20170207

Twilight Tests

Note: Twilight exposures are critical science calibrations for LRS and VIRUS and if possible should be done every night that science data is taken.

twilights with VIRUS with different tracker positions

Purpose: There is some interest in seeing what the long term illumination correction changes look like including what different track positions do to them. The script is "specialtwilight" in /home/mcs/astronomer/bin/. It takes a single argument which is the Observation number.

Procedure:

• Despite of pressures at the start of the night try to get the twilights.
• Setup the guide camera for sky twilight (GC2, 0.1 sec, B filter)
• When you hit the correct flux level (biased to a slight higher value, perhaps 5k) execute the specialtwilight script

On-sky engineering:

CWFS and OWFS coordinate transform test

The purpose of the test is to verify that we have the correct directions for all offsets. Note that the WFS1 controls the theta and phi through the TTC fiducial.

NOTE: At the present time we believe that
owfs1 phi correction * -1 = telescope theta correction
owfs1 theta correction * +1 = telescope phi correction

• Setup on a star (V=8mag) 20 minutes before the center of the track on the IHMP
• Offset to CWFS using syscmd -T 'offset_trajectory(dx_ang=-5.5, dy_ang=1, adjust_probes="true")'
• get well centered with CWFS
• Null out any offsets in CWFS using the hand paddle for focus, theta and phi.
• increase exposure times on the CWFS to greater than 15 seconds but not saturated.
• make sure the CWFS loop is started but not activated
• make sure that the TTC is in open loop mode
• make a 2" X sky offset with the hand-paddle, save 5 frames and record the time and offset type in the RA log
• recover position and null any CWFS
• make a 2" Y sky offset, save 5 frames and record the time and offset type in the RA log
• recover position and null any CWFS
• make a 0.25mm focus offset with the hand-paddle, save 5 frames and record the time and offset type in the RA log
• recover position and null any CWFS
• make a 15" theta offset with the hand-paddle, save 5 frames and record the time and offset type in the RA log
• recover position and null any CWFS
• make a 15" phi offset with the hand-paddle, save 5 frames and record the time and offset type in the RA log
• recover position and null any CWFS
• set a new fiducial on the TTC and close the loop
• save 5 frames with the CWFS and TTC and record the time in the RA log
• change the fiducial position by 15" in theta -> which means increase the y fiducial position by 27 pixels in TT
• save 5 frames with the CWFS and TTC and record the time in the RA log
• move the fiducial position back to its original position
• save 5 frames with the CWFS and TTC and record the time in the RA log
• change the fiducial position by 15" in phi -> which means increase the x fiducial position by 27 pixels in TT
• save 5 frames with the CWFS and TTC and record the time in the RA log

Then repeat the entire test for WFS1 and WFS2.

Redetermine LRS2-B to LRS2-R ACAM positions

The purpose of this test is to document any changes to the LRS2-B and LRS2-R positions on the ACAM.

• Start a trajectory
• setup on ACAM and one guide probe at the LRS2-B location.
• After probes are set record positions in log (use "pget")
• make sure that GROC is well set.
• start guiding
• save and record the position of the object on the ACAM
• taken an LRS2 image
• save and record the position of the object on the ACAM

Repeat this test a few times in different trajectories but B and R can be done in the same trajectory.

Closed dome or cloudy weather tests

Test of TCS GUI shutdown

Shutdown the GUI and see if you have a zombie process. Do this for both Jove and mcs. Repeat several times.

Test ACQ Focus dialog box

• Note the position of the ACAM
• Attempt to make a very very tiny move of the ACAM
• See if a dialog box comes up confirm the move. Do not confirm
• Check the position of the ACAM (it should be the same!!!!)

Exposure duration with PFIP shutter

• For every exposure taken note the exposure time reported in the header (this should be in the night report as well) and see if it matches the requested exposure to within a few seconds.
• Note any zero point issues or large discrepancies

Test Move Structure in the Structure Azimuth section

• See if you can move the structure in the Structure Azimuth section ?

On-sky science:

This should be the lowest priority but could be done when all engineering tests are completed. Please note to the PI that we are running a test version of the control software for every target entry.

Watch out for the moon brightness. I am not sure that the automatic moon brightness works in htopx so you should set this manually to make sure you don't hit inappropriate targets or miss targets. After the moon sets just turn off the moon brightness.

During any thin parts of the night (few targets) please try to get your standards.

When VIRUS targets are available they generally should have priority over regular targets, at least at the same priority. (If VIRUS is up)

Watch out for the request telluric standards needed just before or after UT17-1-008!