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This is a draft version of the procedures for remote, real-time observing at TMO during SSP 2023. THIS IS A WORK IN PROGRESS. last edited: 21 June 2023

Remote Observing Center

SSP NMSU 2023 will be using the 24“B&C telescope at Tortugas Mountain Observatory. Observing will be done from Astronomy Building Rm 119, a.k.a. the TMO Remote Observing Center, a.k.a. the ROC.

Observing Team Responsibilities

It is the team's responsibility to have their observing log prep work complete and uploaded before dinner on the night they are observing. Missing, incomplete, or late prep work may result in the cancellation of your observing shift!

The Astronomy Building is locked at night. It is the team's responsibility to be loitering outside the doors no later than 5 minutes before your shift starts. The TA on shift will let you into the building.

There are three general jobs during an observing shift. These jobs should rotate amongst team members from one shift to the next.

1. Observatory control: Responsible for running the control computer - controlling the telescope and the camera, making sure data is saved to the correct directory, etc. This is done from a dedicated laptop which the TA on shift will bring to the ROC.
2. Observing log: Responsible for entering data in the digital observing log in real time. Bring your laptop with you to the observing session to enter data in real time.
3. Weather monitoring: Responsible for monitor the current weather conditions. In addition to the weather station status on the remote computer, Bring your laptop with you to monitor the weather and periodically go outside to actually look at the sky.

Connecting to TMO

Use VNC Viewer on the dedicated ROC laptop to connect to tmo.nmsu.edu. Log in should happen automatically. The VNC Viewer is pinned to the taskbar on the dedicated ROC laptop.

The Remote Computer

Start the necessary software on the remote computer (icons are left-to-right across the top of the remote desktop)

1. Focus Max (talks to the focuser)
2. SiTech (talks to the telescope/mount; This should start automatically when Focus Max starts)
3. ClarityII (weather monitor)
4. Cloud Sensor (weather history)
5. MaxIm DL (talks to the camera)
6. ACP (talks to the dome & everything)

Keep an eye on things at TMO

There should always be an open browser window with two tabs with views from two IR cameras. Use IR lights to see what's going on without messing up your observations. This web browser is always open. You can minimize it, but don't close it!

Connect to the telescope

1. Use the setup tab in MaxIm DL to 'Connect all'. If only the large MaximDL window is open, click the small button that looks like an observatory (eighth from the left on the row of buttons)
2. Connect to telescope in ACP using the Telescope drop-down for good measure.
3. Upon connection, telescope's park position is displayed in the SiTech window. It should be at HA = -2h; dec = 0deg.
4. If the SiTech status says 'Uninitialized,' Observing TA should contact Dr. R or Zach or Prof. Holtzman.

Connect to the camera

1. Use the Camera drop-down in the ACP window to connect to the camera. (This step will also open the Camera Control window in MaxIm DL.)
2. This may take a few seconds. Be patient. (A vestigial window with camera name opens upon successful connection.)
3. Once the cameras are connected, turn on the cooler for camera 1. The default set to -12 deg C.

Open the dome

The dome should only be opened if you're positive it's not raining and not about to start raining.

1. Use ACP Dome Control to open the dome.
2. Once open, the dome should slave to the telescope.
3. If there's a shutter error, try rotating the dome.

Check pointing

First team of the night should definitely do this. We need to make sure the telescope knows where its pointing. Subsequent teams, do this only if telescope doesn't seem to be pointing where it should.

1. Select FindBrightStar.vbs script in ACP window.
2. Enter filter #2 at prompt. Type `2` into the prompt when flashing.
3. Let it do its thing.

Focus the telescope

Every team should run a focus routine at least once, even if the focus 'looks OK.' Repeat as often as necessary. Focus changes with air temperature! The automatic procedure below uses an ACP automated script. Try that first. If it works, great. If it doesn't work, you have your three focus stars the choose from for the backup manual procedure.

Automatic Procedure

1. Slew to one of your predetermined focus stars. Make sure to use sexadecimal format for RA and dec. (hours:minutes:seconds for RA)
2. Select AutoFocus.vbs script in ACP window, and select “Run”
3. With the AutoFocus.vbs script, the filter is automatically selected to be the SR (Sloan Red) filter. The filters on the camera are not parfocal, so focusing in one filter does not focus in another filter. If you use the autofocus, use the SR filter for the rest of your observations.
4. Telescope seems to stop tracking after AutoFocus script completes. Watch the status in the SiTech window and start tracking again if this happens.

Manual Procedure

1. Set the camera to the filter you will be using for your observations. Under camera control (“filter wheel”)
2. Make sure the telescope is tracking and not stopped. If not tracking, hit start and goto.
3. subframe tab: hit `mouse` and draw a square around the bright star. Out of focus stars might look like donuts
4. set the camera control to continuous exposures
5. On FocusMax, navigate to the “Focuser” tab.
6. Click “Jog” (on the left side) and increment in or out by approximately 100 (though you can change this number depending on how you feel the focusing is).
7. If the image has improved, continue to increment in that direction. If the image worsens, increment in the opposite direction.
8. Continue to increment, decreasing the step size until you've reached a focus level you are satisfied with.

Take your time with this step. A good focus means crisp images, which will result in better astrometry.

Find your asteroid

1. Slew to your asteroid - use the “Gotosync” tab on the SiTech window, and put in the RA and DEC of your asteroid for the time closest to the current time
2. Use the Expose tab in the Camera Control Window in MaxIm DL to take a Single quick exposure to confirm field of view with your finding chart.
3. If necessary, use Nudge Telescope in the ACP window to center the asteroid's predicted location in the image. For scale, the full field of view is about 36×24 arcmin.

Take your time with this step. Placing the asteroid near the center of the frame will make things easier.

Begin guiding

1. Use the Guide tab in the Camera Control window in MaxIm DL to take a single 10-sec exposure.
2. MaxIm DL will automatically select the brightest star in the frame, or you can select a different star by clicking on it.
3. Switch from Expose to Track and click Start.

Take data

Temperature Check - Before you take any science or calibration images, check the camera temperature in the middle dialog box in the Camera Control window in MaxIm DL. If the Cooler Power is at 100%, but the temperature has not reached the temperature setpoint, you're exceeding the maximum capability of the cooler and you'll need to set a warmer temperature. If the camera is cooled and the power is at or greater than 90%, you may want to increase the setpoint. It's better to have a slightly warmer but stable temperature than a slightly cooler but struggling to keep up situation.

1. Click on the expose tab in Camer Control, and switch from Single to Autosave.
2. In the Autosave setup window, click Options to set the path directory for saving images.
3. Employ a clear directory structure! There is a Documents/Observations/SSP folder which contains sub-folders for every observing team. All your data goes there. Be very careful and consistent about telling MaxIm DL what to name your images and where to put them! It is recommended to at least make a new folder for each night. Make a new folder by clicking the yellow button on top right of the folder
4. Take a series of 11 biases: in the Autosave setup window, select “bias” on the type drop-down menu. This will automatically set the exposure length to zero. Set number of repeats to 11.
5. Under Autosave Filename, give a reasonable prefix for your images. Also choose a proper suffix for your image(s)
6. Set the binning to 2 (binning will always be 2)
7. Click Apply, then OK.
8. In the Camera Control window, click start.
9. Repeat for series of 5 darks. IMPORTANT: There is no shutter with the CMOS camera, so for darks you need to use the dark filter. To take darks in the autosave setup, select the type “Light,” and choose the “Dark” filter. Take a series of darks for each exposure length you're using. For example, if you plan to take both 1-minute and 3-minute exposure lengths, you must take two series of 5 darks, with one series being 1 minute long and the other series being 3 minutes long. You can take the two series automatically back to back by clicking the “2” on the autosave menu, activating the second line.
10. Now it's time to take your data! In the autosave menu, activate lines 1, 2, and 3 to take a series of two 1-min exposures, one 3-min exp., two 1-min exposures of your asteroid. Repeat the same workflow as above, selecting type “Light” and your desired filter. Choose the proper exposure time, binning (always 2), and number of repeats for each line.

Note that you cannot have two lines have the same suffix. For example, if your first two 1-min exposures have the same suffix as the second two 1-min exposures, Maxim DL will display an error. If at all possible, locate your asteroid in the raw image(s) and make note of its (x,y) pixel location in a particular image. This will make it much easier to find it again when you're analyzing the data afterwards.

When you're done

1st and 2nd shifts should

1. Set the camera to take “single” exposures.
2. Leave the camera cooled for the next team.
3. Rearrange the windows in an orderly way (see the screenshot above).
4. Park the telescope (SiTech).

The last team of the night should completely shut things down

1. Close out any images in Maxim DL you took (keep the main Maxim DL window still open)
2. Set the camera to take “single” exposures.
3. Rearrange the windows in an orderly way (see the screenshot above).
4. Close the dome (ACP)
5. Park the dome (ACP)
6. Park the telescope (SiTech)
7. Stop the telescope (SiTech)
8. Turn off the camera cooler (MaxIm DL)

Getting flat fields

Enter details here.

Accessing your data

1. Data is automatically copied from TMO back to a nmsu astronomy computer on campus.
2. You can access your data here. But right-clicking on every single image seems onorous.
3. (Enter details about using the wget command frmo the Windows command line.)
4. Do not mess with anyone's images except your team's.
5. Do not trust the laptops' hard drives. Also copy your data to a thumb drive. Also copy your data to your own Google Drive or similar as you see fit.

Troubleshooting

Stars are streaking significantly on a short exposure

1. For this issue the stars will be streaking signficantly on a <1 minute-long exposure. To resolve, you need to jog the telescope a bit.
2. Navigate to the “Scope” tab in SiTech.
3. Click the “^^” button twice (this button is above the square “Guid” button).
4. Take another short exposure, checking if the streaking continues
5. If the streaking is still there, try clicking the “^^” button again.
6. Once you've solved this, take a short exposure, and compare it to your star chart, ensuring that you haven't moved the telescope too far. Also, check the SiTech window to make sure the telescope is still tracking after doing this.