Opening

At the beginning of the night, check the weather and determine what kind of night you may be having. Stable and clear? Thunderstorms? Cloudy with potential to clear up later? Knowing the weather is important to the success of the night and to the safety of the site. The more you know, the better prepared you are. Frequently, as soon as a RA comes in they will ask if you can open before they even sit down. Be ready to answer that question. When you begin opening the dome, you will need to record the time, external temperature, and truss temperature in the night report. If you are unable to open right at sunset (due to weather or a problem), but are able to open at 01:10, you will need to record that time and the temperature when you opened. Once you arrive you will do one of the following two options below depending on the state of the telescope:

1) If the dome is open and you need to be ready for sky flats. If for some reason you do not need to complete sky flats (you will get this information from the RA), move to a special target, or any other possible special circumstance, then open the CCAS (Center of Curvature Alignment System) shutter and prepare to stack. You will almost always begin the night with sky flats however.

2) If the dome has not been opened, criteria are met, and the sun is close enough to the horizon (so that sunlight will not hit directly on the primary mirror, go to the TCS GUI under the legacy tab, click “open shutter.” Important. NEVER move the dome while the shutter is opening or closing. There is no lockout to prevent motion of the dome while shutter is open so be careful. Opening the shutter while the dome is moving is a major safely issue and could result in harm of the building.