Operation Manual
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Operations at the La Silla 2.2 metres telescope
Rodolfo Angeloni
Paul Eigenthaler
Angela Hempel
Sam Kim
Iván Lacerna
Régis Lachaume
Markus Rabus
Since 2013, the operations at the La Silla 2.2 metres telescope
involve minimal support by ESO. This guide intends to famil-
iarise observers with the operations.
Version: June 5, 2019.
Contents
List of Figures ............................................................. 9
List of Tables ..............................................................11
List of procedures ........................................................ 13
1Introduction ..............................................................17
1.1 Control room 17
1.2 Overview of operations 17
1.3 Security 18
1.4 Telescope building 19
2Early afternoon: daily start-up .............................................21
2.1 Outline 21
2.2 WFI startup 26
2.3 TCS startup 27
2.4 FEROS startup 28
2.5 GROND and FEROS AG 29
2.6 FEROS DRS 29
4
2.7 Additional material 29
2.7.1 Harmless error messages ......................................................29
2.7.2 Display settings .............................................................29
3Afternoon: Day-time calibrations ......................................... 33
3.1 WFI 33
3.2 FEROS 34
3.3 GROND 35
4Sunset: Getting ready .....................................................37
4.1 Opening 37
4.2 Telescope readying 37
4.3 Making the instruments ready (at sunset) 38
4.4 Refining the night plan 39
5Twilight: On-sky calibrations ...............................................41
5.1 Outline 41
5.2 WFI 41
5.2.1 Sky flats ...................................................................41
5.2.2 Pointing ...................................................................42
5.2.3 Focus (quick tips) ............................................................44
5.2.4 Standard fields (quick tips) ....................................................44
5.3 FEROS 44
5.3.1 Focus .....................................................................44
5.3.2 Focus and spectrophotometric standard .........................................45
5.3.3 Radial velocity standards .....................................................45
5.4 GROND 46
5.4.1 Sky flats ...................................................................46
5.4.2 Focus .....................................................................47
5.4.3 Photometric standard fields .................................................... 47
5.4.4 RRM online .................................................................47
5
6Night: Observing ........................................................ 49
6.1 WFI 49
6.1.1 Popup handling .............................................................49
6.1.2 Switching to WFI .............................................................49
6.1.3 Guiding ...................................................................50
6.2 FEROS 51
6.2.1 Switching to FEROS ..........................................................51
6.2.2 Guiding ...................................................................53
6.3 GROND 54
6.3.1 Switching to GROND .........................................................54
6.3.2 React to an automatic trigger .................................................55
6.3.3 Guiding ...................................................................55
6.4 All intruments 56
6.4.1 Run an observing block .......................................................56
6.4.2 Skip the preset ..............................................................56
7Morning: Closing & Calibrations ...........................................57
7.1 Panels referred to 57
7.2 Telescope 57
7.3 Instruments 58
7.4 Dome 58
7.5 Tidying folders 58
7.6 Health checks & internal calibrations 59
8Managing observing blocks ..............................................61
8.1 Transferring OBs from one’s laptop 61
8.1.1 Standard way ..............................................................61
8.1.2 Loading manually ...........................................................61
8.2 OT 62
9Troubleshooting ......................................................... 63
9.1 No flux or little flux 63
6
9.2 Autoguider camera fails 63
9.2.1 GROND ...................................................................66
9.2.2 FEROS .....................................................................66
9.2.3 WFI .......................................................................67
9.3 OB doesn’t work 67
9.3.1 OB gives an error when started .................................................67
9.3.2 OB stalls before starting to observe ..............................................68
9.3.3 Crash before an exposure .....................................................68
9.3.4 Crash during an exposure .....................................................69
9.3.5 Crash during telescope offset ..................................................70
9.3.6 Crash during a telescope focus offset ............................................70
9.3.7 Crash at the beginning of sky flats ...............................................70
9.3.8 Crash during filter change in WFI ................................................70
9.4 Focus issues 71
9.4.1 GROND autoguider defocused .................................................71
9.4.2 Defocused wih FEROS ACS ....................................................71
9.4.3 WFI focus sequence fails with a timeout .......................................... 71
9.4.4 No focus offset when filters are changed .........................................71
9.5 FEROS ADC 71
9.5.1 ADC cannot be put off .......................................................71
9.5.2 Telescope focus is not corrected when ADC enters .................................72
9.6 FEROS-DRS 72
9.6.1 FEROS exposure number is close to 10 000 ........................................72
9.6.2 FEROS DRS fails ..............................................................72
9.6.3 Problems to restart the FEROS-DRS and Data Subscriber .............................72
9.6.4 Data won’t show up .........................................................74
9.7 Startup issues 75
9.7.1 FEROS .....................................................................75
9.7.2 WFI .......................................................................75
9.7.3 Hydraulics cannot be switched on/off ...........................................76
9.8 TCS issues 77
9.8.1 Start-up fails with l2p2cam error .................................................77
9.8.2 Start-up fails with telescope not initialised .........................................77
9.8.3 Quick TCS restart ............................................................78
9.8.4 No connection with VME ......................................................78
7
9.8.5 TCS is OFF on an instrument ....................................................79
9.8.6 Telescope doesn’t take focus orders .............................................79
9.8.7 TCS Setup panel is stuck ......................................................79
9.8.8 Main mirror cover cannot be moved ............................................79
9.8.9 Dome doesn’t move .........................................................80
9.8.10 Dome slit and telescope are not aligned .........................................80
9.9 GROND issues 80
9.9.1 GROND M3 is stuck ..........................................................80
9.9.2 GROND OB only crashes with TCS on ............................................81
9.9.3 GROND IR exposure won’t start .................................................82
9.10 Freezing issues 82
9.10.1 Mouse pointer does not move .................................................82
9.11 Pointing issues 83
9.11.1 Pointing is incorrect ..........................................................83
9.11.2 Telescope is stuck at low elevation ..............................................84
9.12 Web pages 85
9.12.1 2.2m Environmental Monitor stuck ...............................................85
9.12.2 All sky camera ..............................................................85
9.13 ESO database issues 85
10 Main systems .............................................................87
10.1 Telescope control software 87
10.1.1 Manual preset ..............................................................88
10.1.2 Manual offset ...............................................................88
10.1.3 Autoguider .................................................................88
10.2 WFI 90
10.3 FEROS 90
10.4 GROND 90
10.5 P2PP and OT 90
10.6 FEROS reduction software 90
10.7 Dome controls 90
10.8 Computers 90
List of Figures
1.1 Layout of the telescope controls .....................................17
1.2
Time flow of operations in the afternoon and twilights. Afternoon setup and calibrations should be
started at least 2.5 hours before sunset to leave a small buffer for technical issues. This example is
giving for a late fall night (May 15th), with presence required for about 15 hours. ...........18
1.3 Entering the old control room in the telescope building .........................19
1.4 Entering the computer room in the telescope building ..........................20
1.5 Entering the dome .............................................20
2.1
Operations time flow in the evening, doing start-up, calibrations, and tests in parallel. It should
start latest 2.5 hours before sunset (see horizontal axis at the top). The time of the day, given in
universal time on the bottom horizontal axis, corresponds to a date close to fall equinox (September 15th).
22
2.2 Wide field imager restart .........................................26
2.3 Telescope control software restart ....................................27
2.4 Fibre-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph (FEROS) restart. ...................28
2.5 Switching between GROND and FEROS guide cameras .........................29
2.6 FEROS data reduction software (DRS) Disk Monitor to check free disk space. .............29
2.7 Changing the date of the FEROS DRS. ..................................30
2.8 Harmless error message of the TCS during WFI restart .........................30
2.9 Harmless alarm display on WFI during TCS restart ...........................30
2.10 Correct sky orientation of the GROND displays .............................31
6.1 Window to set FEROS fibre reference position ..............................52
9.1 Rack with FEROS AG LCU .......................................64
9.2 Command scanei to control environments ................................65
10 LIST OF FIGURES
9.3 FEROS Data Subscriber. .........................................73
9.4 Telemetry window. ............................................75
9.5
WFI electronics. The box on the right controls the power and can be used to power cycle. The box
on the left contains the electronics boards that one may need to unplug and replug. ..........76
9.6 When TCS restart fails to reboot the FEROS AG LCU .........................77
9.7 VME rack in the computer room of the telescope building ........................78
9.8 Controlling the hydraulics and mirror cover. ...............................80
9.9 Local control of the dome .........................................81
9.10 Writing the M3 position in the database .................................81
9.11 The GROND mirror and main cover control box. ............................82
9.12 The GROND IRACE box .........................................83
9.13 The “joystick” can be used to manually point the telescope. .......................84
10.1 Main panel of the telescope control software ...............................87
10.2 Setup panel of the telescope control software ..............................88
10.3 WFI autoguider ..............................................89
10.4 Status window of the telescope control software .............................90
10.5 Auxiliary functions of the telescope control software ..........................92
10.6 WFI OS GUI ...............................................93
10.7 WFI state manager ............................................93
10.8 WFI general state panel ..........................................94
10.9 FEROS control panel ...........................................95
10.10FEROS instrument control software panel ................................96
10.11The main displays of Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near-Infrared Detector (GROND). ..........97
10.12Control panels for the detectors. .....................................98
10.13Dome Auxiliary Functions. ........................................98
10.14dome webcam ...............................................99
List of Tables
9.1 Pointing model parameters for each instrument, as of November 2015. .................83
10.1 Main workstations and users .......................................91
10.2 Common passwords. ...........................................91
10.3 Some useful reboots ............................................91
List of procedures
2.1 Telescope and instrument startup .....................................21
3.1 WFI dome flat-fields ...........................................33
3.2 FEROS afternoon calibrations ......................................34
4.1 Dome opening and telescope readying ..................................37
4.2 Telescope readying ............................................37
4.3 Making instrument ready .........................................38
5.1 Taking sky flats with WFI .........................................41
5.2 Ensure that pointing is correct using FEROS ...............................42
5.3 WFI pointing ...............................................43
5.4 WFI photometric standards ........................................44
5.5 FEROS focusing .............................................44
5.6 Focus and/or spectrophotometric standard ................................45
5.7 FEROS radial velocity standards .....................................45
5.8 GROND evening flat fields ........................................46
5.9 GROND standard field observation ....................................46
5.10 GROND morning flat fields ........................................47
6.1 Switch to WFI observations ........................................49
6.2 Guiding with WFI .............................................50
6.3 Restart guiding with WFI .........................................50
6.4 Switch to FEROS observation ......................................51
6.5 Guide a FEROS observation using reflection on the fibre head .....................53
6.6 Guide a FEROS observation blindly using off-fibre reference ......................53
6.7 Guide FEROS observation with the WFI guide camera .........................53
14 LIST OF PROCEDURES
6.8 Switch to GROND observations .....................................54
6.9 React to an automatic trigger .......................................55
6.10 Guide with GROND ...........................................55
6.11 Skip the preset ...............................................56
7.1 Close the dome. ..............................................57
7.2 Put the instruments offline ........................................58
7.3 Tidy folders ................................................58
7.4 Launch morning health checks and internal calibrations .........................59
8.1 Transfer OBs from one’s computer to the telescope, using p2pp check-in ................61
8.2 Transfer OBs from one’s computer to the telescope, using manual file transfer. .............61
9.1 Investigate and fix the reason for the absence of flux in an instrument ..................63
9.2 Observe when the autoguider fails ....................................63
9.3 Restart the GROND autoguider ......................................66
9.4 Restart the FEROS autoguider ......................................66
9.5 Fix WFI autoguider issues ........................................67
9.6 Fix OB start error .............................................67
9.7 Fix stalling of an OB ...........................................68
9.8 Investigate and fix a crash ocurring before the start of an optical exposure ...............68
9.9 Fix a crash during an exposure ......................................69
9.10 Remove the ADC from the optical path of FEROS ............................71
9.11 Fix the absence of focusing after FEROS ADC enters ..........................72
9.12 Reset the exposure number ........................................72
9.13 Restart the FEROS data reduction software and data subscriber .....................72
9.14 Restart the data handler. ..........................................74
9.15 Fix WFI init error .............................................75
9.16 Set the hydraulics for remote control ...................................76
9.17 Fix FEROS AG LCU during start-up ...................................77
9.18 Fix the telescope not initialized popup ..................................77
9.19 Quick TCS restart .............................................78
9.20 Solve the connection issue with the VME ................................78
9.21 Fix telescope focus issues .........................................79
9.22 Unstuck the TCS Setup panel .......................................79
9.23 Manually close the main mirror cover ..................................79
9.24 Set the dome for remote control .....................................80
9.25 Unlocking the grond M3 mirror .....................................80
9.26 Deep reset of GROND IRACE (verify this!) ...............................82
9.27 Recover the mouse pointer ........................................82
LIST OF PROCEDURES 15
9.28 Fix WFI pointing issues. .........................................83
9.29 Preset manually to zenith. .........................................84
9.30 Restart the 2.2m environmental monitor .................................85
9.31 Data do not appear in the database ....................................85
Control room
Overview of operations
Security
Telescope building
1 — Introduction
The operational scheme at the La Silla 2.2 metres telescope involves minimal support by ESO. This guide intends
to familiarise observers with the operations.
1.1 Control room
First of all, the control room, is located below the main ESO building, the one with the dining room. It is still
shared with the two ESO telescopes, the NTT and the 3.6 m. If everything works without technical issue, you can
do everything from there without any need to access the telescope building.
Figure 1.1 below shows the location of the different components of the controls. Screens, keyboards, and mice are
labeled to avoid confusion.
FEROS
DRS
p2pp GROND FEROS
WFI TCS Dome
GROND
remote
Figure 1.1: Layout of the telescope controls. From right to left: Windows desktop controlling and monitoring
the dome, telescope control software,WFI controls, FEROS controls (bottom) and skype laptop connected to the
GROND remote observers (top), GROND controls, machine where OBs are crafted and loaded by the visiting
astronomer, and, finally, the FEROS data reduction software.
1.2 Overview of operations
In most nights, a support astronomer is present in the afternoon and the first part of the night, freeing the visitor of
the afternoon and evening twilight calibration duties. Sometimes visitors are ask to perform all duties alone. In that
18 Introduction
case, an experienced observer can start operations 2.5 hours before sunset to minimise working time, while giving a
small time buffer to solve the commonest technical issues. Inexperienced ones should plan to start earlier or accept
possible downtime in the very beginning of the night. Figure 1.2 shows a time-optimised chart of operations in the
afternoon and both twilights.
20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 00:00
Time of the day [UTC]
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2
Time to/from sunset [hours]
Reboot VME & switch hydraulics on
Start-up
Move to dome flat screen
Park
Open dome
Move to empty field
Park & switch hydraulics off
Close dome
Restart (avoided until May)
Test bias
Dome flats
Coordinate nitrogen refill
Sky flats
Pointing
Launch internal calibration
Start-up
Standard calibration
Setup the pipeline
Autoguider test & reboot
Free disk space
Focus
Launch internal calibration
Autoguider test & reboot
Test OB
Restart (if needed)
Test OB (if restart)
Launch internal calibration
Plan night using GROND input
Standards or bright targets
Astronomical night
Standards or bright targets
Telescope
WFI
FEROS
GROND
Science operations
09:00 10:00
Time of the day [UTC]
-2 -1 0
Time to sun rise [hours]
Figure 1.2: Time flow of operations in the afternoon and twilights. Afternoon setup and calibrations should be
started at least 2.5 hours before sunset to leave a small buffer for technical issues. This example is giving for a late
fall night (May 15th), with presence required for about 15 hours.
When no service astronomer is present (e.g. last part of the night), visiting astronomers will be asked to perform
service observations for other groups, both for the follow-up of gamma-ray bursts and time-domain programmes.
The number of allocated nights for visitors takes the average time loss into account, in case more down time,
compensation will be considered in service mode. Since 2017, a long-term monitoring of quasi-stellar objects takes
1.5 to 2 hours daily, and targets of opportunity about 1 hour (15% long-term average). MPIA observers may be ask
for additional service observations for the MPIA.
Sections 2–6can be seen as a step-by-step guide of the operations from the daily startup to the night time. Many of
the steps need some knowledge of the observing block (OB) management and of the broker for observing blocks
( ) interface, which are presented in Section 8. Section 9lists fixes to common issues at the telescope. We
present the software components more in detail in Section 10.
1.3 Security
The main guidelines to avoid bodily harm are:
•
Don’t move the telescope or dome before checking no one is in the way. During the day, ESO technicians
may address some issues or refill the instrument with nitrogen. If you operate from the remote control room,
check the dome webcam.
•
If you need to go to the dome, leave a conspicuous message in the control room and put the telescope in
local control from the computer room of the telescope building.
•If you drive by night, go very slowly and defensively as you may not see a pedestrian or a dark donkey.
•If you walk, take the incoming traffic side and be very careful at night. Drivers don’t use lights.
ESO has the duty to ensure telescope safety but you have to be proactive, too. In particular:
1.4 Telescope building 19
•
If you are not able to close when you must (sunrise and inclement weather), you need to ask to the operators
present at the NTT or the 3.6m. They have the duty to assist.
•
The weather officer or the NTT operator will tell you when you need to close and when you may reopen,
stick to it.
•
If you have any doubts whether you may open in the afternoon, wait for the NTT to open or ask the ESO
day-time operator.
•If the meteo monitor shows that the closing limits are reached (wind, humidity, clouds), close.
•
If a sea of clouds below the observatory was present at sunset, be attentive as it is common for them to raise
and increase humidity to 100% within minutes.
1.4 Telescope building
It is sometimes necessary to physically access the telescope building where there is an old control room (Fig. 1.3),
a computer room to physically access some relevant workstations (Fig. 1.4), the FEROS room, and, obviously, the
dome (Fig. 1.5).
Some subsystems are controlled by machines gathered in big rack towers, these machines are called LCU or
sometimes VME. There are also workstations controlling coordinating with one or more LCUs, they look like a
normal desktop computer tower usually with no screen or keyboard.
In the dome itself, many electronic boxes attached at the telescope (see Fig. 1.5) may need being “power cycled”,
that is switched off and on. It is also possible to locally take control of telescope, dome, and mirror motion.
Figure 1.3: Entering the old control room in the telescope building
Outline
WFI startup
TCS startup
FEROS startup
GROND and FEROS AG
FEROS DRS
Additional material
2 — Early afternoon: daily start-up
Start-up should take about one hour, but small technical issues can lengthen it significantly. Ideally, it should be
done early enough in the afternoon (2–3 pm in Winter, 3–4 pm in Summer), so that dome flat fields can be done
before the nitrogen of wide-field imager (WFI) is refilled. Also, complicated issues should be diagnosed early, so
that you benefit from the day-time support from ESO engineers. Night time support is not provided except for
emergencies.
For an experienced observer alone in Winter, a later start-up can be done by optimising and hoping for the best (see
Fig. 2.1), but the risk is to lack time to perform dome flats and/or losing the very beginning of the night to technical
issues.
The TCS and the WFI are entangled. In particular, the WFI instrument control software (ICS) controls the focus
and pointing, and the TCS controls the WFI autoguider (AG). For this reason, the WFI should be rebooted before
the TCS. The other instruments, GROND and FEROS, are more independent and need a later restart. Also, the
FEROS and GROND AG should be checked and the FEROS DRS set to the right date.
2.1 Outline
To be on the safe side, the start-up sequence shall be performed in this order below. To gain a bit more time one
can do 2a–2b during 1a–1e and 2e–2h during 1h–1j.FEROS,GROND, the AG and the DRS (3,4,5,6a) can be
handled in parallel as soon as the TCS is booted (2h).
If under time pressure, you can also do some day-time calibrations in parallel. Figure 2.1 gives a time-optimised
flow of the day-time start-up and calibrations, showing what can be done in parallel. It should be started latest 2.5
hours before sunset.
Procedure 2.1. Telescope and instrument startup
1. WFI restart (8 min, in case of problems, see Fig. 2.2)
If no problem occurred during the last night, try steps 1i–1j. If an issue happens, do the full start-up.
(a) On the screen , go to the virtual desktop.
(b) In a terminal, , where ini is your initials (Fig. 2.2(a)).
(c) On the dialog, choose startup (Fig. 2.2(b)).
(d) Click on the appearing window ( , see Fig. 2.2(c)).
(e) Wait until the start-up window says (about 11 minutes).
22 Early afternoon: daily start-up
20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00 00:00
Time of day [UTC]
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2
Time to/from sunset [hours]
Reboot VME & switch hydraulics on
Start-up
Move to dome flat screen
Park
Open dome
Move to empty field
Restart (avoided until May)
Test bias
Dome flats
Coordinate nitrogen refill
Sky flats
Pointing
Start-up
Standard calibration
Setup the pipeline
Autoguider test & reboot
Free disk space
Focus
Autoguider test & reboot
Test OB
Restart (if needed)
Test OB (if restart)
Plan night using GROND input
Standards or bright targets
Astronomical night
Telescope
WFI
FEROS
GROND
Science operations
Figure 2.1: Operations time flow in the evening, doing start-up, calibrations, and tests in parallel. It should start
latest 2.5 hours before sunset (see horizontal axis at the top). The time of the day, given in universal time on the
bottom horizontal axis, corresponds to a date close to fall equinox (September 15th).
A black text window gives indication on the process (Fig. 2.2(d))
(f) Close the startup window (Fig. 2.2(c))
(g) Close the emerging PDF (Fig. 2.2(e)).
(h) Rearrange windows to the corresponding desktops (1 min, see Fig. 2.2(f))
•real time display (RTD) goes to all desktops, on the left screen.
•other windows go to the desktop bearing their name, on the right screen.
(i) Wait for the filter wheel to be set to a specific filter (1–2 min)
•Locate the field on the panel
•If it stays in or you skipped full restart, reset filtre wheel (Sect. 9.3.8).
(j) In , execute (1 min)
•Import it with window menu → → .
•Click the button.
2. TCS restart (17 min, daily, see Fig. 2.3)
(a) Go to web browser on screen to activate hydraulics (Fig. 2.3(a)).
•Find the Dome Auxiliary Functions (tab called )
If it is not there, open it with the bookmark .
Use the good seeing password if necessary.
•Click , then button goes green.
•Click , then button goes green.
It may be needed to click two or three times to get green buttons.
(b) On the screen , go the the virtual desktop.
(c) If a pop-up can be seen on the TCS screen (Fig. 2.3(b)), click .
(d) In a terminal type and wait for command to end (2 min, Fig. 2.3(c))
If none is there, you can open one with left-click mouse menu →.
If an error message appears on the WFI screen, click .
(e) On the TCS screen, type , where ini is your initials. (Fig. 2.3(d))
Make sure WFI is fully booted (1e) before going on with the TCS start-up.
(f) Click on the appearing startup window titled (Fig. 2.3(e))
(g) Be proactive to handle some appearing pop-ups (in a 14 minutes lapse)
i. One asking to check hydraulics and telescope is parked among other things (Fig. 2.3(f)).
2.1 Outline 23
You can check each point and then click
ii. One asking to switch on flat-field lamp (Fig. 2.3(g))
Lamp should be on, check no one is in the dome, then click .
If it’s off, on panel on desktop , select under
Then, telescope will do movement checks.
iii. One asks to check for CCD alarms to be enabled (Fig. 2.3(h))
Go to the large, black text window where all numbers below the two should be ones.
iv. One asks to check that the flat-field lamp is off.
If not, on panel on desktop , select under
(h) The panel should have appeared and start-up window say .
(i) Close startup window.
(j) Close emerging PDF.
(k) Rearrange windows to the corresponding desktops (1 min)
•go to all desktops, on the right screen.
•Other windows go to the desktop bearing their name, on the left screen.
•Ignore window (Fig. 2.9) if it pops up on the WFI screen.
3. FEROS restart (daily, 7 min, see Fig. 2.4).
Only start after TCS is back online and doing telescope movements (2(g)ii).
Under time pressure, you can skip points 3a–3j, accepting an increased risk of night-time issues.
(a) On the screen , go the the virtual desktop.
(b) In a terminal type , where ini is your initials. (Fig. 2.4(a))
If none is available, use left-click mouse menu →.
(c) Click on popup (Fig. 2.4(b))
(d) Click on the start-up window (Fig. 2.4(c)).
A black text window should appear and give indications on the progress. (Fig. 2.4(d))
(e) Close it says (2 minutes)
(f) Click on window (Fig. 2.4(e)).
If a timeout error occurs, see Sect. 9.7.1.
(g) The pop-up panel will close by itself after the ICS started
(h) After Start-up is finished a pdf will open, and can be closed
(i) Wait for windows to appear.
(j) Rearrange windows to the corresponding desktops (1 min, see Fig. 2.4(f))
•RTD goes to all desktops, on the left screen.
•Other windows go to the desktop bearing their names, on the right screen.
•There are two s and two s, you can close one of each.
(k) On panel, use window menu →.
(l) In , run (1–2 min)
i. Fetch it with window menu → → ( ).
ii. Click (takes about 1 min).
iii. If points 3a–3j were skipped, it will fail on the first attempt and proceed.
iv. Click on the error popups, one should say
v. Wait for the exposure to finish
vi. In , click on
vii. Click on start again.
viii. Wait for OB to finish.
(m) On panel, use window menu →.
4. GROND restart (daily, 5–11 min)
(a) Go to screen .
24 Early afternoon: daily start-up
(b) Locate or open a terminal with user .
You can use left-click mouse menu →
(c) In the case of a power cut or issues with GROND, restart the instrument (5 min)
i. Type , wait for shutdown window to finish and disappear.
ii. Type and click on the pop-up.
iii.
Wait for startup window to finish and disappear (a few minutes). If an error about “reply timed out”
appears, then close the startup window and repeat from 4(c)i.
iv. Rearrange windows.
v. Use window menu →in the GROND control panel (Fig 10.11(b)).
(d) Do some preventive reinitialisations (1.5 min)
i. Close .
ii. Launch from the terminal as user (type ).
iii. In the same terminal, execute .
iv. In the same terminal, execute (might take 1 min).
(e) From , execute the test OB , see Fig. 10.11(a) (1 min)
i. Ensure TCS is (red button) by clicking .
ii. Fetch OB with window menu → →
iii. Click .
(f) Repeat the last step using communication with the TCS (2 min)
i. Ensure TCS is (green button) by clicking .
ii. Fetch OB with window menu → → .
iii. Click .
iv. If you haven’t done the full start-up, the first attempt should fail, you need to
•Click on the error popups, one should say
•Wait for the exposure to finish
•In , click on
•Click on start again.
•If error persists, close and open it again
v. Set telescope back to FEROS/WFI (0.5 min)
In a terminal type, .
(g) If a restart (point 4(c)iii) was done, set the image displays (1 min).
i. Go to the screen.
ii. Find the RTD window (griz images).
iii. Check that image is flipped along both axes and rotated (see Fig. 2.10(a)).
iv. Go to the screen.
v. Find the irtd window (JHK images).
vi. Check that images are received live.
The left column should have a green button with text (see Fig. 2.10(b)).
If it is gray with text , click it so that it gets as describe above.
vii. Check that the image is horizontally flipped (see Fig. 2.10(b)).
viii. Check that the image has positive pixel values
Find menu option
5. FEROS and GROND guide cameras setup (3–8 min)
(a) Go to the screen.
(b) Rearrange windows to their corresponding virtual desktops (1 min)
window should go to all desktops.
(c) Use numbers 6, 3, 0.02 below and click .
(d) Check the GROND autoguider (1–4 min)
i. select GROND below (see Fig. 2.5)
2.1 Outline 25
ii. Use to change to
(proceed to troubleshooting (Sect. 9) if is not )
iii. find window
iv. use window menu →
v. a bias image should be seen within seconds
vi. if it fails go to (3 min)
(e) Check the FEROS autoguider (1–4 min)
i. select FEROS below (see Fig. 2.5)
ii. Use to change to
(proceed to troubleshooting (Sect. 9) if is not )
iii. find window
iv. click checkbox so that checkbox gets green
v. a bias image should be seen within seconds
vi. check that the image is horizontally flipped.
vii. if it fails go to (3 min)
6. FEROS data reduction software setup (2–5 min)
(a) Change the date (1 min)
i. Go to the workspace of screen
ii.
If FEROS DRS window is not there, open it with left-click mouse menu
→
iii. the
iv. the
v. Change the date
vi. the
vii. the
(b) Free disk space (1–4 min)
i. Go to workspace of screen
ii. Use or open a terminal
iii. If df -h /data indicates more than 80% disk usage, proceed
iv. Delete the oldest nights in , , and
Leave at least the last three nights.
Example:
26 Early afternoon: daily start-up
2.2 WFI startup
(a) Launch the reboot from the terminal. (b) Choose full startup.
(c) Click start. (d) A log terminal opens. Process takes ≈10 min.
(e) When finished select
→
from window of
Fig. 2.2(c). This PDF log opens. You can close it.
(f) Don’t forget to rearrange all these windows.
Figure 2.2: WFI restart. When done, don’t forget to take a test bias.
2.3 TCS startup 27
2.3 TCS startup
(a) Turn hydraulics and drives on, Windows desktop.
(b) On the TCS machine, give to this error.
(c) Reboot lte2p2 machine.
(d) Launch the reboot from the terminal.
(e) Click start.
(f) Check elements then click to incoming pop-up.
(g) Check flat lamp is on or switch it on. After clicking ,
telescope should move.
(h) Check that CCD alarms are on in the black text window.
(i) Check flat field lamp is off, if not, turn it off
Figure 2.3: TCS restart. As for WFI there is a black terminal log) and process ends with a PDF log being popped
up. Emergent windows hould be rearranged to their respective desktops. The RTD isplay should go to all desktops
on the left screen, the other windows n the right screen.
28 Early afternoon: daily start-up
2.4 FEROS startup
(a) Restart FEROS from terminal. Ensure that telescope is enabled in the FEROS
control window.
(b) Click .
(c) Click . (d) This black log opens. Later on a PDF will pop-up.
(e) Click .
(f) When finished, rearrange the windows to their corresponding
desktops. RTD, and FEROS control go to .
Figure 2.4: FEROS restart.
2.5 GROND and FEROS AG 29
2.5 GROND and FEROS AG
Figure 2.5: Switching between GROND and FEROS guide camera.
Check that the GROND and FEROS guide cameras work by switching between them on the AG window (see
Fig. 2.5). The switching should set the camera in CCD status . It may be necessary to click
on after switching to obtain this status. If status is , the camera must be restarted (see
Sect. 9.2).
2.6 FEROS DRS
Figure 2.6: FEROS DRS Disk Monitor to check free disk space.
The FEROS DRS should be set to process the data of the current night. In the process the MIDAS session (with its
characteristic blue window) is closed and reopened.
2.7 Additional material
2.7.1 Harmless error messages
2.7.2 Display settings
30 Early afternoon: daily start-up
Figure 2.7: Changing the date of the FEROS DRS.
Figure 2.8: When restarting WFI, the TCS generally issues a harmless error message. Get over it and click .
Figure 2.9: will typically pop-up on the WFI screen with a line in red when the TCS is
restarted. Get over it and hide the window.
WFI
FEROS
GROND
3 — Afternoon: Day-time calibrations
The day-time observations use OBs either stored in or in a observing tool ( ) queue. Managing OBs with
and is explained in more detail in Sect. 8.
3.1 WFI
Internal calibrations and health checks are typically left running in the morning after the dome has been closed.
See Sect. 7.6.
Procedure 3.1. WFI dome flat-fields
1. Ensure that no one is in the dome nor will enter it.
2. Prepare the telescope.
(a) If hydraulics is off, switch it on and wait for connection with VME
i. On the panel click then .
ii. On the panel, check if red message appears .
iii. If it is the case, wait for it to disappear (about 2 min)
(b) If hydraulics were off, initialise telescope
i. On the panel, click
ii. Wait for the telescope status of the to go from to (2 min)
(c) Preset to flat-field screen
i. Go to the (Fig. 10.2) on screen .
ii. Put on .
iii. Preset the telescope to flat-field screen.
Click below
iv. Wait for the movement to complete (2 min) before starting the flat-field OB.
On the (Fig. 10.1) telescope status is .
(d) Prepare shutters and mirrors
i. Click under the .
ii. Wait for opening to complete (2 min) befor starting the flat-field OB
iii. Open the WFI protective shutter.
In the Auxiliary Functions (Fig. 10.5), the .
iv. Ensure the GROND mirror is on WFI
34 Afternoon: Day-time calibrations
v. Ensure the FEROS mirror is on FEROS
3. Prepare the flat-field OB
(a) Go to on the screen .
(b)
Fetch from file (window menu
→ →
) looking in subfolder .
•If observing in UBVRI standard filtres: (25 min).
•
During an observing period or a visitor run, a custom OB may be used: or
•To choose filtres on the fly: .
•To test all filtres: (1 flat per filtre, 2 hrs 30 min).
(c) If choosing filtres on the fly, customise the ob
i. Open the flat template, left-clicking on the triangle of
ii. Open the instrument section, left-click on the triangle of section
iii. Use window menu →.
iv. Middle-click the filter name, fill in value, and type enter.
Name is ( : number, : filtre name or wavelength)
In virtual desktop , a filter list is found below
v. Deactivate the filtres you don’t want.
Right-click the triangles to get a thumb down
4. Execute OB (15–30 min usually).
5. If no other types of flats are done, park the telescope
(a) Go to the on screen .
(b) to the .
(c) Set the dome in .
(d) Click below (2 min)
(e)
Close the WFI protective shutter. In the Auxiliary Functions (Fig. 10.5), the
.
6. If telescope will stay idle for hours, switch hydraulics off.
3.2 FEROS
A linearity check is left running in the morning (see Sect. 7.6). The standard FEROS calibration is generally done
after startup. It is internal in a separate room, so it can be done while doing telescope movements, going to the
dome, or even WFI or FEROS observations.
Procedure 3.2. FEROS afternoon calibrations
1. Go to screen .
2. Check that FEROS does not communicate with the telescope
On the panel, use window menu →.
3. Execute from (≈1 h).
(a) Use window menu → → .
(b) Click .
4. Check that the DRS has processed it. While Fabry-Pérot stays installed, it will fail.
(a) Find a white graphics with title .
(b) The wavelength solution should have 4 ×10−3Angstroem rms or less and look flat.
(c) If not, restart calibration if possible.
Opening
Telescope readying
Making the instruments ready (at sunset)
Refining the night plan
4 — Sunset: Getting ready
4.1 Opening
Opening should take place about one or two hours before sunset if conditions allow it. In case of doubts, always
ask to the day-time Telescope & Instrument Operator of ESO.
Procedure 4.1. Dome opening and telescope readying
1. Check that the slit is oriented opposite to the Sun. It does not apply when opening at night.
(a) On the of the , it should be to the East
(b) If not, rotate manually in the
2. Open the slit
(a) Go to the TCS setup panel (Fig. 10.2)
(b) Check that the value below is .
(c) If not, click (2 min).
(d) n the TCS setup panel (Fig 10.2), below , click (1 min)
3. Turn on the Dome Air in the Dome Auxiliary Functions (Windows desktop, Fig. 10.13).
4. If opening during the night, you can directly prepare the telescope (Procedure 4.2).
4.2 Telescope readying
A bit before sunset if doing sky flats or at sunset otherwise, you can ready the telescope and point to an empty field.
Procedure 4.2. Telescope readying
1. Prepare the telescope
(a) If hydraulics is off, switch it on and wait for connection with VME
i. On the panel click then .
ii. On the panel, check if red message appears .
iii. If it is the case, wait for it to disappear (about 2 min)
(b) If hydraulics were off, initialise telescope
i. On the panel, click
ii. Wait for the telescope status of the to go from to (2 min)
(c) Open the main mirror cover
i. Click under the .
38 Sunset: Getting ready
ii. Wait for opening to complete (2 min) befor starting the flat-field OB
2. Preset to an empty field if doing sky flats, a test with GROND, or readying before sunset
(a) Go to the TCS Control Panel (Fig. 10.1)
(b) Below click .
(c) Choose
(d) Select field with and .
Right ascension should be about 1 hour more than sidereal time at sunset.
Consider field quality: excellent, good, OK, poor.
(e) Click .
3. Set the dome motion in automatic.
On the TCS setup panel (Fig 10.2), below , select the checkbox .
4.3 Making the instruments ready (at sunset)
Procedure 4.3. Making instrument ready
1. Activate the connection between instruments and telescopes
(a) On the FEROS control panel (Fig. 10.9), use window menu →.
(b) On the GROND control panel (Fig. 10.11(b)), click .
(c) Refresh the WFI general state panel (Fig. 10.8).
•Use window menu →.
•Check that is .
2. Open the instrument covers
(a) In the Auxiliary Functions (Fig. 10.5), open the WFI protective shutter.
(b)
For GROND observations, in a terminal open the main cover, the cold shutter, and the optical ones
through these commands
i.
ii.
iii.
3. Check for mirrors
(a) Check FEROS mirror ( ) on the FEROS control panel (Fig. 10.9).
If necessary, set motor on the ICS (Fig. 10.10)
•to for observations with WFI or GROND;
•to for observations with FEROS.
(Select the check box, select instrument, click , unselect checkbox.)
(b) Check GROND mirror on the GROND control (Fig 10.11(b)).
If necessary, type
•for FEROS or WFI observations
•for GROND observations.
4.
If no test OB with TCS on was done during the start-up, try to run a GROND test OB ( )
on sky using (Fig. 10.11(a)).
(a) Fetch OB with window menu → → .
(b) Click .
(c) If an error occurs after the optical exposure has started
•Click on the error popups
•Wait for the exposure to finish
•In , click on
•Click on start again.
•If error persists, close and open it again
(d) For other errors, do a , close bob and open it again.
4.4 Refining the night plan 39
4.4 Refining the night plan
On the GROND remote observer screen at the side of the small laptop, one of the GROND team members should
have contacted you by to indicate their observing plan, if they have some monitoring to do. It generally
consists of 1–3 targets to be observed within a time range, so that you try to accommodate with your own and/or
other service observations. If it is detrimental to the other observations, there is sometimes some flexibility on
which days they have their monitoring done, ask, but they have precedence.
If slack is closed, open a browser with the following link: https://slack.com/signin. Sign in to workspace
grondobs.slack.com and continue. Use the credentials given on the cover of the laptop, account
with password
?????
. Under channel you can usually find the observing plan (late
afternoon).
Outline
WFI
FEROS
GROND
5 — Twilight: On-sky calibrations
5.1 Outline
Flat-fielding
1. WFI flats can be done from sunset to sun at −10 degrees elevations depending on filtre.
Standard filters have that order: U, V, R, I, and B.
2. GROND flats are extensive and run from sun at −4 to −9 degrees elevation.
To be started when 2s J-band exposures feature a relatively flat field with 20 000 counts.
Pointing & Focus
1. Pointing should be performed daily with WFI using an OB from .
2. FEROS focus should be performed nightly using an OB from the calibration queue.
3. WFI focus should be done closest to science observations.
Standards
1. FEROS focus includes an optional spectrophotometric standard.
2. WFI &GROND standard fields are available from their respective s.
5.2 WFI
5.2.1 Sky flats
Sky flats in most narrow-band filtres and the darkest broad-band ones (
U
&
V
) should be started right at sunset or
slightly before sunrise. The brightest broad band filtres (
R
,
I
,
B
) can be obtained with the sun at
−6
to
−9
degrees
approximately. It is possible to obtain the five standard filtres in one twilight provided they are started at sunset or
in the morning twilight when the sun is at −9 degrees.
The procedure has been somehow modified (January 2014).
Procedure 5.1. Taking sky flats with WFI
1. If not done, check that dome and main mirror cover are open (Sect. 4.1, point 4.1).
2. If not done, check GROND and FEROS mirrors (Sect. 4.3, point 3).
42 Twilight: On-sky calibrations
3. If not done, check that the WFI main cover is open (Sect. 4.3, point 2).
4. If not done, point the telescope to an empty field (Sect. 4.1, point 2).
(a) Go to the on screen .
(b) Below click .
(c) Choose
(d) Select field with and .
Right ascension should be about 1 hour from sidereal time, opposite to the Sun.
Consider field quality: excellent, good, OK, poor.
(e) Click .
5. Go to on screen .
6. Fetch sky flat OB from file (window menu → → ).
(Go to folder )
•For standard filtres use
( in the morning)
•Some other filtres have their own flat OBs (e.g. ).
•For a set of non standard filtres use .
7. If not doing the standard filtres, customise OB.
(a) For non standard filtres, edit the filter names.
i. Open the flat template, left-clicking on the triangle of
ii. Open the instrument section, left-click on the triangle of section
iii. Use window menu →.
iv. Middle-click the filter name, fill in value, and type enter.
(In virtual desktop , a filter list is found below )
(b) Deactivate unneeded templates.
Right-click the triangles to get a thumb down.
8. Execute OB
(a) Click .
(b) For each template
i. Click to pop-up asking to preset.
ii. After one minute, a pop-up estimates the exposure time.
In the evening, if the message is
•an error message and a dimm test image (≤400 ADU), skip this template
In the morning, if the message is
•an error message and a bright test image (≥20 kADU), skip this template
5.2.2 Pointing
Pointing with FEROS
If starting with FEROS, you can use the focus and/or standard star OB to check pointing.
Procedure 5.2. Ensure that pointing is correct using FEROS
1. Update the model parameters
(a) Go to the workstation.
(b) Open or use a UNIX terminal.
(c) Type ˜
2. Change pointing model to FEROS.
(a) Go to the (workspace , see Fig. 10.4).
(b) Use window menu →
3. Check the sidereal time
5.2 WFI 43
(a) On the digital clock of the control room, switch display to sidereal time.
(b) Go to the (workspace ).
(c) The sidereal time of the TCS Control Panel should lag by approximately 5 s.
4. Point at a FEROS focus/standard star. See Sect. 5.3.1.
Pointing and autoguider test with WFI
If things go well, the bright star used for the test that should fall a few hundreds of pixels from the centre of the
mozaic in the South-West direction.
Procedure 5.3. WFI pointing
1. Switch the instrument to WFI on the TCS status panel.
( , Fig. 10.4. Do it even if it already says WFI).
2. If not done, check that dome and main mirror are open, and dome is in automatic.
(Refer to Sect. 4.1, points 2,1c and 3).
3. If not done, check GROND and FEROS mirrors (Sect. 4.3, point 3).
4. If not done, check that the WFI main cover is open (Sect. 4.3, point 2).
5. Go to on screen .
6. Fetch pointing OB from file (window menu → → ).
(Go to folder )
•OBs are , where is the right ascension.
•Chose an OB with close to sidereal time.
7. After the exposure is taken, accept “refine acquisition”.
A small form asking for the star’s coordinates will appear.
8. Use in the option of the RTD to obtain the star’s pixel coordinates.
9. Input the pixel coordinates.
Copy them with the mouse from the Pick Object popup to the small form.
10. TEMPORARY: if offset values are large, it’s normal, WFI pointing was modified.
After
a popup should have appeared.
Click if satisfied with the offset values (in arcsec).
11. If no star at all is seen, see Sect. 9.11.1 to check that:
(a) You did not forget Points 1-4.
(b) The sidereal time of the TCS is correct within seconds.
(c) The pointing parameters of the TCS are correct.
(d)
Check that the star does not fall into the gap between two CCDs. (Give coordinates falling in the gap to
the pop-up, offset and reaquire.
(e) Once you have a star, as long as the offset is large, use
(f) If the correct pointing model is selected, that should not take more than 2-4 repeats (max 10 min).
12. At that point, the pointing is done, and a small test of the autoguider is done.
If it crashes, it has no impact on the pointing check. You can skip it if you do not intend to use the WFI
autoguider.
13. When asked, acquire a guide star on the TCS.
On the TCS Control Panel, follow the steps of Sect. 6.1.3
If it is still too bright to click on a guide star, click on background.
14. Click to the popup asking for guiding on the WFI workstation.
15. Wait for a short exposure to read out (30 sec).
44 Twilight: On-sky calibrations
5.2.3 Focus (quick tips)
Focus as close to your field in time and space.
Preset the telescope to the field to be observed.
Then, fetch a file from folder . Focus in the band to be observed. Otherwise, V-band
should be OK (focusV.obd).
Try to guide. If guiding is instable, better to have it off.
When focus sequence has been taken (
≈6
min), click before you go to the MIDAS window (in the Midas
desktop), then left-click and right-click on the upper star in whatever vertical sequence to measure focus.
Many times, you cannot adjust the measuring box with the up and down keys, so the focus is badly estimated (the
fits do not have a parabolic shape). In that case, choose to remeasure it and the box should become adjustable (e.g.
choose the upper star on other sequence).
5.2.4 Standard fields (quick tips)
Procedure 5.4. WFI photometric standards
1. Go to screen .
2. If not done, switch the instrument to WFI on the TCS status panel (Fig. 10.4).
3. Fetch standard OB from list
(a) Use window menu → → .
(b) Go to folder .
(c) Select OB
•If good image quality in Uis needed, select .
•If not, select (no guiding).
4. Customize OB.
•If non-standard filtres are needed, edit filtre names (see Sect. 5.2.1, item 7a).
•Deactivate unneeded templates.
(Right-click the triangles to get a thumb down.)
5. Execute OB (20 min).
(a) Click .
(b) For each filtre
i. Guide if required by a pop-up and click .
ii. A pop-up with number of dithers to skip must be answered (with value 0).
If it doesn’t appear it is hidden behind a window. If left unanswered, observation will just pause.
5.3 FEROS
You can choose focus only, or focus and standard, which takes only 5 min more. Radial Velocity (RV) standard can
be taken any time needed (they take 5-10 minutes with overheads).
5.3.1 Focus
Procedure 5.5. FEROS focusing
1. Check that dome and main mirror are open (Sect. 4.1, point 4.1).
2. Check GROND and FEROS mirrors (on WFI and FEROS, respectively. Sect. 4.3, point 3).
3. Check that the WFI main cover is open (Sect. 4.3, point 2).
4. Select instrument on the panel (screen ).
5. Got to on screen and fetch focus OB:
5.3 FEROS 45
(a) Use window menu → → .
(b) Select directory .
(c) Select with close to sidereal time.
6. Click .
7. Acquire object on fibre and guide (see Sect. 6.2.1, point 4, & Sect. 6.2.2).
8. Perform the focus
(a) On the window, select numbers 6, 3, 0.2.
(b) After about 30 s, click to pop-up asking to ensure loop time is more than 3.
(c) A pop-up asks and suggest a focus estimate
i. If number is in range 300–500, it should be fine, click .
ii. If not, fill in last remembered value or, if you don’t have any, 400, then click .
(d) Shortly after, a pop-up asks to select a star to focus on
i. A image appears, left and right-click on a non-saturated source.
ii. Click to pop-up
(e) After about 5–10 min a fit to focus is done and a pop-up asks whether it is correct
i. If it seems correct, click .
ii. If it seems incorrect, but you can spot a good focus value by eye
•Click
•Give guesstimate to new pop-up
iii. If you have no clue, just abort.
5.3.2 Focus and spectrophotometric standard
You may deactivate the focus sequence by thumbing down the second template in (10 min without focus).
Procedure 5.6. Focus and/or spectrophotometric standard
1. Perform steps of Sect. 5.3.1 except that
•OB directory is
•OB name is with close to sidereal time.
2. After focus is done, change integration time to 0.01 on the window.
3. Two pop-ups will ask to wait for object to be centred on the fibre. Wait for it to occur and click .
5.3.3 Radial velocity standards
Procedure 5.7. FEROS radial velocity standards
1. Got to on screen and fetch standard OB:
(a) Use window menu → → .
(b) Select directory .
(c) Select with close to sidereal time.
2. Proceed with guiding and answer popups, that’s a normal observation (about 5 - 10 min).
(a) In the window, click (below ), then click on the object.
(b) In the window, set the integration time if necessary.
(c) OK on popups ( ) when the object is centred.
46 Twilight: On-sky calibrations
5.4 GROND
5.4.1 Sky flats
Evening flats
Before taking evening flat fields, check the relevant items of “no flux or little flux” in Sect. 9.1. In particular the
main mirror cover should be open and the dome set in automatic. The sky flats typically start when the sun is 4
degrees below the horizon. To be able to start on time, the following procedure should be started right at sunset.
Procedure 5.8. GROND evening flat fields
Procedure lasts about 30 min.
1. If not done, check that dome and main mirror are open (Sect. 4.1, point 4.1).
2. If not done, point the telescope to an empty field (Sect. 4.1, point 2).
3. If not done, set the dome in automatic.
4. Go to screen.
5. If not done in the evening, do some prophylaxis (Sect. 2, points 4d and 4f)
(a) Close .
(b) In the terminal, type .
(c) In the terminal, type (may last 1 min).
(d) From the terminal, launch a new with .
(e) Execute a with TCS .
6. Set mirror and open shutters
(a) In the terminal, type .
(b) In the terminal, type .
(c) In the terminal, type .
7. Get sky flat OB ready
In , fetch OB
(use folder).
8. Monitor the J-band counts.
(a) Go the the screen.
(b) Set the IR integration time to 2 s.
•Find window (see Fig. 10.12(b)).
•Close to the , fill in value 2.
•Press enter (Don’t do .)
(c) Draw cuts in the infrared image.
•Go the the window.
•Go the the J-band (right handside)
•Use window menu →, then click on the pop-up.
•Draw a diagonal on the image with the mouse.
(d)
Wait for the cuts to look flat and with about 20 000 counts. This should occurr when the sun is about 4
degrees below the horizon.
9. When counts are OK, on the screen, click in .
Standards
Procedure 5.9. GROND standard field observation
The procedure lasts 7 min.
1. Select an SDSS standard field close to the meridian
In use window menu → → and select one in subfolder
5.4 GROND 47
2. Execute it by clicking
3. You can ignore guiding and click if the
Morning flats
Morning flat fields are trickier to get right. They should be started when the sun is at 9 degrees below horizon.
Procedure 5.10. GROND morning flat fields
1. Point the telescope to an empty field as explained in Sect. 4.1.
2. Go to screen.
3. Set mirrors and open shutters (if you were not already with GROND)
(a) In the terminal, type .
(b) In the terminal, type .
(c) In the terminal, type .
4. Get sky flat OB ready
In , fetch OB .
(Use folder.)
5. When sun is at 9 degrees below horizon, click on .
5.4.2 Focus
The focus of GROND is stable and managed periodically by the MPE team. Defocused observations can be
obtained by specifying a focus offset in the OB.
The AG can also be focused separately from the instrument, in case of defocused observations (I don’t remember
how to open the new GUI though).
5.4.3 Photometric standard fields
There are OBs for Landolt and SDSS standard fields that can be fetched from file with (10 min).
5.4.4 RRM online
In the GROND Control panel (Fig. 10.11(b)), click at the end of the twilight (beginning of the night)
to allow for remote observations with this instrument.
WFI
FEROS
GROND
All intruments
6 — Night: Observing
6.1 WFI
6.1.1 Popup handling
will generally throw a few pop-ups during a typical observation. Failing to answer them, nothing will happen
and time will be irremediably lost. These pop-ups may appear behind windows, so be proactive.
At the beginning of an observation, you may have have popups asking
•
to recentre the object of interest if the observer has specifically asked for a precise position of his target.
Three successive popups will ask whether to recenter, the pixel coordinates of the object, and whether to
.
•
to acquire the guiding, which you will click once you have done it. Almost all science observations will ask
for it.
For an observation with large dithers ( is ) the guiding will be asked at the beginning of each
exposure. It will also be asked for if at the beginning of a new template if the filtre is changed.
Error popups may also appear, see Sect. 9.
6.1.2 Switching to WFI
You may start an OB once point 2has been done. This minimises overheads by parallelising preset and mirror
movements. However, beware that some acquisition templates (movetopixel and movetogap) don’t ask before
taking the acquistion image, so you should be faster than preset.
Procedure 6.1. Switch to WFI observations
1. Open the WFI main cover.
2. Switch the pointing model to WFI.
(a) Go to screen .
(b) Go to the (workspace , see Fig. 10.4).
(c) Use window menu →
3. Check the GROND M3 mirror.
Go to screen .
(a) Ensure that the mirror is on WFI.
50 Night: Observing
i. Go to the panel (workspace ).
ii. Check the value of .
(b) If it is on GROND, set it to WFI.
In a terminal, type .
Redo point 3a (value should be MOVING then WFI).
4. Check the FEROS mirror.
Go to screen .
(a) Ensure that the mirror is on WFI
i. Go to the panel (workspace ).
ii. Check the value of .
(b) If it is on FEROS, set it to WFI.
i. Go to the panel (workspace ).
ii. Select the checkbox (in green) under the section.
iii. Select on the same line.
iv. Click at the bottom of the panel.
v. Unselect the checkbox.
6.1.3 Guiding
Procedure 6.2. Guiding with WFI
1. On the TCS workstation, acquire the guide field
(a) Go to screen .
(b) Locate the (Fig. 10.1).
(c) Click below .
2. On the autoguider windows (Fig. 10.3), chose the guide star
(a) Wait (≈30 s) for to read out the guide field.
(b) On the same window, click .
(c) Open the window if necessary.
In chose window menu →.
(d) Pick the reference star
On the window click
On the window, click a bright star not too close to the border.
3. On the (Fig. 10.1) start the guiding
(a) Activate the guiding
Click below .
(b) Wait for guiding to start
In a few seconds should appear in .
4. Proceed with the observation, typically by clicking on pop-up asking for guiding.
After a filter change or when running several observing blocks on the same field, it is possible to reacquire guiding
within a few seconds instead of the full procedure (1 min).
It is not possible to do it after a focus sequence.
Procedure 6.3. Restart guiding with WFI
1. On the TCS machine, go to screen .
2. On the (Fig. 10.1)
(a) Click
(b) Click
3. Select the star on the autoguider windows (Fig. 10.3)
(a) Click in the window.
6.2 FEROS 51
(b) Click on the star in the window.
4. On the (Fig. 10.1) start the guiding
(a) Activate the guiding
Click below .
(b) Wait for guiding to start
In a few seconds should appear in .
5. Proceed with the observation, typically by clicking on pop-up asking for guiding.
6.2 FEROS
6.2.1 Switching to FEROS
You can start an OB once point 2has been done. This minimises overheads by parallelising preset, mirror
movements, and autoguider settings
Procedure 6.4. Switch to FEROS observation
1. Switch the pointing model to FEROS.
(a) Go to screen .
(b) Go to the (workspace , see Fig. 10.4).
(c) Use window menu →
2. Ensure the FEROS mirror is on FEROS.
(a) Go to he panel on workspace on screen .
(b) If the value of is WFI, set it to FEROS
i. Go to the panel (workspace ).
ii. Select the checkbox (in green) under the section.
iii. Select on the same line.
iv. Click at the bottom of the panel.
v. Unselect the checkbox.
3. Ensure the GROND M3 mirror is on WFI.
(a) Go to he panel on workspace of screen
(b) If the value is GROND send it to WFI.
In a terminal, type .
(c) Check that value goes to then (2 min)
4. Set up the autoguider
(a) Go to the workspace of screen
(b) Set up the autoguiding properties. (See Fig. 2.5)
i. Go to window
If necessary open with left-click mouse menu →.
ii. Change the guiding unit to FEROS
Select under in the area.
iii. Select autoguiding loop times.
Under fill in the numbers from top to bottom
•For focus: 6, 3, 0.02
•For science targets adapt last number to magnitude (0.001–2.999).
iv. Restart exposure so that guider takes new values into account.
•If is , click
•Wait a few seconds for it to change to (check the exact word)
•Click .
(c) Set up the autoguider real time image.
i. Go window .
52 Night: Observing
If necessary open with left-click mouse menu →
ii. Activate the guide camera image flow if necessary.
If checkbox is not green, click on it.
iii. Ensure autoguider refreshes image
On the the checkbox Display Enable should be red
iv. Ensure the image is horizontally flipped.
Right of scale the button ↔should be pressed.
(d) Set the fibre reference position if GROND was used
i. Open or activate window (Fig. 6.1).
Click on window .
ii. Ensure the reference is set on the cursor’s clicking position.
On window , select checkbox .
iii. Back on window , click on fibre position.
Coordinates are x=822 and y=516, zooming to 3 or 4×helps to click accurately.
A box centred on the pixel should appear.
5. Start the observation.
(a) Go the the workspace of screen
(b) In , fetch OB and click
Figure 6.1: Window to set FEROS fibre reference position . Select checkbox
.
6.2 FEROS 53
6.2.2 Guiding
On fibre
The fastest way to guide with FEROS is using the reflection on the fibre head. It is not adequate for faint stars (try
to get ≈4–5000 counts) or with bad weather.
Procedure 6.5. Guide a FEROS observation using reflection on the fibre head
1. Check that WFI AG is off.
2. Centre the target onto the fibre.
In window , click below and click on the target.
3. In window, choose integration times (6, 3, xfor bright targets with x<3).
4. Click .
It is possible to guide blind using another star of the field in the fibre head viewer. It is not recommended and
should be used as a last resort.
Off fibre
Procedure 6.6. Guide a FEROS observation blindly using off-fibre reference
1. Check that WFI AG is off.
2. Centre the target onto the fibre.
3. Choose integration times (6, 3, xfor bright targets with x<3).
4. Set reference to a star of the field.
5. Start guiding.
6. Important: at the end of the OB, set the reference back to fibre position.
Using WFI
This is the preferred method in bad weather or for faint targets. When the FEROS atmospheric diffraction corrector
(ADC) is used the WFI guide field is extremely defocused and this guiding method may be unstable.
Procedure 6.7. Guide FEROS observation with the WFI guide camera
1. Centre the target on the fiber.
In window , click below and click on the target.
2. Change filtre to limit the defocus in the WFI AG
(a) Go to the workstation , workspace .
(b) In panel , select filtre under .
•If FEROS ADC is used, select Cousins I.
•Other wise, use standard R.
(c) In the same panel, click apply.
(d) Wait for filtre change (≈1 min)
•On the panel, field will first display .
•When the right filtre name appears, proceed with guiding.
3. Proceed with guiding as for a WFI OB (Sect. 6.1.3).
4. Recentre the target on the fibre
(a) Go to the workstation .
(b) On the find the virtual racket.
(c) Select and tick checkbox .
(d) Enter offset values for both axes (0.3) and click .
(e) Use the arrows to centre if necessary.
5. Important: stop guiding at the end of the FEROS OB.
In the , click (under ) and click
54 Night: Observing
(in the panel ).
6. Note:
when observing with the ADC, don’t lose time centering on the first pop-up. No second pop-up will
be issued after ADC has entered the beam path, so you should the exposure if you take time acquiring
guiding and centring the target.
6.3 GROND
6.3.1 Switching to GROND
You can start an OB once point 1has been done. This minimises overheads by parallelising preset, mirror
movements, and autoguiding configuration. If the Moon is between the first target and the current position or you
are on a bright star, you should manually preset with the main cover closed to avoid blinding the IR detector.
Procedure 6.8. Switch to GROND observations
1. Ensure the GROND main cover is closed to avoid pointing a bright target with open shutters
Your FEROS targets may be very bright or you might slew over the moon in your first GROND observation.
(a) Go to screen .
(b) In a terminal, type .
(c) Wait for cover to close (10-15 s). on panel
Due to a big, it will say , , then
2. There is no need to switch the pointing model to GROND
GROND does it automatically, but you can do it to be consistent with FEROS and WFI.
3. To gain time, ensure the GROND M3 mirror is on GROND
(a) Go to window on screen
(b) If says WFI, send it to GROND.
In a terminal, type and wait for it to go from to
4. Set up the autoguider on workspace
(a) Go to the workspace of screen
(b) Set up the autoguiding properties. (See Fig. 2.5)
i. Go to window ,
If necessary open it with left-click mouse menu →.
ii. Change the guiding unit to GROND
Select under in the area.
iii. Select autoguiding loop times.
Under fill in the numbers from top to bottom
8, 4, 1 is usually fine, then 1 can be increased or decreased (0.001–3.999) depending on guide star.
iv. Restart exposure so that guider takes new values into account.
•If is , click
•Wait a few seconds for it to change to (check the exact word)
•Click .
(c) Set up the autoguider real time image.
i. Go window
If necessary open it with window menu →
ii. Activate the guide camera image flow if necessary.
Use window menu →.
iii. Ensure autoguider refreshes image
On the the checkbox Display Enable should be red
(d) Ensure the reference picking window is open
If necessary open it from RTD with window menu →
5. Start the observation
6.3 GROND 55
(a) Go the the workspace of screen
(b) In , fetch OB and click
(c) Wait for preset to near or reach target
Look on the Rose Diagram of the on the screen.
(d) Open the main cover
i. Go to screen .
ii. In a terminal, type .
iii. Wait for cover to close (10-15 s) by checking value on panel
Due to a bug, it will say , , then open .
(e) Acquire guide star is needed or asked
6.3.2 React to an automatic trigger
Procedure 6.9. React to an automatic trigger
1. Check that your exposure is beeing read out automatically, if not, do it manually
•(FEROS)click on
•(WFI)click on panel.
If WFI wasn’t read out and preset is started, frame is lost.
2. Click on the trigger to start preset.
Preset will be automatic after 30 seconds.
3. Set up the autoguider (unless you were observing with GROND).
Go to the screen
4. Switch off the WFI autoguider if needed
(a) Set up the autoguiding properties. (See Fig. 2.5)
i. Go to window , open it if necessary.
To open: left-click the workspace, choose from menu .
ii. Change the guiding unit to GROND
Select under in the area.
iii. Select autoguiding loop times.
Under fill in the numbers from top to bottom
8, 4, 1 is usually fine, then 1 can be increased if necessary.
iv. You may need to .
(b) Set up the autoguider real time image.
i. Go window , open it if necessary.
To open: left-click the workspace, choose from menu .
ii. Activate the guide camera image flow if necessary.
Use menu →.
(c) Ensure the reference picking window is open
i. Look for window:
To open: from RTD window use menu →
5. Start the guiding (Sect. 6.3.3 below).
6.3.3 Guiding
Procedure 6.10. Guide with GROND
1. Chose typical 8, 4, xvalues in the autoguider, with x≤4.
2. When has loaded an image, click .
3. In the option, select .
4. Click on a good star at least 100 pixels from the border.
56 Night: Observing
5. In window, click .
6.4 All intruments
6.4.1 Run an observing block
There are three ways to run an OB: use a template in and modify it on the fly; call it from phase 2 preparation
tool ( ); call it from the execution sequence. The last method allows to automatically fetch and run OBs in a
sequence, without lost time, but popups must be attended, of course.
6.4.2 Skip the preset
If the telescope is already on the right target, you can skip the preset when starting an OB. For observations
requiring guiding, you should make sure that it is already on or acquire it right after the first exposure begins. On
WFI, it should be avoided if the observing template sets to F (false) and pointing position is important.
Procedure 6.11. Skip the preset
•Generic method
1. In , open the aquisition template
Use left click on the triangle.
2. Edit the PREST field to F
You need to set bob to “engineering” mode.
Middle click on the value, it should be T by default.
3. Start the OB.
4. Start the guiding if needed
For WFI, see quick guiding Procedure 6.3
•Standard observation with FEROS or GROND
1. In , deactivate the preset template
Use right click on the triangle.
2. Ensure guiding is working if needed
3. Start the OB.
Panels referred to
Telescope
Instruments
Dome
Tidying folders
Health checks & internal calibrations
7 — Morning: Closing & Calibrations
7.1 Panels referred to
When closing, you may need panels that are not automatically opened at startup. Here is how to find and open
them.
1. On the TCS screen, ensure that the Auxiliary Functions (Fig. 10.5) is open.
If not, left-click on an empty region and select →.
2. On the Windows desktop, ensure mozilla shows the dome webcam (Fig. 10.14).
The tab named can be opened with bookmark .
3. On the Windows desktop, ensure mozilla has a tab with Dome Auxiliary Functions.
Tab tab named can be opened with bookmark (Fig 10.13).
7.2 Telescope
To put the telescope to a safe parking position one has to follow steps in a definite order, in particular, it is best to
close the main mirror cover before anything else. (Except in an emergency closing of the dome.)
Procedure 7.1. Close the dome.
1. Close the main mirror cover.
In the (Fig. 10.2), click below .
2. Wait ≈2 min until it says closed.
In the same panel, it should state below .
3. Park the telescope.
In the same panel, click under .
4. Wait for preset to complete.
In the , the telescope should be at the zenith in the rose diagram.
5. Put the dome in manual.
In the , click the checkbox under .
6. Close the slit.
In the same panel, click under .
7. Switch on the light in the dome (Fig 10.14).
In the Auxiliary Functions (Fig. 10.5), select under .
58 Morning: Closing & Calibrations
8. Check the slit is closed and telescope at zenith
Use the dome webcam (Fig. 10.14) on the mozilla tab on the Windows desktop.
9. Switch off the light in the dome.
In the Auxiliary Functions, select under
If the panel is frozen, you can execute commands from a terminal, in directory : , ,
, . Or you can try to revive the panel (See procedure 9.22).
If nothing works, you must ask for support from an ESO TIO. ESO is still responsible for the safety of the facilities.
7.3 Instruments
One should close the protective shutters of WFI and GROND, cut the communication between instruments and
TCS, and ensure mirrors let light directly to WFI for dome flats.
Procedure 7.2. Put the instruments offline
1. Close the WFI protective shutter.
Check on the General State panel in the WFI monitor (Fig. 10.8) that is
.
If not, go to Auxiliary Functions (Fig. 10.5) and the .
2. Deactivate FEROS communication.
In the FEROS control panel (Fig. 10.9) select from menu →.
3. Deactivate GROND communication.
In the GROND Control panel (Fig. 10.11(b)), click and
4. With GROND, close the cold and protective shutters.
In a terminal, type and .
5. Ensure FEROS mirror is not in the way.
In panel FEROS Control (Fig. 10.9), should state
If not, int the ICS control panel (Fig. 10.10), check the box, select , click .
6. Ensure GROND mirror is not in the way.
In panel GROND Control (Fig. 10.11(b)), should state .
If not, type in a terminal.
7.4 Dome
Turn off ventilation and hydraulics using the Dome Auxiliary Functions (Windows desktop, Fig. 10.13). If it is
required, use the good seeing password.
1. Turn off the dome ventilation.
Click if the button just above it is green.
2. Turn off the hydraulics.
Click . The button above should go red.
7.5 Tidying folders
Scripts move the data of the previous nights are to a subdirectory directory and and remove old ones (already in the
ESO archive) if disk space is needed. It can be done any time (night, day) on a daily basis for WFI and FEROS.
The GROND team manages the data.
Procedure 7.3. Tidy folders
1. On the WFI screen, type ˜ in a terminal (wfi xterm).
7.6 Health checks & internal calibrations 59
2. On the FEROS screen, type ˜ in a terminal.
7.6 Health checks & internal calibrations
Lauch health checks and internal calibrations.
Procedure 7.4. Launch morning health checks and internal calibrations
1. Run FEROS linearity check.
In , load and run the daily linearity OB using .
Name is where is that at the start of the night.
2. Run the WFI health check, biases, and dark.
In , load and run the daily calibration OB using .
Name is where is that at the start of the night.
3. Run GROND calibrations.
In GROND , load and run using
( ).
Transferring OBs from one’s laptop
OT
8 — Managing observing blocks
8.1 Transferring OBs from one’s laptop
8.1.1 Standard way
Procedure 8.1. Transfer OBs from one’s computer to the telescope, using p2pp check-in
•On your laptop’s select all your OBs.
•Use menu →
•Use menu →if necessary
•If using (advised)
–From main window, use menu →
–Select checkbox in the Repository Browser window
–Empty all fields and enter your username
–Click
–Select all the OBs you need with the mouse (they should have status Defined)
–Select and chose
–Select the same OBs again
–Append to queue, typically (named by year and month)
–Find the window corresponding to this queue and use →
•If using
–TBW
8.1.2 Loading manually
If this fails, for instance for OBs longer than one hour, you should ssh them from your laptop and load them
manually into the dhs computer.
Procedure 8.2. Transfer OBs from one’s computer to the telescope, using manual file transfer.
•Check that your laptop accept ssh connections.
•Connect it to the cable network.
•Find your laptop’s IP address. With linux or mac, or should give it.
•On the machine create a directory let’s say
•
On the same machine, type and type
62 Managing observing blocks
your password.
•Open with your credentials
•Select your program ID on the left column
•Use menu →
Note: if you cannot activate ssh services on your laptop, use a USB stick and someone else’s computer. Alternatively,
send an e-mail you will open on the p2pp machine (not advised).
8.2 OT
On the machine, there is a workspace to use OBs from the observing tool ( ). In the
of the , find your OB using fields such as instrument, period, ID, username, position, etc. Click on the OB and
then on a tab called that it is in the same panel.
There should be an open window which is called . The selected OB will be listed there,
maybe with a list of others. Use the buttons (or ) to move the OB you want to run next to the
top of the list since it has to be the first one.
Then, go to and use the menu
→
. In the tab change by . Now
you can fetch the OB from .
No flux or little flux
Autoguider camera fails
OB doesn’t work
Focus issues
FEROS ADC
FEROS-DRS
Startup issues
TCS issues
GROND issues
Freezing issues
Pointing issues
Web pages
ESO database issues
9 — Troubleshooting
9.1 No flux or little flux
Procedure 9.1. Investigate and fix the reason for the absence of flux in an instrument
. Ensure that
•the slit is (TCS setup, Fig. 10.2).
•the dome is on automatic (TCS setup, Fig. 10.2) and the slit is aligned (TCS, Fig. 10.1).
•the Main Mirror Cover is (TCS setup, Fig. 10.2).
•
the mirror is on or (FEROS ICS, Fig. 10.10) if observing with WFI or FEROS. If necessary,
click its checkbox and .
•
the M3 mirror is on GROND if observing with GROND and on WFI otherwise (GROND control, 10.11(b)).
Use or in the terminal if necessary.
•(WFI)the protective shutter is (Auxiliary Functions on the TCS machine, 10.5).
•
(GROND)the protective and cold shutters are (GROND control, Fig. 10.11(b)). Use
and in the terminal if necessary.
•(GROND)If images look like biases, restart FIERA.
On the do / .
9.2 Autoguider camera fails
The GROND and FEROS autoguider use the same system on screen , between the
GROND and FEROS screens. WFI has its own system on screen .
It is possible to go on observing with GROND and FEROS while restarting the autoguider, provided that the
modules are deactivated on the TCS. However, you need to reactivate them to do the last step of restarting the
autoguider ( ).
Procedure 9.2. Observe when the autoguider fails
1. On screen go to textttStatus workspace
2. On the panel locate the modules section (Fig. 10.4)
3. Check ignore for the corresponding modules
•For GROND, and
66 Troubleshooting
•For FEROS, and
4. Remember to uncheck them for to work!
9.2.1 GROND
If you want to observe while fixing the issue you need to deactivate the modules in the TCS, see Procedure 9.2.
You will need to uncheck them just before starting the guider software with .
Procedure 9.3. Restart the GROND autoguider
1. If in a hurry try the quick restart (1–2 min)
(a) On screen , find or open a terminal.
(b) Type and wait for command to finish
(c) Type and wait for command to finish
2. If you have time or 1does not solve the issue, go for the full restart (3–4 min)
(a) On screen , find or open a terminal.
(b) Type
(c) Wait for the command to finish (1–2 min)
(d) Type to open the scanei GUI
i. Check that l2p2agr is
ii. If not, enable l2p2agr (see Fig 9.2)
iii. Close the GUI
(e) Type
9.2.2 FEROS
If you want to observe while fixing the issue you need to deactivate the modules in the TCS, see Procedure 9.2.
You will need to uncheck them before starting the guider software with (step 1d).
Procedure 9.4. Restart the FEROS autoguider
1. Restart the AG software (1–2 min).
(a) On screen , find or open a terminal.
(b) Type
(c) Type
(d) Wait for about 1–2 min for the command to exit succesfully.
2. If the problem persists or an error pops up in step 1d, reboot the AG LCU (3–4 min)
(a) Type
(b) Type to open the scanei GUI
i. Check that l2p2cam is ENABLED
ii. If not enable l2p2cam (see Fig 9.2)
iii. Close the GUI
(c) Perform steps 1a,1c,1d.
3. If the problem persists or an error pops up in step 1d, perform a hardware reset of the LCU (15 min)
(a) Go to the FEROS room located in the telescope enclosure.
(b) Locate the big blue rack tower (Fig. 9.1(a)).
(c) On the lower racks, near to l2p2cam label, push a small RST button (Fig. 9.1(b)).
(d) Perform steps 1a,1c,1d.
4. If this does not solve the issue, power cycle the LCU (15 min)
(a) Go to the FEROS room located in the telescope enclosure.
(b) On the back of the rack tower, unplug and replug the lower rack (Fig. 9.1(c)).
(c) Perform steps 1a,1c,1d.
9.3 OB doesn’t work 67
9.2.3 WFI
Failure of the WFI autoguider will generally be silent. It will just do nothing when asked to retrieve field or start
monitoring.
If the quick 30 seconds fix does not work, it is not possible to observe with WFI during the 15–35 minute-long fix,
but it should be possible to go on with GROND or FEROS with no guarantee though—the TCS has the bad habit
of communicating with the WFI computers for focus.
Procedure 9.5. Fix WFI autoguider issues
Try in this order
1. On the TCS screen, restart the autoguider (30 s)
(a) Use left-click menu
(b) Use left-click menu
2. If gives the error , restart the WFI technical CCD.
(a) On the WFI screen, locate or open a terminal.
(b) Type and wait for it to complete
(c) Type and wait for it to complet (2 min)
(d) Perform the AG restart of point 1
3. If an autoguider process is suspended, restart the TCS
(a) In a terminal, type
(b) If there is an AG-related suspended proces, proceed as follow
(c) Deactivate the connection between FEROS and TCS
•On the FEROS screen (Fig. 1.1), locate the FEROS control panel (Fig. 10.9)
•From menu select →
(d) Perform a full restart the TCS including VME reboot (Sect. 2.1)
(e) Reactivate the connection between FEROS and TCS
•On the FEROS screen (Fig. 1.1), locate the FEROS control panel (Fig. 10.9)
•From menu select →
4. Reboot the WFI SPARC station and dependencies (15–35 min).
•From a terminal type
•Once logged in, type
•Wait for reboot to complete (a few minutes)
In a terminal type and wait until it shows packets.
•Reboot WFI computer (a few minutes)
On screen , type in a terminal.
•Do the WFI weekly startup (10 min)
•Restart the TCS or just autoguider (see point 1 1), not sure here if TCS restart is needed.
9.3 OB doesn’t work
9.3.1 OB gives an error when started
If an OB issues an error within seconds of being started.
Procedure 9.6. Fix OB start error
1. If OB was already executed or aborted, click .
2. Check that the object is observable (above 20 degrees).
3. If telescope preset is needed, check that the communication with the TCS is on
•(FEROS)Use menu →.
•(GROND)Click .
68 Troubleshooting
4. If telescope preset is not needed (e.g. calibrations), deactivate it in
•
(FEROS,GROND)Right-click the triangle of the acquisition template. (A thumb down should appear.
If you get a stop, go on clicking.)
•(WFI)Set to in the acquisition template.
(This needs menu →.)
9.3.2 OB stalls before starting to observe
Procedure 9.7. Fix stalling of an OB
•(WFI,FEROS)Try to find a hidden pop-up asking for interaction (behind a window).
•(WFI)If OB stalls when focus order is sent by , set it manually.
In the TCS screen, enter focus value in the main panel (Fig. 10.1).
Note: A permanent fix is to restart the TCS (see Sect. 9.8.3).
•(GROND)If IR exposure does not start after the optical one has, reset the IR flip mirror.
In a terminal, type
9.3.3 Crash before an exposure
Here are possible fixes, from shortest to longest. Try each one in this order, until problem is fixed.
Procedure 9.8. Investigate and fix a crash ocurring before the start of an optical exposure
1. Close and launch a new one.
2. FEROS
(a) Restart FIERA
On the do / .
(b) Restart the instrument with telescope enabled
(In particular if the second exposure of the night fails.)
i. On the panel, use menu →.
ii. Do the full start-up procedure.
3. GROND
(a) If error
i. If a FIERA exposure is running in , click or let it finish.
ii. Type in a terminal.
(b) If the error mentions IRACE
i. Go to monitor .
ii. Locate the (Fig. 10.12(b))
iii. Click on the lower left part of the panel
iv. Select from menu →
v. If it fails, you may need ≈40 min to deep restart (Procedure 9.26) IRACE.
(c) Ensure only one is running
i. Find all s( )
ii. them
iii. launch a new .
(d) (GROND)Restart FIERA (see 2a).
(e) (GROND)Restart GROND.
i. Type
ii. Type
iii. In panel, put instrument .
(f) (GROND)Reboot GROND.
(g)
(GROND)If the GROND control has many TCS-related fields with gray background or the error says
9.3 OB doesn’t work 69
something about the FITS keyword TELESCOP, a last resort reboot of GROND may be needed.
BUT
in case of the first scenario, take a separate exposure with FIERA (in the control panel) first and check
if these fields turn back to their usual color.
4. WFI
(a)
Abort a possible running exposure manually, in particular if issues the error message “Cannot start
exposure before the last one has read out” or some equivalent message (10 sec)
i. On the (Fig. 10.6) click
ii. The GUI should display the text
iii. Wait for a few seconds for the answer .
iv. If it works, problem is solved, if not go to next point.
(b) Do a startup of WFI (5 min).
(c) Do a full restart of FIERA and WFI (10-15 min).
i. Go to a terminal or open it from menu .
ii. Shut down the instrument.
Type
iii. Check that the environment are enabled.
A. Type
B. Go to the opening GUI titled .
C. Check that and are
D. If either environment is , proceed with these points
E. Click on
F. In emerging GUI, click just below .
G. Close it with →.
H. Close with menu →.
iv. Restart the CCD managing components
A. Type
B. Type
C. Type
D. Type
v. Restart the instrument.
Type .
vi. Restart the AG
A. Go to screen .
B. Left-click on an empty space to open the menu .
C. Use menu →.
D. Use menu →.
vii. Open missing windows on screens .
A. with menu → → .
B. RTD with menu → → .
viii. Take a test bias.
(d) Restart the instrument. You will need to restart the autoguider on the TCS machine.
9.3.4 Crash during an exposure
Procedure 9.9. Fix a crash during an exposure
1. FEROS
(a)
OB crashes with “error closing cam environment” while an exposure (usually the first of the night) is
running
i. Let the current exposure finish and read out, it will be fine.
70 Troubleshooting
ii. In the meantime, close and relaunch .
2. WFI
(a) WFI stalls just before the read out of an exposure.
Abort it manually, if unsuccessfull restart FIERA (follow point 4in Sect. 9.3.3)
3. GROND
(a) OB crashes with “error closing cam environment” while an optical exposure is running
i. End the optical exposure (if it’s a long one)
On the grond control panel, click .
ii. Wait for exposure to read out
iii. Restart the OB without presetting
(In deactivate preset and reset status.)
(b) OB stalls or crashes during an exposure
i. In a terminal, execute . If issue is not fixed, proceeed.
ii. Close and/or kill all bob instances
Find them by typing in a terminal).
Kill them with where is the job number.
iii. Launch
Type in a terminal.
iv. In the same terminal, execute and
v. Wait for command to end (10 s to 1 min).
9.3.5 Crash during telescope offset
Here are possible fixes, from shortest to longest. Try each one in this order, until problem is fixed.
•Close and launch a new one. (Works with WFI).
•Restart the TCS (see Sect. 9.8.3).
9.3.6 Crash during a telescope focus offset
If a timeout error occurs relating to or some message about focus that cannot be done:
•(GROND) Disable and enable w2p2tcs in .
•(WFI) See Sect. 9.4.3.
9.3.7 Crash at the beginning of sky flats
If the OB crashes before the pop-up asking for manual preset, it means bob must be killed and restarted.
9.3.8 Crash during filter change in WFI
If the OB crashes at the moment to change the filter using WFI and the status is on the WFI
General State panel (Fig. 10.8)
1. On the (Fig. 10.6), select the filter on the option below .
2. Click on the button.
In case one gets an error message like this: “icswsERR_MOVE_FILTER : Error during movement of filter.
ErrNo:7 ErrString: NO DETECTION", reset the filter controller
•
On the Auxiliary Functions (Fig. 10.5) in the TCS, click on the button below
.
•Repeat steps 1 & 2.
9.4 Focus issues 71
9.4 Focus issues
9.4.1 GROND autoguider defocused
If the GROND AG is highly defocused:
•When switching from WFI or FEROS, focus fixes itself after the observing template starts.
•If the problem persists, FOC.OFFSET in the OB allows a manual workaround.
9.4.2 Defocused wih FEROS ACS
See Sect. 9.5.2.
9.4.3 WFI focus sequence fails with a timeout
The WFI focus sequence may fail to communicate the focus offsets to the telescope. In that case, will display
several lines of focus orders ending with a timeout message. Then an error pop-up will appears.
•
Quick workaround: each time that displays a focus order, enter it manually in the TCS Control Panel,
below , and click . This focus bug will not impact science OBs during the night, so
don’t worry.
•Clean fix: full restart of WFI and TCS (30 min).
•When the problem becomes recurrent, the WFI workstation should be rebooted.
9.4.4 No focus offset when filters are changed
The focus sequence is run for a specific filter, when changing filters during an OB, the TCS should apply a focus
offset, which should be seen in the TCS Control Panel, M2 Focus. If no offset is applied, check if in the WFI state
manager, the Focusing flag should be . The ESO people were not really clear on that.
9.5 FEROS ADC
9.5.1 ADC cannot be put off
At the start of an observation there is a message that the ADC cannot be put off. This happens after an observation
using the ADC. On the FEROS ICS (Fig. 10.10) the line of the field contains in red.
Procedure 9.10. Remove the ADC from the optical path of FEROS
. Try in order the following items.
•Manually put it off from the ICS panel (Fig. 10.10)
–Select the checkbox of
–Select from the menu of
–Click on the bottom of the panel.
–Wait for to be replaced by
•If it fails with a timeout error, restart the devices on the ICS panel
–Use menu →, then
–Use menu →
–Use menu →
–Wait for about one minute for to be
•If in the last step there is an error that one of the devices that cannot be set
–Use menu →
–Use →
72 Troubleshooting
–Use menu →
–Wait for about one minute for to be
•
If problem occurs repeatedly, FEROS needs a restart, and problem should be reported. Risk of the ADC
getting physically stuck, needing intervention on the instrument.
9.5.2 Telescope focus is not corrected when ADC enters
Try in order the items of the following procedure.
Procedure 9.11. Fix the absence of focusing after FEROS ADC enters
•
If no red messages appear below , manually preset to the theoretical focus displayed on the
TCS main panel.
•
If repeated red messages concerning M2 preset appear below on the TCS main panel
(Fig. 10.1), break the infinite set-focus loop
–Under on the same panel, click
–Click
–Maybe play around more presetting M2 manually until red messages disappear
–Re-execute the FEROS OB from preset.
•If the red messages don’t disappear, restart the TCS (Sect. 9.8.3).
9.6 FEROS-DRS
9.6.1 FEROS exposure number is close to 10 000
If it goes past 10 000, the reduction software will fail.
Procedure 9.12. Reset the exposure number
•Close the DRS.
•Open file and replace number by .
•Open the DRS again.
9.6.2 FEROS DRS fails
Check that
•
There has been a full standard calibration done on the same day with the same setup (binning and readout
speed).
•The exposure number is smaller than 10 000.
9.6.3 Problems to restart the FEROS-DRS and Data Subscriber
If you cannot start the FEROS DRS this might be for the following reason: when rebooting w2p2off without
bringing down the pipline before, a hidden lock file may survive. If all other attempts have failed to start the DRS,
follow these steps.
Procedure 9.13. Restart the FEROS data reduction software and data subscriber
•Stop Data Subscriber and DRS at the DRS computer (Fig. 9.3(a)).
•Type
•Type
•Type
•Type
9.6 FEROS-DRS 73
(a)
(b) FEROS
Figure 9.3: FEROS Data Subscriber.
•Then restart the Data Subscriber and FEROS DRS:
–Left click start Data Subscriber
–Configure Data Subscriber (Fig. 9.3(b)).
∗
∗
∗
–Left click start , start from top to bottom
∗Start
∗Start
∗Start
Similarly, when rebooting the w2p2off with active Data Subsriber, the watch-dog log file may survive. Do:
•Start (which corresponds currently to /data/msg)
•Remove the PID files therein
74 Troubleshooting
9.6.4 Data won’t show up
If data taken with FEROS do not show up in the ESO archive and/or in the FEROS DRS, you will need to restart
processes on the data handling machine w2p2pl (username pipeline).
Procedure 9.14. Restart the data handler.
1. Go to screen
2. In a terminal you will need to type some of the following
(a)
where <date> in the format YYYY-MM-DD is where you want to start again.
(b) (needed?)
(c) (needed?)
(d) (needed?)
(e) (needed?)
(f)
(g)
9.7 Startup issues 75
(a) Telemetry window at TCS, should show some graphs normally.
(b) FEROS telemetry window.
Figure 9.4: Telemetry window.
9.7 Startup issues
9.7.1 FEROS
•
There is an error about process stating “accepted PING but did not reply properly within 10000
msec”’
–Type
–Type
–Redo the full startup procedure
•There is a problem with the FEROS telemetry at TCS (window should show some graphs, Fig. 9.4(a)):
–Go to FEROS screen
–Type
–Press
–Go to TCS
–Close Telemetry window
–Type
9.7.2 WFI
The commonest issues are:
•TCS is after startup on the Control Panel
This is harmless. Use menu →.
•WFI startup stops with an error during
It most likely requires a power cycle of the WFI electronics, see below.
Procedure 9.15. Fix WFI init error
1. Determin whether WFI passes the hardware self-test
(a) Locate or open a
(b) If it was not active, choose to inspect the last 500 lines
76 Troubleshooting
Figure 9.5: WFI electronics. The box on the right controls the power and can be used to power cycle. The box on
the left contains the electronics boards that one may need to unplug and replug.
(c) Find red error “Failed to dispatch command for camera LOADED OK”.
(d) Lines below and above contain “C40 ping failed” and “Could not download FIERA config”
(e) You can also check directly whether WFI passes the self-test
In a terminal, type
2. Reboot the FIERA workstation
(a) In a terminal, type
(b) Wait for 1–2 minutes for it to get back online
You may check in a terminal using
3. If WFI doesn’t pass the self-test, power cycle the WFI electronics
(a) Go to the telescope floor
(b) Locate the WFI power unit close to the FIERA electronics (Fig. 9.5)
(c) Switch it off
(d) Wait for 30 seconds.
(On a 2nd or 3rd attempt, you may try to unplug/replug the electronics boards if you dare.)
(e) Switch it on.
4. If WFI passes the self-test, do a restart of the FIERA
(a) In a terminal, type
(b) On the emerging GUI, click
(c) On the emerging GUI, click
(d) Wait for FIERA to restart (1 min ?)
5. Do a full WFI restart (see Proc. 2.1 point 1and Fig. 2.2)
6. You may have to redo steps 2–5until WFI can finish the full restart.
9.7.3 Hydraulics cannot be switched on/off
If you see that the button is red on the on the Windows computer, it means that
the hydraulics system is for local control in the dome.
You need to go to the dome.
Procedure 9.16. Set the hydraulics for remote control
1. Go to the dome.
2. Locate the gray 1.5-metre-high ADAM rack (Fig. 1.5).
3. Locate the switch for / (Fig. 9.8, lower left).
4. Put it towards .
9.8 TCS issues 77
Figure 9.6: When TCS restart fails to reboot the FEROS AG LCU
9.8 TCS issues
9.8.1 Start-up fails with l2p2cam error
If the start-Up stalls with error , you probably
need to hard reboot the FEROS AG LCU in the dome, but try a software reboot first to save time.
Procedure 9.17. Fix FEROS AG LCU during start-up
1. Try a software restart of the FEROS AG LCU (likely to fail).
(a) On the TCS screen, find or open a terminal
(b) Type
If it gives an error, proceed to step 2
(c) Wait for 1–2 min for the reboot to complete
(d) Check that the LCU is up using
(e) Press in the Start/Shutdown panel
If it gives the same error popup, proceed to step 2.
2. Go to the dome and try, in that order (see Procedure 9.4).
(a) A hard reset of the LCU
(b) A power cycle of the LCU
9.8.2 Start-up fails with telescope not initialised
If the start-up stalls with , you probably forgot to switch the hydraulics and/or
drives on or the telescope was not parked at zenith.
Procedure 9.18. Fix the telescope not initialized popup
1. Ensure hydraulics and drive are on
(a) Locate the Dome Auxiliary Functions tab on screen .
(b) Check that the and buttons are green.
(c) If not, switch the hydraulics and drives on (step 2a in Procedure 2.1).
78 Troubleshooting
(a) Remote/local pointing control (b) Reboot of the VME (c) VME monitor
Figure 9.7: VME rack in the computer room of the telescope building Left: to manually point the telescope to
zenith, you need to switch away from the yellow ’d’ label. Centre: To hard reboot the VME, press the small
red/pinkish reset button. Right: the VME monitor with the “end of boot script” after a reboot.
2. Manually initialise the telescope
(a) In a terminal type
(b) If an error reads "cannot initialise the telescope at more than 45 degrees from zenith"
i. Go to the dome and manually park it (Procedure 9.29).
ii. Repeat step 2a
(c) Wait for 2–3 min for initialisation to complete.
3. On the error popup, press
9.8.3 Quick TCS restart
Many TCS issues are solved by a fast restart, with a time loss of
≈10
min. Before, it is important move the
telescope to zenith since one cannot initialize it later if the telescope is at ≤45 degrees above the horizon.
Procedure 9.19. Quick TCS restart
•Preset to zenith
–On the TCS setup panel (Fig 10.2), click under .
–Alternatively, if panel is frozen, type in a terminal.
•Execute the fast restart.
Type and wait for it to complete.
•Initialise the telescope
On the TCS setup panel (Fig 10.2) press under .
9.8.4 No connection with VME
If the TCS Control Panel indicates “No connection” in red, just below , you can try the following:
Procedure 9.20. Solve the connection issue with the VME
1. If you just switched hydraulics on, wait for a few minutes to see if connection is back.
9.8 TCS issues 79
2. Do a remote reboot of the VME.
Type in a terminal.
3. Do a manual reboot of the VME in the dome.
(a) Go to the computer room of the telescope enclosure.
(b) Locate the VME (Fig. 1.4) in front of the entrance, slightly to the left.
(c) Press the small red/pinkish button (Fig. 9.7(b)).
(d) Locate the VME monitor, behind you if you face the VME.
(e) Wait for boot sequence to finish with “end of boot script” (Fig. 9.7(c))
A quick restart the TCS (Sect. 9.8.3) is generally needed right after a reboot of the VME.
9.8.5 TCS is OFF on an instrument
The Control Panel of an instrument the TCS is in the state . You should check the corresponding modules on
the TCS Status panel. If red, try to bring them .
9.8.6 Telescope doesn’t take focus orders
Procedure 9.21. Fix telescope focus issues
•(WFI)OB stalls when focus order is sent by .
Set it manually from the TCS main panel (Fig. 10.1)
•(FEROS)Focus is not corrected after insertion of the ADC.
See Sect. 9.5.2.
•Focus cannot be set from the TCS main panel.
Restart the TCS, see Sect. 9.8.3.
9.8.7 TCS Setup panel is stuck
If you need to close when the panel is stuck, a few command lines are available in : ,
, , .
Procedure 9.22. Unstuck the TCS Setup panel
1. In a terminal type
If “no process killed” appears, this procedure will not be useful.
2. If the panel gets stuck again quickly (10–20 s), a restart of the TCS usually fixes the issue.
9.8.8 Main mirror cover cannot be moved
If the state in the says you need to go to the dome, close it, and
set it to remote control.
If the state in the stays in whatever order you send, you need to
go to the dome, set it for local control, close it, and set it to remote control.
Procedure 9.23. Manually close the main mirror cover
1. Go to the dome
2. Locate the gray 1.5-metre-high ADAM contol box (Fig. 1.5).
3. Locate the controls (Fig. 9.8, upper right)
4. If the mirror was , press the yellow button.
5. Press the red button.
6. If any noise is heard, wait for the cover to be closed.
7. Press the yellow button.
80 Troubleshooting
Figure 9.8: Controlling the hydraulics and mirror cover.
9.8.9 Dome doesn’t move
If the is on the , it means that the dome is for local control from the
dome.
You need to go to the dome.
Procedure 9.24. Set the dome for remote control
1. Go to the dome.
2. Locate the dome controls (Fig. 1.5), placed on the wall opposite to the entrance.
3. On the dome controls (Fig. 9.9) turn the control from local to remote
9.8.10 Dome slit and telescope are not aligned
For small zenithal angles, it is a normal setting since the telescope is not exactly at the centre of the dome. If you
need to avoid the wind you need to orient the dome manually but be weary of vignetting!
9.9 GROND issues
9.9.1 GROND M3 is stuck
If GROND M3 mirror cannot be moved with the command try in order the items of the procedure below.
Procedure 9.25. Unlocking the grond M3 mirror
•Switch back-and-forth using and .
•Write the mirror position in the database (Fig. 9.10)
1. In a terminal type
2. Click on
3. Look down → → → → .
9.9 GROND issues 81
Figure 9.9: Local control of the dome
(a) ccsei window. (b) M3 in the database
Figure 9.10: Writing the M3 position in the database
4. Select checkbox
5. set value to 2 for GROND position or 0 for WFI.
6. Check on GROND control that mirror indeed moves.
7. Close the GUI.
•Reset the mirror from the dome.
1. In the dome, locate the M3/MC box below the main mirror (Fig. 1.5).
2. On the box (Fig. 9.11), press the grondM3 WFI button.
9.9.2 GROND OB only crashes with TCS on
It is a very tricky problem, randomly solved by a string of last resort reboots of GROND and TCS restarts.
82 Troubleshooting
Figure 9.11: The GROND mirror and main cover control box.
9.9.3 GROND IR exposure won’t start
An OB starts with the optical exposure but nothing happens in the infrared and the OB stalls. If doesn’t
solve the issue, this may need a full reset of the IRACE (IR electronics).
Procedure 9.26. Deep reset of GROND IRACE (verify this!)
1. In a GROND terminal, do as user .
2. Go to the computer room of the telescope building.
3. Locate the IRACE workstation (Fig. 1.4) and shut it down.
4. Go to the dome
5. Locate the power switch of the IRACE box (Fig. 9.12) below the main mirror.
6. Switch it off for 10 seconds then on again.
7. Go back to the computer room and start the IRACE workstation.
8. Go back to the control room and reboot the GROND workstation.
9. Do as user
10. Reboot GROND workstation.
11. Do as user
12. Put the instrument in the GROND panel
13. Do
14. close and open bob
9.10 Freezing issues
9.10.1 Mouse pointer does not move
This is common on the WFI screens.
Procedure 9.27. Recover the mouse pointer
1. Power cycle the black Intel box connected to the failing screen.
Press power button for 5 s, wait 5–10 s, switch it on, wait for start-up (1–2 min)
9.11 Pointing issues 83
(a) GROND IRACE box (b) GROND IRACE switch
Figure 9.12: The GROND infrared electronics (IRACE) box below the main mirror of the telescope. The power
switch is located towards the pier.
Table 9.1: Pointing model parameters for each instrument, as of November 2015.
Parameter FEROS GROND WFI
ID −183.81 −230.04 −157.69
IH 72.92 −20.23 94.11
CH 136.07 28.89 31.41
NP 17.13
ME −113.61
MA 2.22
FO 91.83
TX −26.92
HCEC −18.57
HCES −22.55
2. Log in
For WFI, user wfi (other logins in Table 10.1).
3. Open the panels from a terminal.
For WFI, type .
9.11 Pointing issues
9.11.1 Pointing is incorrect
After doing the pointing with WFI the target is not close to the central position (4150,3950). Also, it can happen
during an observation with any instrument during the night that the object is not centred where it should.
Procedure 9.28. Fix WFI pointing issues.
1. If not done, check the right instrument is selected on the TCS (Fig. 10.4).
2.
Check if the current Pointing Model parameters in Table. 9.1 for WFI are selected on the TCS Setup Panel
(blue numbers in the bottom right-hand panel of Fig. 10.2). Typically the first three values ID, IH, CH are 0
because of a database issue.
In a hurry:
84 Troubleshooting
(a) Location of the joystick (b) Joystick
Figure 9.13: The “joystick” can be used to manually point the telescope.
•Reset the database values
In a terminal type ˜
(Note: it can be done manually using )
•Select the instrument again
Otherwise, a quick TCS restart will generally solve the issue.
3. Check that the Sidereal time on the TCS Control Panel is fine.
It should be withing seconds of the actual one. You can get it from the digital clock in the control room using
a switch on its right.
If not, you need to go to the dome and reboot the VME.
4. Otherwise, it might be a problem with the TCS.
Try a quick TCS restart (Sect. 9.8.3).
9.11.2 Telescope is stuck at low elevation
If telescope goes out of safe zone, reaching 20 degrees elevation, a too high hour angle, it will be stuck (by software).
It also occurs if a restart or a reboot of the VME is done when the telescope points lower than 45 degrees.
In that case, the telescope should be parked to zenith manually.
Procedure 9.29. Preset manually to zenith.
1. Go to the computer room in the telescope enclosure.
2. Locate the VME rack (Fig. 1.4).
3. On the VME, set the switch away from d (Fig. 9.7(a)).
4. Go to the dome and find the joystick (Fig. 9.13).
5. Using the controls put the telescope approximately to zenith.
6. Go to the computer room in the telescope enclosure.
7. On the VME rack, set the switch to d.
8. Go to the control room below the dining room.
9. Initialise the telescope
Click below in
9.12 Web pages 85
9.12 Web pages
9.12.1 2.2m Environmental Monitor stuck
If the 2.2m Environmental Monitor is stuck.
Procedure 9.30. Restart the 2.2m environmental monitor
1. Go to screen .
2. In a terminal, execute command
3. After a few minutes refresh .
9.12.2 All sky camera
If the all sky camera LASCAM is stuck
1. Use the Danish 1.54m camera at
2. Ask an ESO TIO to restart LASCAM.
9.13 ESO database issues
Procedure 9.31. Data do not appear in the database
1. Wait for one or two days after the data is taken because there may be a lag
2. If all observations including the calibrations do not show up, you can restart the data handler
See Procedure 9.14
3. If only a particular set of observations loaded directly from bob are impacted, check that the PID is correct
(a) Open the OBs (usually in OBD directory on bob machine)
(b) Check that the ESO PID has a valid format.
•Science OBs must start with a leading zero for science PIDs, e.g. 0103.A-9001(A)
•Calibration OBs should not have a leading zero, e.g 60.A-0040(Z)
(c) Check that the ESO PID has been assigned
i. Open the ESO Observing Schedule Query Form
ii. Fill telescope ( ) and period
iii. Click
(d) If not assigned or invalid format, contact User Support Department at ESO to fix it.
4. Data taken as (daily checks) do not apear in the archive.
Telescope control software
WFI
FEROS
GROND
P2PP and OT
FEROS reduction software
Dome controls
Computers
10 — Main systems
Figure 10.1: The TCS main panel allows to perform guiding with WFI and to manually preset or offset.
10.1 Telescope control software
The main panel of the TCS (Fig. 10.1) gives a summary of focus, guiding, and pointing. The rose diagram gives
telescope position, slit orientation (symbol just outside the outermost circle), Moon position (yellow circle), and
some other info (green arrow). Telescope status and dome status indicate whether telescope is presetting, slewing,
88 Main systems
Figure 10.2: The TCS setup panel allows to open and close the dome, main mirror cover and setup the dome
rotation. Additionally, fixed presets to zenith and flat screen can be sent.
guiding, or offsetting. The panel also allows some interaction. The TCS setup panel (Fig 10.2) allows more
interaction, in particular concerning closing and opening.
10.1.1 Manual preset
The presetting area of the main TCS panel (Fig. 10.1) allows manual preset, which is used for flat fields and WFI
focus. Catalogues can be loaded with , in particular EmptyFields for flat fielding. The item of the
catalogues is selected with , , , before is clicked.
10.1.2 Manual offset
The virtual handset area of the main TCS panel (Fig. 10.1) allows to give an offset which is used when looking for
a guide star on GROND or centring a target on the FEROS fibre when guiding with the WFI AG. An offset is done
by clicking and selecting (useful when guiding). Offset steps are input with ,
then the racquet in the centre (−,+,−,+) can be used.
10.1.3 Autoguider
The AG in the TCS can be used for WFI and FEROS observations.
The AG Field Acquisition and Autoguider areas of the main TCS control panel (Fig. 10.1) give control over WFI
10.7 Dome controls 89
Figure 10.3: The AG field is displayed on the TCS RTD (left) where the reference star can be picked (using lower
right window).
AG. The buttons of interest are (to probe the AG field, displayed in Fig. 10.3), (to
start the guiding when a guide star has been picked) and (to turn off the AG). Tuning of the AG (e.g. integration
time) can be done on the Autoguider area of the TCS setup panel (Fig. 10.2).
Note that guiding must be set at the end of a FEROS observation using the WFI AG. The buttons
and are useful after a change of filtres on the same field, for they avoid a
.
Differential guiding can be set, but a particular care should be paid to units (here arcsec/hour).
90 Main systems
Figure 10.4: The TCS status window is mostly used to switch the pointing model between instruments.
10.2 WFI
10.3 FEROS
10.4 GROND
10.5 P2PP and OT
10.6 FEROS reduction software
10.7 Dome controls
10.8 Computers
Most components of the telescope can be accessed from any screen by using a graphical login: , (guiders),
, , (OBs), (pipelines), . They are detailed in Fig. 10.1 and generally have the famous
good seeing password. These machines need a reboot from time to time, using as the normal user.
For some tidying tasks or reboots, you need to root password (hint: pirate).
Other components may need reboots, they are given in Table 10.3.
10.8 Computers 91
Table 10.1: Computers one can use a graphical login for, from any screen, to get access to instruments and controls.
The password is the “good seeing” one shared by most La Silla computers. The screen they are normally shown on
and the relevant unix users are also given.
Computer Login User Monitor(s) Description
tcs tcs Telescope Control Software TCS
cam cam Autoguider GROND & FEROS Autoguiders
wfi wfi Wide Field Imager BOB WFI user
wfimgr — manager account
feros feros FEROS BOB basic user
ferosmgr — manager account
dhs service p2p2 & ot service observations (ot)
visitor p2pp & ot visitors (p2pp)
astro astro FEROS pipeline data & pipelines
pipeline pipeline w2p2pl pipeline WFI/FEROS data handling
grond grond GROND BOB / FIERA / IRACE basic user
grondmgr — startup, , commands
Table 10.2: Common passwords.
Component User name Password hint
Graphical interface user tcs, cam, feros, wfi, grond, astro, visitor, pipeline .5a· · ·
Instrument manager ferosmgr, grondmgr, wfimgr pin2· · ·
Workstation administrator root 2be1· · ·
Remedy tickets 2p2 .5a· · ·
Observing tool 0 OHS4good
Dome auxiliary functions .5a· · ·
p2pp for MPIA MPGUtility, MPGDDT MPG@· · ·
Table 10.3: Reboots you may (will) have to do besides those of the aforementionned computers.
Component Reboot command Alternative reboots
TCS LCU/VME
Reset button, VME rack, computer room at telescope∗
WFI FIERA ?
FEROS LCU FEROS ICS, menu →
FEROS AG
Reset button, rack, FEROS room at telescope∗
Unplug rack, FEROS room at telescope∗
FEROS FIERA ?
GROND FIERA
Power switch, FIERA WS, computer room at telescope∗
GROND IRACE
Power switch, IRACE WS, computer room at telescope∗
GROND AG
User WS call at Paranal 5959 to reboot uws2p2, first close all terminals
?Untested. ∗Manual reboot needed if soft fails.
Glossary
ADAM
Telescope hydraulics and mirror cover control system 20,76
ADC
atmospheric diffraction corrector 53,71
AG
autoguider 21,29,47,53,64–66,69,70,77,88,89
Auxiliary Functions
Panel with cryptic title (Fig. 10.5) controlling WFI shutter and flat-field lamp. 33,34,38,
57,58,63,70,92
broker for observing blocks 18,22–24,28,33,34,38,41–47,49,56,59,62,68–71,79,91,97
Dome Auxiliary Functions
tab of mozilla on the Windows desktop that contains hydraulics and ventilation control of the
dome. 10,22,37,57,58,77,98
dome webcam
View into the dome given by the tab of mozilla on the Windows desktop.10,57,58,99
DRS
data reduction software 9,17,21,29,30,34,72
FEROS
Fibre-fed Extended Range Optical Spectrograph 9,10,17,21,23–25,28–30,34,38,41,43,44,50–53,55,
58,59,63–73,75,77,79,88,89,93,95,96
FIERA
Electronics systems controlling the optical detectors 68,69,98
GROND
Gamma-Ray Burst Optical/Near-Infrared Detector 10,17,21,23,24,29,31,38,41,43,44,47,49–51,54,
55,58,59,63,65,67–70,80,88,97,98
ICS
instrument control software 21,38,58,63,71,96
102 Glossary
IRACE
Electronics systems controlling the infrared detectors. 68,98
LCU
Logical control unit, machine in a rack that controls an instrument or telescope subsystem 19,64,66,77
OB
observing block 17,18,23,24,33,34,38,41–47,52,53,55,61,69,70,72,97
observing tool 33,41,56,61,62
phase 2 preparation tool 17,56,61,62
RTD
real time display 22–24,27,28,43,54,55,69,89
TCS
telescope control software 17,20–24,27,30,37,38,43,44,46,50,57,58,63,66–72,75,77–79,83,84,
87–89,91,94,95
WFI
wide-field imager 17,21–23,26,27,30,33,34,38,41,43,44,49–51,53,55,56,58,59,63,67–71,79,82,
83,87–89,92–94,96
Windows desktop
Rightmost computer in the control room that controls the dome 17,27,37,57,58
