This is an old revision of the document!
M4K Operating Notes 12/1/17
Please note, this is not a guide for operating the Mont4k instrument, just the telescope operating system, for more details about the M4K, please go to:
To find an electronic copy go to:
Useful Weather Links
Cold Start Power Up Sequence
UPS Room
In Dome
Check to see if any electronics are plugged into the east or west orange outlets on the base of the telescope. If so, make sure they are turned off.
Turn on Main Power.
Turn on Telescope Power.
Plug in associated power cables for instrumentation into orange outlets under scope if not plugged in already.
M4K
East Orange Outlet:
Camera power supply
Shutter power supply
West orange outlet
Guider chiller
Power strip
Turn on instrument
M4K
Camera power supply
Shutter power supply
Power strip
Guider chiller
Guider/Filter wheel box
Guider power supply
Turn TCS box on using the light switch next to the NG box on the East side of the yellow pier. This will be marked with neon green tape.
If you're going to be operating from the dome using the laptop, plug in the laptop, turn it on, and sign in with the same password used on Gerard.
Control Room
Plug in and turn on the following in the warm room:
The power strip on the west wall (includes new Dome TV Camera)
BIGAUX
All the monitors in the control room (BIGAUX, BIGCCD, Gerard, bigguider, and telescope camera monitor)
Laser printer
Plug in computer racks (orange outlet #4 on wall below emergency stop), and turn on the following computers as needed: Gerard, BigPOP, Telcom, bigguider, and bigCCD1.
Start of a Normal Night of Observing
Open all relevant weather websites on BigAux and verify safe observing conditions
Check the white board in the dome and make sure the last time the M4K was filled was under 24 hours ago. If it was filled over 24 hours ago, call Joe or Melanie for further instruction.
Walk the catwalk and verify safe observing conditions
Record opening time, wind speed, wind direction, temperature and humidity for trouble report
Make sure observing platform is down
Make sure the ladder, LN2 dewar, light over console, and anything else that the telescope/instrument could hit are all clearly out of the way
Verify mirror covers are closed
Separate upper and lower windscreens enough to see the dome shutter
Open dome shutter
Fully raise upper windscreen (or set to desired position)
Fully lower the lower windscreen (or set to desired position)
Open the primary mirror covers
Turn off all dome lights
Close door at top of stairs
Starting TCSng
Log into Gerard using the Kuiper password on the white board.
Open The Following Programs by double clicking on their icons
Safe Telescope Button
Paddle
INDI Server
Xephem
Click “RT” button under looping if Xephem is not updating the time.
Click “View” and Select “Sky View”.
Click “Telescope” in Sky View and select INDI panel
In the “INDI Panel” window that opens connect to each of the following modules:
Expand “TCS-NG-INDI”
Telemetry → Connection → On
Actions → Enable: this enables the telescope, and allows the focus and dome modules to update, as well as allows you to use the paddle on the bottom of the scope.
Expand “Dome-NG-INDI”
Expand “FOCUS-NG-INDI”
You should now have information in each module updating regularly.
Please note that the order of the modules on the INDI Panel window changes randomly. For example TCS-NG-INDI may be listed first one time you use it and second or third another time.
Moving the Telescope
YOU MUST FIRST GO INTO THE DOME AND MAKE SURE IT IS CLEAR TO MOVE THE SCOPE (ladders out of the way, elevator down etc).
For any move turn on the Dome Camera and watch the telescope until it gets to its target!
To Enable Telescope:
In Indi Control Panel:
Enter TCS-NG-INDI module
Telemetry
Actions
Click “Enable”
With the Sky View window
Equatorial Coordinates
In Indi control Panel:
Under TCS-NG-INDI
GOTO Functions
Enter Desired RA, Dec and Epoch
Click click “set” or hit the enter key
Then under “Actions” “hit Go Next”
Watch the telescope move in the Dome Camera!
Alt/Az coordinates:
In Indi Control Panel:
Under TCS-NG-INDI
GOTO Functions
Alt Az Goto
Enter the desired Altitude and Azimuth.
Click “Set” or hit the enter key.
Watch the telescope move in the dome camera
Stopping the Telescope (From the Control Room)
Three easy ways to stop the telescope when moving
Use the Large “Cancel” button from the “Safe Telescope Program”
In the “Indi Panel” window
TCS Module
Emergency Stop button mounted on north wall (last resort!)
Observing
Starting the programs needed for typical M4K use
On Gerard
Start dataserver, galilserver, and fw-gui in that order. When fw-gui comes up hit “read filter codes”. This can take a few minutes.
Open ds9
Open IRAF
Start watcher
On BigCCD1
Start the Azcam program from the desktop icon
Hit reset
Change all the settings to what you want
On Bigguider
Start the guiding program from the desktop icon, and select the M4K guiding option.
Initializing
Send the scope to a bright star close to the zenith
Using the software paddle, center the star in the finder scope
Center the star in the science camera or guider.
In the “Actions” menu under TCS-NG-INDI Click “Init Next”.
Don't Click “Init Commanded” unless you are a very experienced user!
Focus
When starting up for the night it is usually a good idea to “Home” the focus
Under FOCUS-NG-INDI Homing and Focus Positions click home. The Focus position should decrease and you should see HOMING in the text box at the top of the panel. Eventually it will reach the home switch, stop moving and zero the focus position.
Use the other Focus Instrument buttons to move to a nominal focus position.
Use the Focus Position box to move the focus to a more precise position.
Limits:
Display The Limit Map:
In SkyView Window
Click “Control”
Click “Horizon”
Click “save”
click “close”
Time to event
Currently there is no indication (flashing, etc) on the TCS screen that you have hit a limit
Software Limits
North
South
Horizon limits all the way around
Confirmed with CJ 10/23/17
Hardware Limits
North Limit ~62 degrees declination
South Slew Limit 10 degrees elevation (~-43 Dec)
South Hard Limit 5 degrees elevation (~-48 Dec)
Catalogs
Selecting a catalog
In Xephem Main Window
Operating From the Dome
You can use Xephem and the Indi Panel on the laptop to control dome and telescope. The laptop is currently being stored in the control room.
Hardware Paddle
End of Normal Night of Observing
Stow the telescope and dome
Disable the telescope: TCS-NG-INDI → Actions → Enable
Close the Mirror Cover
Close the Dome slit
Close the Wind Screens
Fill the dewar
Complete the trouble reports
Lightning Shutdown
“Complete Normal Night of observing shutdown”
In Dome
Turn off all instrument electronics, including the camera shutter, and unplug from orange outlets under scope (Four Cables)
If in use: shut down laptop computer, and unplug laptop and monitor from the orange UPS outlets located near the floor on the platform control console.
Turn off TCS computer using the light switch
Turn off Telescope power
Lower Platform
Turn off main power
In Control room
Manually shutdown all computers.
Gerard
BIGCCD
Bigguider
BIGAUX
Turn Off printer.
Turn off Telcom server
Turn off and unplug power strip on west wall.
Unplug printer relay.
Unplug everything from orange outlets behind observer work station, as well as UPS outlets by the video finder scope monitor
Unplug computer racks (plugged into orange outlet #4 on wall below emergency stop)
In UPS Room, unplug:
How to recover from Telcom issues
Close out guider software
Turn off all guider items (controller & chiller on telescope, bigguider in control room)
Flip power switch off on Telcom box and wait 2 minutes, flip back on
Type “telescope” in terminal window on Gerard to see if telemetry updates - if so
Restart all guiding items (bigguider in the control room, the chiller & controller on the telescope)
Wait for a minute and restart the guiding software on bigguider
Setting circles at stow
Dec:
RA: