Sending a Preset in IRAF

Monocular Presets

Set or note the current authorizations in IIF. From here everything assumes that the telescope/TCS is up and ready to work.

Get IRAF open and setup:

• Open an IRAF XGterm. On obs1, this is the bottom launch panel as a blue star icon.
• Open a DS9 display server.
• Type epar LBTtools to edit the LBTtools package parameters
  • Set observer, camera, utdate, and Telside as appropriate
  • Set archive to /newdata or /Repository/
  • Set focstat if camera is IRTC to edit the Observe package parameters
  • Exit with :go to save parameters and load the package.
• Type epar Observe to edit the Observe package parameters
  • Consider the IRTC package deprecated as of Nov 2010.
  • Observe does the same thing as IRTC, but is binocularized.
  • Check that sendcam and sendtel are both yes if you expect to observe.
  • Exit with :go to save parameters and load the package.

Create a working directory and prepare it for LBTtools:

• Note: You can run this from /home/telescope/iraf, but this will slow things down
• cd /scratch/OSAnotes (create if necessary)
• mkdir 20101113 (or whatever the current UTdate is)
• cd 20101113
• prepdir

Register the instrument you will work as.

• This sets up the channel to the IRS that iraf will use to send commands to the TCS.
• Register reads the LBTtools parameters it needs
• Type register INSTRUMENT

This is the HELP from the register task:

   HELP: ===========================================================
   Valid instrument strings include:
      LUCIFER, LBC, MODS, LBTI, IRTC
      Note: using camera=IRTC also requires the focal station
                to be set appropriately in the LBTtools parameters.
   =================================================================

Select a target source:

• Catalogs are now kept in /lbt/catalogs in a new format
• For a readable listing, still reference the LBTdefault catalog:
  • in a terminal window, type cd ~/Catalogs
  • type more LBTdefault.cat.
  • Pipe to grep/sort as desired
  • Pointing stars are WT10* and ACT*
  • Persson standards are BS* (bright star)
• Or use Steve's pointnear script

Check the catalog if you need to:

• Type showcat sourcename for a listing of the catalog for sourcename
• Type showFC sourcename jpg to bring up a finding chart for this field

Send the preset:

• Type unlearn newpoint to reset parameters to their defaults (e.g. TRACK mode)
• Type newpoint sourcename with sourcename set to the source you selected
• Other parameters can be set on the command line as needed:
  • newpoint BS9101 Tel="ACQUIRE" gs=0 (to start acquire mode on axis)
  • newpoint BS9101 Tel="ACTIVE" gs=2 (to collimate with an off-axis guide star)

Other things to keep in mind:

• TRACK mode does not require a guide star.
• Setting gs=0 puts the probe on axis.
• Newpoint automatically sends presets in Position Angle Mode. For PARALLACTIC mode, send newpoint with PAM- PA=0

Here are some examples:

• newpoint ACT0234 TelM=track
  A basic track mode preset. The TelMode can be omitted if you have unlearned newpoint as this is the default.

• newpoint ACT0234 TelM=acquire gs=0 PAM- PA=0
  This is handy for pointing stars, as you can find the star in the GCS acquisition window, in parallactic mode, so that IE/CA corrections are updown/leftright on the acquire image.

Binocular Presets

• Make a second instance of IRAF for the Right Side:
  • mkdir /scratch/RIGHT
  • cd /scratch/RIGHT
  • mkiraf
  • xgterm -e cl &
  • epar LBTtools and set up appropriate instrument, side, date (LBC, right, 20120607)
  • LBTtools
  • Observe
  • lpar newpoint
• likewise, set up LEFT side in your normal IRAF window
• set up sync preset (indicated by BC=1) and send these one after another
  • on left
    • newpoint ACT0213 Tel="ACQUIRE" gs=0 BC=1
  • on right
    • newpoint ACT0213 Tel="TRACK" BC=1

Binocular Acquisitions

• Send SYNC ACQUIRE presets on both sides to a pointing star.
• Spiral the mount rather than the optics. When the star is seen on one of the sides, record the IE/CA value for that side. Continue spiraling the mount until the star is found on the other side, and record that IE/CA value.
• Set the new IE/CA values on both sides.
• Continue with your next SYNC ACTIVE preset.

Note: It is much preferred to spiral the mount, because:
a) the mount is faster than the optics
b) the optics can run out of range as the spiral proceeds and hit limits.

-- SteveAllanson - 03 Oct 2010