Troubleshooting guide

MacMini for analysis or archiving on storage media such as a USB drive. From a terminal on second-1 or 2, run
% ~/bin/mirror flamingos1a /data/2mguest/<dir>
where <dir> is the data subdirectory in /data/2mguest on flamingos1a. It is probably safest to use the full
path name. The command will create the subdirectory <dir> on the MacMini, in whichever directory you
ran the mirror command and will use rsync to update the files every 30 seconds. Keep the terminal window
in a safe place so it is not inadvertently closed; it will keep reporting when new files have been transferred.
You can stop the process with crtl-C.
B. Startup on the Sky
Several of these steps refer to commands that are described in more detail in section § IV. Imaging with
FLAMINGOS (e.g., for details on how to configure the wheels and how to set the exposure time).
As noted at the beginning of the manual, there is no KPNO telescope operator at the 2.1-m telescope, except for
the first few hours of the initial night of an observing run to instruct the observer on the operation of the
telescope and to ensure that everything is working properly. After this initial checkout, the observer(s) operate
both the telescope and FLAMINGOS. In the case of two or more observers, one will generally assume the role
of operating the telescope. The observers should become familiar with the following documents:
• The 2 meter Observer's Handbook, available at www-kpno.kpno.noao.edu/2m-manual/.
• FLAMINGOS at the KPNO 2.1-m: Telescope Console Control Panels & GUIs used for Guiding,
available at http://flamingos.astro.ufl.edu/Manuals/.
1. Open up the telescope for the night
• Follow the checklist for bringing up the TCS, opening the dome and initializing the telescope.
• Turn on the off-axis guide camera, and the acquisition and guide video displays.
• After setting up on a star, focus the telescope on the guide camera, looking at the acquisition video
display (this shows the direct readout). At best focus, stellar images usually have a tight core and a
noticeable tail to the South because one is so far off-axis.
• NOTE: For imaging programs, one will often not use the guide camera and rely solely on the large
FLAMINGOS field for target acquisition.
2. Verify FLAMINGOS is set up for imaging. The Decker and MOS wheels should both be at imaging, the Lyot
wheel should be at the 2-m stop, and the Grism wheel should be at position open1. Use
config.rel.mv.mos.wheel.pl [Move MOS Wheel] and config.rel.mv.filter.grism.decker.wheel.pl [Move Wheels]
to move the wheels. For the first motion of the night, use the Initialize Wheels button; this will use the home
switch to zero the wheels. The H filter is quite useful for these startup tasks.
3. Center a bright star to within 10 pixels of (x,y)=(1024,1024) on FLAMINGOS.
• Within ds9 you can draw rulers from the approximate center of the star to the center of the array.
• Double clicking on the ruler line will pop up a GUI with the length of the ruler line and its
decomposition in detector (x,y) coordinates. The starting and ending (x,y) coordinates of the ruler
are also listed and are modifiable.
• Enter the values for the center of the star for one endpoint of the ruler, then enter in (1024, 1024)
for the center of the array for the other ruler endpoint. Afterwards click the Apply button at the
bottom.
• Next, hold and select the Distance pulldown button and choose the Arcseconds distance scale. The
numbers in the window will change accordingly.
• Use relative.offset.kpno.pl δRA δDec to offset the telescope.
FLAMINGOS@2.1-m, Ver. 2.39, 2011 May 13 Page 15 of 46