)

Building layout (where are bathrooms, tools you may need, eyepieces, hardware—shutter open & close, where people are allowed to be and where they aren’t, etc)
Importance of having your keys, cell phone, and flashlight
Dome lights off when observing

Go through the TCS-NG manual (in binder) having trainee do the steps listed
How to initialize and why it’s important
MOON Wiki
How to login/passwords to computers
Which eyepieces are the best to use, where they’re located, basic optics rules (don’t put your finger on the lens), how to tighten correctly in the diagonal
Have trainee get everything up and running, find focus (both with focus adjustment on eyepiece holder, and with hardware paddle)

Mirror covers are the last thing to open at the start of the night/first to close at end
Know where telescope is in relation to the ladders on platform, will hardware paddle cord snag on anything? Make sure people are out of the way
No one can move the telescope unless they are certified.
When you leave for the night, make sure you disable the telescope in TCS.
Limits-use good judgement!
Check the weather outside regularly, use good judgement
Lightning shutdown
How to close and stow the dome, no autodome, how they’ll have to adjust dome slightly to keep scope pointed out the slit.
How to correctly use finderscopes, especially to center stars in the FOV to initialize using the hand paddle. If star is not visible in the eyepiece, check the finderscopes mounted on the telescope. If the star is in there, center star in that field of view, and then center in the eyepiece’s field of view. If the star is not in those finderscopes, use the video finderscope, which has a larger field of view, and center the star using the screen by the monitor running TCS-NG. Once centered, you can then center the star in the finderscopes attached to the telescope, and then you can center the star in the eyepiece.
Losing pointing and how to recover
Alcohol/drug abuse not permitted

Weather limits-UA Department of Atmospheric sciences and NOAA websites
Humidity (90% mirror covers and dome closed), and rain
Windspeed- use good judgment! Close if 30MPH or higher.
Close if smoky or dusty (use flashlight—can you see particulates?)
Check forecast before leaving dome for the night, are thunderstorms predicted before next observer? If so, put it in lightning shutdown

Trouble report
Relevant weather pages
How to login
Call list located on front of binder containing TCS-NG manual if help is needed.

Make sure dome door locks behind you at the end of the night, as well as lower level door
Interfacing with the public