User`s guide

FLAMINGOS at the MMT
II. Getting Started....
...at the beginning of each night:
Unless some of the daemons have crashed or hung, it is not necessary to run mmt.initflam.pl every night.
The following is a list of things you do need to do prior to each night's observing:
1. Fill Both Dewars. The telescope operator should be in charge of filling the dewars with liquid nitrogen.
Although the telescope operator is in charge of this at the MMT, guest observers do this at the KPNO 2.1-m.
The instructions from the 2.1-m manul are presented here for completeness:
Both the main dewar (the big one on the bottom) and the MOS dewar (the little one on the top) need to be
filled with liquid nitrogen at the start of the night before you can observe. The MOS dewar needs to be filled
at the end of the night, too. Fill the main dewar first and then the MOS dewar using the following procedure:
a) Check the pressure and fill gauges on the big storage dewar. The pressure should be ~20 psi and the
tank should be more than 1/3 full. If this is not the case, have someone refill the tank before it gets too
low. Also, note that you should give the tank a shake prior to reading the fill level as the gauges can get
stuck.
b) Un-velcro or pull out the fill line of your desired dewar and connect it to the storage dewar so that it is
"finger tight".
c) Open the valve on the storage dewar SLIGHTLY and let the line cool. At this point, you should hear a
"whooshing" from the dewar you are filling and see some initial boil-off.
d) When the "whooshing" stops and/or the line freezes, open the valve the rest of the way and let the
dewar fill. The dewar is full when liquid is vigorously pouring out of the vent (a few drops does not a full
dewar make!).
CAUTION: The vent of the Mos dewar is about face-level in height. Do not stand close enough to the
vent such that liquid nitrogen can splash you in the face!
e) Using the polar gloves on the work table (and a crescent wrench if necessary) unscrew the fill line from
the tank and tie it back down in between the dewars and the electronics rack. NEVER unscrew the fill
lines from FLAMINGOS. ALWAYS leave them attached and securely tied down.
NEVER let nitrogen drip on any of the cables on the electronics racks!
The end of the hose where it attaches to the Mos dewar may need to be tightened-do so very carefully by
hand, until it is just snug so that it does not drip liquid nitrogen when filling the dewar.
2. Create a data directory for the night. Each night's data should be stored in a separate directory. In any
flamingos1b window, cd into /data0/mmtguest/. Create a directory with the UT date in the format
YYYYMMMDD (e.g. 2002dec12). Note that you should always check the disk space using the df -k
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