20170726 Science Plan

Priorities for test are in the order listed in the plan below.

Twilight:

Standard LRS2 twilight for any science frames that might be taken

VIRUS special twilights

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:

• Setup the guide camera for sky twilight (GC2, 0.1 sec exposure, B filter)
• When you hit the correct flux level (biased to a slight higher value, perhaps 5k) execute the specialtwilight script

Current trimester Science

This is the highest priority

Current trimester engineering

ACQ insertion test using BIB as a reference

Purpose: We wish to test the repeatability as a function tracker position, X and Y.

Procedure:

• Select a 15th mag star for the start of the track for the BIB for Az 170-200 (X track but try to go through the center of track).
• Set up on BIB
• Start guiding on a GC and start a WFS to keep focus and tip tilt
• Set the ACQ to filter i and pick a good exposure time so the star on the BIB position is not saturated
• Set the BIB exposure time so the BIB star is not saturated
• Run the BIBscript (located in the mcs home directory) to take images with BIB and ACQ.

Guider offsets in X watching ACQ

Purpose: To test the repeatability for a large (60") move in X.

Procedure:

• Select an 15th mag star from either the HPF list or the SDSS catalogs.
• Select a guide probe star such that you can make 10" fiducial guider moves in X.
• Setup on the BIB position.
• Start guiding on Guider 2
• Stop pipeline for ACQ
• Offset in -X by 10" syscmd -T 'Guider2_offset_fiducial(dx_asec=10,dy_asec=0,compensate="true")' to make sure that the setup works.
• If it does then move back to the original position syscmd -T 'Guider2_offset_fiducial(dx_asec=-10,dy_asec=0,compensate="true")'
• Run the fiducialoffsetXscript located in the mcs home directory.

Run the above again but setup for a 10" fiducial move in Y and the fiducialoffsetYscript

Repeat the above test but change the Az of the star by 90 degrees.

Testing of the ACAM position

Purpose: We want to see if the ACAM position changes with respect to the IHMP over time. We want this data about 2 times per week and when ever we get an unusually high or low temperature.

Determine the Center of the BIB:

• Select a 14th mag star in a reasonably rich field with shuffle for the BIB
• Setup on the very center of the BIB field of view (79, 98) and save an image.
• Guide on one of the guide probes
• Put in the ACAM and save an shallow image with the target star not saturated.
• Report on the position of the BIB in the night report and on NightOperations/Commissioning/Results
• Save a deeper image which should show more than a dozen stars.

Determine the Center of LRS2-B

• Select a 14th mag star in a reasonably rich field with shuffle for the LRS2-B
• Setup on LRS2-B and start guiding on one of the guiders
• Take LRS2-B spectrum, probably 60 seconds.
• Adjust the position so that the star is at the center of LRS2-B IFU using lmap until the offsets are less than 0.3"
• Confirm the star is at the center of the IFU by taking a spectrum.
• Once it is as the center of the IFU put in the ACAM and take a shallow image so that the star is not saturated.
• Report on the position of the LRS2-B in the night report and on NightOperations/Commissioning/Results
• Take a deeper image so that there are large number of stars.

Determine the Center of LRS2-R

• Select a 14th mag star in a reasonably rich field with shuffle for the LRS2-R
• Setup on LRS2-R and start guiding on one of the guiders
• Take LRS2-R spectrum, probably 60 seconds.
• Adjust the position so that the star is at the center of LRS2-R IFU using lmap until the offsets are less than 0.3"
• Confirm the star is at the center of the IFU by taking a spectrum.
• Once it is as the center of the IFU put in the ACAM and take a shallow image so that the star is not saturated.
• Report on the position of the LRS2-R in the night report and on NightOperations/Commissioning/Results
• Take a deeper image so that there are large number of stars.

Next Trimester Dark time Science

Do any science targets that require dark time. Bright time targets such as PSU17-3-002 should be done as a last resort.

Prep for new trimester science

We need to determine how out of focus we need to be to get M17-3-002 STANDARDS (which are often 6th mag). I was thinking that we might write a script that would move the star around during an exposure but we need to know how out of focus we need to be for reasonable exposure length to work. Try being above focus by 0.5 mm but centered on the LRS2-B IFU and take an exposure. Determine how long we have to expose to get 10,000 counts. How about 1.0 mm? Try a few test exposures and charge this to engineering time.

Next Trimester Bright time Science

Do any science targets that require bright time such as PSU17-3-002.