Focal Plane Nominal Plane
We have reasonably successfully flattened the focal plane on the sky. We have changed the nominal plane variable in the Filter Wheel GUI. It’s not perfect at this moment, but not bad. We hope to make it even better. We remind users that aberrations grow quickly as you get out of focus, so the corners can look really bad if you’re slightly out of focus. If you’re in focus, they look pretty good.
Computers
Observers typically receive and store data on the bok Linux machine. It is also named STJUKSHON for historical reasons. Exposures are controlled from the AzCam (Windows OS) machine called bokccd, located near the computer rack where all the computers are mounted. You also need to be running bokccd2 (which contains the PCI interface card to the 90Prime CCD controller). If you need to reboot the Windows machines, you should reboot both.
Disk Space
As always, we encourage users NOT to delete their data on disk. BUT we remind you that your data can be deleted starting the moment you leave the mountain. It’s useful to leave data on until the disk starts to get full. If you need to delete other’s data on /data/primefocus, delete the oldest directories first. We can track down problems if data are on disk.
Data Transfer
This is a good time to remind you that STEWARD pays NOAO for internet BY THE BIT (more precisely, by the PERCENTAGE of bits we send each month). Copying a night’s data downtown or to the East Coast or Korea from the mountain is STRONGLY DISCOURAGED– it’s free from downtown and expensive to Steward from up on Kitt Peak.
USB drives connected to laptops and filled using the LAN are really cheap and can be used more than once. STJUKSHON (bok) has 2 USB ports behind its front door.
Image Display
The ‘inversion’ command may be used to flip the displayed image in the ds9 display window. Normally for 90Prime inversion should be on. Note that IRAF’s mscdisplay will invert the image * relative to the normal readout display.
- Typing inversion will tell you the current state.
- Typing ‘inversion on’ turns inversion on.
- Typing ‘inversion off’ turns inversion off.
Guider
Remember to have the operator initialize the guider after each guider power-down. We note that optimal guiding exposure time is ˜1 sec, giving about 3 sec between guider commands to TCS (2 sec readout). The does not respond to motion commands faster than once per second.
