Training plan for new RA
- General timeline for conceptual learning:
- Week 1:
- Site infrastructure and big picture
- Meet the day and night staff
- Week 2:
- Telescope hardware/software systems
- Key sub-systems to understand:
- TCS (Telescope Control System)
- Tracker
- PFIP (Prime Focus Instrument Package)
- PAS (Payload Alignment System)
- Week 3:
- Instruments and calibrations
- LRS2
- HPF
- VIRUS
- FCU (Facility Calibration Unit)
- Instruments and calibrations
- Week 4:
- Queue and observing
- PI programs and proposal process
- Phase II and TSL requirements
- htopx and queue
- RA Night Report
- Time charging and accounting
- Problem Reporting
- Observing scripts and instrument control
- Queue and observing
- Week 1:
- Operational duties and procedures:
- OPS
- Nights
- start of night
- observing targets
- end of night
- Overlap
- Wiki
- Meetings
- Projects
- Timesheets
Timeline and milestones
We will prioritize meeting day staff and getting first-hand exposure to major systems and infrastructure in the first weeks.
| Week 1: April 8-12 Goals: meet staff, get familiar with big picture | ||
| Monday | 8:15am | join Zoom morning meeting to meet day staff https://zoom.us/j/382669707 |
| all day | work through first-week on-boarding tasks, including: | |
| all day | 82": meet McDonald Observatory Admin and McDonald Observatory Superintendent on Mt Locke. | |
| all day | HET: meet HET IT Person and HET Admin person | |
| Tuesday | all day | test your login to the wiki, briefly look at: RA procedures And read overview documentation: PFIP design/deployment (SPIE) WFU completion (SPIE) HET Instruments (esp S1,2,3) (note, may take more than 1 or 2 days to read all of these!) |
| afternoon | meet with Facility Manager for a tour of major infrastructure (TBC) | |
| Wednesday | morning | on-boarding tasks and reading documentation |
| 1:00pm | Meet Science Operations Manager in control room to continue tours/discussion | |
| 3:30pm | get set up to watch OPS (starts at 4:30pm) | |
| Be familiar with OPS Overview wiki page (we'll talk through it together) | ||
| Thursday | 3:30pm | staff meeting on Zoom |
| 4:30pm | join to watch RA OPS | |
| ~11pm | join overlap with Science Operations Manager and RA on Night Duty | |
| Friday | 8:30pm | join to watch night operations, discuss documentation, etc |
| Be familiar with night overview wiki page: Start of night and End of night | ||
| Saturday | 9:00pm | join to watch night operations |
| Sunday | 9:00pm | join to watch night operations |
| Week 2: April 15-19 Goals: Get familiar with telescope hardware | ||
| Monday | ||
| Tuesday | ||
| Wednesday | ||
| Thursday | day | meet with HET Facility Manager, HET Mechanical Engineer, HET Electrical Engineer, and others (TBC) Focus on structure/tracker/mirror and probe metrology review documentation on hardware systems: Mechanical performance of tracker metrology systems M1 figure maintenance (old but useful) |
| 3:30pm | staff meeting on Zoom | |
| 4:30pm | join to watch RA OPS | |
| Friday | day | meet with HET Facility Manager, HET Mechanical Engineer, HET Electrical Engineer, and others (TBC) |
| 4:30pm | join to watch RA OPS | |
| Saturday | 6:30pm | join to watch RA OPS |
| Sunday | 6:30pm | join to watch RA OPS |
| ~11pm | join overlap with HET Science Operations Manager and RA on Night Duty |
| Week 3: April 22-26 Goals: Get familiar with instruments | ||
| Monday | 9:00pm | join to watch night operations |
| Hydra documentation for PIs on each instrument: VIRUS, LRS2, and HPF Read Gary's overview of VIRUS (esp S4) Read wiki page on each instrument: VIRUS, LRS2, and HPF Read about Greg Z's reductions codes: VIRUS reduction - Remedy LRS2 reduction - Panacea HPF reduction - Goldilocks Also read about FCU: Facility Calibration Unit | ||
| Tuesday | 9:00pm | join to watch night operations |
| Wednesday | 9:00pm | join to watch night operations |
| Thursday | 3:30pm | staff meeting on Zoom |
| Friday | ||
| Saturday | ||
| Sunday | 6:30pm | join to watch RA OPS |
| Week 4: April 29 - May 3 Goals: Get familiar with queue | ||
| Monday | 6:30pm | join to watch RA OPS |
| Read Hydra documentation: Phase I and Phase II and Phase III Read wiki pages about queue: hydra/nossy and Time accounting/charging | ||
| Tuesday | 4:30pm | join to watch RA OPS |
| ~11pm | overlap with RA on Night Duty and HET Science Operations Manager | |
| Wednesday | 9:00pm | join to watch night operations with HET Science Operations Manager and/or RA on Night Duty |
| create your own profile in htopx with RA on Night Duty (Ideally Sergey) | ||
| Thursday | 9:00pm | join to watch night operations with HET Science Operations Manager and/or RA on Night Duty |
| Friday | 9:00pm | join to watch night operations with HET Science Operations Manager and/or RA on Night Duty |
| Saturday | 9:00pm | join to watch night operations with HET Science Operations Manager and/or RA on Night Duty |
| Sunday |
| Week 5: May 6 - 10 Goals: Get ready to drive | ||
| Monday | ||
| Tuesday | ||
| Wednesday | 4:00pm | come early to drive OPS with RA on Ops Duty |
| read and update OPS procedures on wiki: Overview - OPS | ||
| Thursday | 4:00pm | come early to drive OPS with RA on Ops Duty |
| read about operational software: target_setup, iexp, setups on targets | ||
| Friday | 4:00pm | come early to drive OPS with RA on Ops Duty |
| ~11pm | overlap with RA on Night Duty and HET Science Ops Manager | |
| Saturday | 8:57pm | join to watch night operations with RA on Night Duty |
| Sunday | 8:57pm | join to watch night operations with RA on Night Duty |
| Week 6: May 13 - 17 Goals: Keep getting ready to drive | ||
| Monday | 8:56pm | join to watch night operations with RA on Night Duty |
| Tuesday | 8:56pm | join to watch night operations with RA on Night Duty |
| Wednesday | ||
| Thursday | ||
| Friday | ||
| Saturday | 6:00pm | come early to drive OPS with RA on Ops Duty |
| Sunday | 6:00pm | come early to drive OPS with RA on Ops Duty |
| ~11pm | overlap with RA on Night Duty and HET Science Operations Manager |
45-day probationary appraisal: 23-May 2024
| Week 7: May 20 - 24 Goals: Get ready to drive | ||
| Monday | 8:53pm | join to watch night operations with RA on Night Duty |
| Tuesday | 8:52pm | join to watch/drive night operations with RA on Night Duty |
| Wednesday | 8:51pm | join to watch/drive night operations with RA on Night Duty |
| Thursday | 8:51pm | join to watch night operations with RA on Night Duty |
| Friday | ||
| Saturday | ||
| Sunday |
...schedule continues with Ops RA and Night RA into Weeks 8 and 9. Consider independent OPS at this time.
Around Week 8, begin creating troubleshooting scenarios during long weekday OPS or bad weather at night.
Non-confrontationally create a problem, allow new RA to see it, work through troubleshooting it together.
Ideas for these scenarios are here.
In Week 9 (after 2 months of experience), evaluate whether it is time to begin solo observing nights:
- are outstanding misunderstandings manageable for solo operations, or is additional supervised training required before going solo?
- are day/night staff called for assistance in situations where that is necessary?
- seek input from other RAs and TOs on training progress so far
- develop support plans and make resources available to improve knowledge/understanding
- plan for which RA is "on call" to support if questions arise during the night
90-day probationary appraisal: 07-July 2024
In Weeks 10-12, introduce to our software environment and development principles
- project work should include some analysis and light coding
- be familiar with our Software Policy
- Practice SVN and GIT and familiarize with basic version control principles
In Month 4, explore science data products on TACC and understand data quality.
135-day probationary appraisal: 21 August 2024
180-day probationary appraisal: 5 October 2024
Milestones to reach for each probationary appraisal
- 45 day (23 May 2024):
- Broad familiarity with major telescope hardware (not expert-level knowledge yet)
- Developing picture of PFIP, probe metrology, and telescope light path
- General understanding of science instruments, capabilities, data quality
- Conceptual grasp of PI science requirements and queue operations
- Experience so far mainly watching operations; possibly leading OPS checks with supervision
- todo: seek input from New RA about topics he/she wants to learn more about, organize resources to provide that training
- todo: seek input from night staff about strengths and weaknesses to improve
- todo: seek input (as needed) from day staff about progress so far
- 90 day (7 July 2024):
- Improved experience troubleshooting issues, experience with practice scenarios during daytime or bad weather
- Routinely leading RA OPS, improving understanding of the telescope, identifying issues, asking for help whenever needed
- Starting to lead night operations as solo RA
- Be comfortable submitting PRs in Bugzilla/NR
- Initial work on at least one telescope improvement project
- 135 day (21 August 2024):
- Successfully and confidently leading RA OPS, addressing issues appropriately
- Successfully leading night operations without supervision, asking for help whenever needed
- Knowledge of telescope and operations continuing to improve
- Making progress on at least one telescope improvement project
- General familiarity with our software development practices/environment
- Some experience with our science data products on TACC
- 180 day (5 October 2024):
- Meets basic expectations of the RA position
- todo: seek input from night and day staff about performance and progress
Practice scenarios where we can induce problems to learn troubleshooting #scenarios
- light path blocking issues
- deploy FCU head or PV mirror or something, check light path together
- tracker does not move with go_next
- power off quincy? catch the error on go_next, notice no structure sound
- probe fault
- move fails, go_next error
- other ideas??? let's get creative! we learn a lot when things break.
Also consider:
- shadow Day OPS staff member for a week or two
- consider something like an on-site evaluation group to work together in the 6-month training process
- lead night observations with supervision for 2+ runs before doing first solo nights (establish benchmarks to meet before solo)
Last modified 4 weeks ago
Last modified on Mar 31, 2024 4:05:54 PM
