UT 20120210 - AO2 commissioning

Observer: SEsposito, EPinna, APuglisi, MXompero, KBoutsia (LBTO)
Telescope Operator: Steve Allanson (LBTO)
Additional AO Support: SEsposito, EPinna, APuglisi, MXompero
Telescope Support: John L.(LBTO)
Instrument Support: Tim S. (LBTO)

Summary

Clear skies at sunset with only some thin cirrus in the horizon. Winds ~10m/s.
Overall a productive night with performance tests down to magnitude 13.2, tests with 5'', 15'', 30'' offsets, tests for the ADC and for off-axis presets.

At the beginning of the night the seeing was mediocre but there were tests to do that did not require very good seeing.
Around 10:00UT the seeing got worse (~2.5'' on the dimm) and the AO group stopped tests for a while since the data obtained was not useful. 1hr lost.
At 11:00UT the seeing went back to ~1.0'' and the AO group resumed testing.

Details

01:35 Telescope ready - pointing correction and collimation complete

01:41 iif_preset,'AO842',GS=8,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=-90

• as expected the ACE mode failed because the wfs is not set.
• alfio will manually set the wfs keyword on the AOS side and then we will repeat the ace preset

01:48 we will try a preset with both sides...

• steve will run the copoint routine and then we will send two separate presets through idl after opening two sessions and registering in a different focal station in each
• before that simone went to the dome to control something

02:14 the two separate presets from idl failed - as expected

• trying to send a sychronous preset from iraf - the ace mode did not pass

02:25 iif_preset,'AO842',GS=8,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=-90

• iif_runao

===> Error in irc_runao
        err = Resmsg[0]  = RunAO result status: Error
        err = Resmsg[1]  =          err = Resmsg[2]  = AcquireRef[21] failed

• dimm seeing 1.6''

04:08 unwrapping telescope

04:10 iif_preset,'AO842',GS=8,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=-90

• iif_runao

===> Error in irc_runao
        err = Resmsg[0]  = RunAO result status: Error
        err = Resmsg[1]  = IDL variable undefined 'nstars'
        err = Resmsg[2]  = AcquireRef[189] failed - IDL variable undefined 'nstars'

• repeat preset and runao

04:24 the slope pc got stuck and we need to repeat the preset

• iif_preset,'AO842',GS=8,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=-90
• iif_runao

===> Error in irc_runao
        err = Resmsg[0]  = RunAO result status: Error
        err = Resmsg[1]  = RETRY: source_acq error: Star centering procedure failed to converge after 5 iterations (-20003) WFSARB_STAR_NOTCONVERGED
        err = Resmsg[2]  = AcquireRef[227] failed - RETRY: source_acq error: Star centering procedure failed to converge after 5 iterations (-20003) WFSARB_STAR_NOTCONVERGED

• dimm seeing 1.7''

04:52 iif_preset,'AO305',GS=2,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=180

• brighter star
• iif_runao - failed but this was part of a test - downloading data

===> Error in irc_runao
        err = Resmsg[0]  = RunAO result status: Error
        err = Resmsg[1]  = AcquireRef[296] complete -  dx:-0.366 dy:1.212 slNull: f1:Filter #0 f2:Filter #0 freq:990 mag:7.954 nBins:1 nModes:400 r0:0 snMode:0 strehl:0 ttMod:3
        err = Resmsg[2]  = Safe skip active - cannot proceed (-10045) IDL_SAFE_SKIP_ACTIVE
        err = Resmsg[3]  = StartAO[297] failed - Safe skip active - cannot proceed (-10045) IDL_SAFE_SKIP_ACTIVE

05:52 iif_preset,'HJ510',GS=4,RS=1,MODE=ACE, PA=0

• failed - steve is checking pointing

05:58 iif_preset,'HJ510b',GS=4,RS=1,MODE=ACE, PA=0

• iif_runao - the runao gave error in the idl window but it seems to be going fine on the AO side.

===> Error in irc_runao
        err = Resmsg[0]  = RunAO result status: Error
        err = Resmsg[1]  = AcquireRef[303] failed - Command timeout - -13107: Arbitrator interface generic error

• alfio manually reset runao
• repeat

06:13 iif_preset,'HJ510b',GS=4,RS=1,MODE=ACE, PA=0

• failed - arbitrator error

06:15 iif_preset,'HJ510b',GS=4,RS=1,MODE=ACE, PA=0

• failed again because the previous runao had not been cancelled

06:16 iif_preset,'HJ510b',GS=4,RS=1,MODE=ACE, PA=0

• iif_runao

===> Error in irc_runao
        err = Resmsg[0]  = RunAO result status: Error
        err = Resmsg[1]  = RETRY: source_acq error: Star centering procedure failed to converge after 5 iterations (-20003) WFSARB_STAR_NOTCONVERGED
        err = Resmsg[2]  = AcquireRef[8] failed - RETRY: source_acq error: Star centering procedure failed to converge after 5 iterations (-20003) WFSARB_STAR_NOTCONVERGED

06:21 iif_preset,'HJ510b',GS=4,RS=1,MODE=ACE, PA=0

• iif_runao
• dimm seeing 2.1''

06:29 iif_preset,'AO420',GS=1,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=180

• steve has to cancel preset and unwrap.

06:33 iif_preset,'AO420',GS=1,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=180

• stop the guiding - alfio sends runao from the AO side

07:44 iif_preset,'AO420',GS=1,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=180

• runao is send by Alfio to test a different reconstructor

08:26 iif_preset,'AO1071',GS=3,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=180 -failed

• time out error on preset AO

08:31 iif_preset,'AO1071',GS=3,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=180

09:18 iif_preset,'AO860',GS=1,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=180

• iif_runao
• we repeat several presets+runao to have some statistics...
• both failed

===> Error in irc_runao
        err = Resmsg[0]  = RunAO result status: Error
        err = Resmsg[1]  =          err = Resmsg[2]  = AcquireRef[116] failed

===> Error in irc_runao
        err = Resmsg[0]  = RunAO result status: Error
        err = Resmsg[1]  = AcquireRef[119] complete -  dx:0.225 dy:1.692 slNull: f1:Filter #0 f2:Filter #0 freq:800 mag:11.55 nBins:2 nModes:120 r0:0 snMode:0 strehl:0 ttMod:3
        err = Resmsg[2]  = Safe skip active - cannot proceed (-10045) IDL_SAFE_SKIP_ACTIVE
        err = Resmsg[3]  = StartAO[120] failed - Safe skip active - cannot proceed (-10045) IDL_SAFE_SKIP_ACTIVE

09:44 Seeing is too bad to go on with the tests

• right now the dimm seeing is ~2.5''

10:50 seeing around ~1.0'' again and the AO group continues with the tests

10:54 iif_preset,'AO860',GS=1,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=180

• iif_runao

11:03 iif_preset,'AO472',GS=4,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=-90

• iif_runao

11:39 iif_preset,'AO401',GS=5,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=-180

• there is an error in some table... preset has failed

11:44 iif_preset,'AO401',GS=5,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=-180

• iif_runao

11:52 iif_preset,'AO450',GS=3,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=-90

• guide star was not visible on the AO side...
• repeat preset with a different guide star
• iif_preset,'AO450',GS=1,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=180
• iif_runao

12:19 telescope at the zenith to remove an optic part to have more resolution.

12:31 iif_preset,'HIP76041',GS=1,RS=0,MODE=ACE, PA=-90

• iif_runao
• star too bright and a filter had to be used - runao failed

===> Error in irc_runao
        err = Resmsg[0]  = RunAO result status: Error
        err = Resmsg[1]  = RETRY: source_acq error: Star centering procedure failed to converge after 5 iterations (-20003) WFSARB_STAR_NOTCONVERGED
        err = Resmsg[2]  = AcquireRef[275] failed - RETRY: source_acq error: Star centering procedure failed to converge after 5 iterations (-20003) WFSARB_STAR_NOTCONVERGED

• repeat runao
• seeing ~0.8''
• series of images of a double star

13:40 End of night

-- KonstantinaBoutsia - 10 Feb 2012