Blog from May, 2023

Mirror Door Issues, Preparing for PICSARR first light
Roy Prouty posted on May 17, 2023

Date/Time

20230517T1900-(+1)0130


People

Onkar, Roy, Shrey, Bill Sparks, Katie Slotten, Ian, Tara(for a minute), David, Eileen


Spaces

PHYS 401, 433C, Dome


Goals

  1. Thermalize dome
  2. Swap motor assemblies, South and West
  3. Confirm PHD2 autoguiding works
  4. Thor Instrument rotator
  5. Obtain first light of PICSARR


Log

  1. Opened dome at 1915
  2. Onkar and Roy swapped SOUTH and WEST motor assemblies
    1. We noticed that the SOUTH motor was hot from earlier attempts at fixing the nesting issues
    2. We swapped SOUTH and WEST , but upon testing the open-close cycle, the WEST mirror door was still getting caught on either the SOUTH or NORTH mirror doors
    3. We will need to continue investigating the apparent slowness of the WEST mirror door.
    4. See notes for reasoning
  3. Katie, Shrey, and Bill fetched PICSARR from PHYS 318
  4. Onkar and Roy tried to figure out instrument rotator
    1. Opened Kinesis software → Couldn't find the device
    2. Onkar power cycled
    3. This didn't work
    4. Onkar updated the Kinesis software, reinstalled drivers and entire software package
    5. Had to mess with settings, jog step, other things?
    6. But got it working!
    7. We need to document this software better
  5. We fetched the correct adapter for interfacing PICSARR to the instrument rotator (SM2) from 306A
  6. Had to swap Sloan filters from ASI294 MM Pro to PICSARR filter wheel
    1. Eileen had gloves on and did this carefully – like we should ...
  7. Reconnected PICSARR to main scope
    1. ZWO Filter wheel connected to ZWO camera
    2. ZWO camera connected via USBA - USBB3.0 (with nugget) to icron extender box
    3. Motor connected via power adapter to networked power switch
    4. Board connected via mini USB to icron extender box (only for power)
  8. Connected finderscope to LBD2
  9. Issue getting anything to show up in PICSARR
  10. First light!
    1. Technically an LED ... 
    2. Couldn't find Venus
    3. Went to beta Ursa Majoris
    4. Optimal focus was 2635 via DFM TCS
    5. Took some data with bUMa with and without LED
  11. went to hd 154445 (polarimetric target from https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1990AJ.....99.1243T)
  12. went to m87
    1. 30s exposure time
  13. went to hd 154445 (polarimetric target from https://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1990AJ.....99.1243T)
  14. Took darks
  15. Closed up
    1. Mirror doors may be nester improperly
  16. Eileen has filter wheel with adaptors, so we cannot image before we have filter wheel



ToDo

  • cable manage the telescope data lines better
  • replace white ethernet cable that goes to the network switch not because its broken but bc its short
  • Tie-down loose cables when not in use – we should not see them moving around when slewing
  • put arduino software on data computer

Notes

  1. EAST and WEST mirror doors have flange on them that creates a light/dust deal when NORTH and SOUTH nest into them
    1. Since NORTH and/or SOUTH mirror doors are catching on WEST, either NORTH and SOUTH are fast or WEST is slow.

Weather

GOOD MORNING THIS IS FROGGY 101 LETS GET THE WEATHER STARTED FOR TODAY AS WE HEAD TOWARDS THE SUMMER 

**__Wednesday: (GOOD TO GO)__**

**NOAA:**
Cloud Cover: 38%-2%

**Wunderground:**
Cloud Cover: 22%-0%

**Atmospheric:**
Cloud Cover: 0%
Transparency: Above Average
Seeing: Below Average

**Clear Dark Sky:**
Cloud Cover: Clear
Transparency: Above Average
Seeing: Poor

**__Thursday: (NO GO)__**:

**NOAA:**
Cloud Cover: 2%-25%

**Wunderground:**
Cloud Cover: 0%-47%

**Atmospheric:**
Cloud Cover: 0%-38%
Transparency: Cloudy
Seeing: Below Average

**Clear Dark Sky:**
Cloud Cover: Clear
Transparency: Above Average
Seeing: Poor


**__Friday: (NO GO)__**

**NOAA:**
Cloud Cover: 59%-57%

**Wunderground:**
Cloud Cover: 81%-37%

**Atmospheric:**
Cloud Cover: 61%-32%
Transparency: Cloudy
Seeing: Cloudy

**Clear Dark Sky:**
Cloud Cover: 60%-20%
Transparency: Too Cloudy
Seeing: Poor

Data

Normal place (smile) Some sent directly to Bill/Eileen

Temporary fix to mirror door motor assemblies
Roy Prouty posted on May 16, 2023

Time/Date

20230516T2100-(+1)T0100


People 

Onkar, Tara, Matt, Natalie, Katie Brungard


Space Occupied 

443C, 401, Dome


Goals

  1. Replace the mirror door motor assemblies on all four doors

Log

  1. Onkar, Matt, Tara in dome 
  2. Matt got on a ladder and has a hammer
  3. Tara, Natalie, Katie in control room 
  4. mirror doors  
  5. Onkar right in front of camera 
  6. now Onkar is on the ladder
  7. mirror doors were opened
  8. mirror doors were closed 
  9. mirror doors switch put in neutral 
  10. dome closed
  11. motor switch set to neutral 
  12. Tara took allen wrench up 
  13. mirror doors were opened 
  14. mirror doors were closed but switch was left on
  15. mirror doors open/closed  x2 


ToDo


Notes


Weather

N/A – just repairing equipment


Data

N/A

Celestron C8SE Exploration
Onkar Rekhi posted on May 15, 2023

Time/Date

20231511T2100-2359

People

Observatory: Onkar, Tara supervising

Spaces Occupied

401, 433C, dome

Goals

  1. Figure out how to use the new orange c8
  2. Use color cmos for once

Log

  1. initial setting up
    1. see the diagram in Notes for what adapters and wires were used
    2. decided to use the color cmos as its been a while and why not
    3. looked up guides (see Notes) on how to use the handpaddle and mount
  2. mount/handpaddle issues and fix
    1. turned on mount + hand paddle
    2. "No Response 17" and "No Response 16"
    3. not good
    4. connected handpaddle to laptop and used "Celestron Firmware Manager" to update handpaddle firmware
    5. tried again, same error messages as before
    6. here I got the bright idea to change the batteries in the mount for new ones, it uses 8 AA batteries
    7. WORKED no more error message after power cycle
  3. setting up: tripod and mount
    1. tried opening the dome and setting up the tripod in the dome to observe but just the way things lined up physically made this option a no go
    2. decided to set up on roof
      1. DONT YELL AT ME YET HOLD ON
    3. the reason i did this was so that i would still have internet on my laptop for troubleshooting and so that if i needed to run inside and grab a cable/tool, id be able to (and did need to a bunch)
    4. mounted cmos onto c8, c8 onto the mount, mount onto tripod, tripod on roof
    5. followed the steps for "auto two star alignment" and entered the information as prompted
      1. star 1: Dubhe
      2. star 2: Arcturus
      3. had to unmount the camera and mount an eye-piece for this process as eyeballing the c8 on target was a lot harder than eyeballing the big scope (i know, doesn't make sense)
      4. finished setting up, slewed to random stars to verify pointing, learned that my head hitting the eyepiece was throwing off alignment ever so slightly
        1. solution: stop this and mount camera
    6. followed the steps for "sidereal tracking"
      1. tldr: didn't work, when going through the menus it would just kick me back out to where it asks what tracking I wanted, not sure what the solution is
  4. setting up: ASI482MC
    1. installed sharpcap and license onto personal laptop
    2. got camera in focus by observing Dubhe and using manual focus to lessen "donut"ness
    3. played with output formats and color space
      1. tldr: rgb24 color space and .avi output format is the way to go (i think) for color cmos
      2. followed this tutorial:
    4. learned that there is much to learn and that its way different than the monochrome cmos
  5. closing up
    1. everything went back to where they needed to go EXCEPT tripod, i left it in the dome so its easier to bring out for future observing
    2. celestron scope and mount back in rolly case thing
    3. cameras back on shelf
    4. eye pieces and adapters back in optix box
    5. verified dome closed and switches were turned off

ToDo

  • try again, for you can never cross the ocean unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore

Notes

Weather

NOAA:
Cloud Cover: 5%-4%

Wunderground:
Cloud Cover: 8%-3%

Atmospheric:
Cloud Cover: 0%-3%
Transparency: Above Average
Seeing: Average

Clear Dark Sky:
Cloud Cover: Clear
Transparency: Above Average
Seeing: Average

Data

N/A

Attempt at Mirror Door Fix
Roy Prouty posted on May 11, 2023

Time/Date

20230511T1140-1510

People

Observatory: Onkar, Roy, Erik

Spaces Occupied

401, 433C, dome

Goals

  1. Fix mirror doors by attaching pistons with screw nuts into motor assemblies

Log

  1. Erik and Roy tried to reinsert WEST mirror door piston into motor assembly
  2. Erik noticed that the shaft of the lead screw was not fully through the socket/gear, so the set screws weren't fixing the gear socket to the shaft
  3. Erik and Roy removed the motor assembly
  4. Erik tapped the gear socket onto the shaft
  5. Erik had to go to a meeting, Roy got scared by himself on the ladder and cried for a bit before asking for help
  6. Onkar joined at 1340
  7. We took off SOUTH mirror door assembly in order to insert piston into assembly more easily
    1. Was not easy
  8. With the assembly in-hand it was clear that the piston metal was rubbing on the inside of the outer tube that houses the lead screw.
    1. So it's not an issue with the screw nut or lead screw
  9. Onkar observed that we LIKELY mismatched the (piston, motor assembly) pairs while these were disassembled earlier in the mirror door repair process.
  10. We thought to swap the NORTH and SOUTH pistons to see if the SOUTH piston would more easily insert into the NORTH motor assembly
    1. It was not easier
    2. But we did it anyway
  11. Then we had to disengage the pistons from the mirror door levers on NORTH and WEST in order to nestle the mirror doors correctly
  12. After we nestled the doors, we tried to operate the mirror doors normally from DFM TCS
  13. NORTH was not opening (it has the SOUTH piston in it)
    1. So ya – either SOUTH piston grew in the last month OR it belongs to another assembly
  14. Roy and Onkar will disassemble all motor assemblies and find best matches before Astronomy Club

ToDo

  1. Also, EAST mirror door assembly seems to have the gear and belts misaligned. We should fix this before operating the mirror doors again to avoid tearing the belt

Notes

  • The dome is hot in the middle of the day on top of a ladder
  • Roy doesn't like heights

Weather

Hot af in dome

Data

N/A

Observing Session - Flats and Darks
Onkar Rekhi posted on May 10, 2023

Time/Date

20230510T1930-2359

People

Observatory: Onkar, Roy, Connor, Shrey, Gabriel

Spaces Occupied

401, 433C, Dome

Goals

  1. Observe 3c 273
  2. Observe a galaxy or two
  3. Take calibration frames
    1. See what they look like and attempt to calibrate observations
  4. Test autoguiding
  5. Remove the rope lights

Log

  1. Startup
    1. Gabriel opened dome at 2018 via DFM TCS
    2. Shrey turned on fan/vent
    3. Gabriel opened mirror doors via DFM TCS – since two are disconnected, we need to fix the others open.
      1. North and East WORK
      2. South and West DO NOT
    4. Onkar removed IR filter from ZWO Filter Wheel 
    5. Gabriel enabled autodome
    6. Cameras Connected
      1. Onkar connected ZWO ASI294MM Pro to DFM Main Scope on-axis position with ZWO filter wheel
      2. Finderscope has ZWO ASI2600MM Pro
      3. Finderscope camera is connected via LBD2
      4. Main Scope On-Axis is connected to Icron extender box
    7. While we were fiddling with cameras and connectivity to DC, Onkar removed rope light from main scope
      1. Huzzah
  2. Took a series of flats on twilight sky – will try for canvas toward end of night
  3.  Moved to Polaris for pointing and seeing measurements
  4. Had to abort pointing process because finderscope LBD2 caught on something while slewing.
    1. NOTE: We need better cable management solutions to avoid this
  5. After the scope approaches limits, TS6 complains about software imposed limits
  6. Shrey pointed at Polaris
  7. Gabriel set next object position and date and time via DMF TCS
  8. Set FWHM monitor on finderscope and main scope
    1. Main Scope tending to 8.3-8.6
    2. Finderscope tending to 5.1 to 5.2
  9. SharpCap is having major issues trying to show two images
    1. Onkar talked about changing the available memory for the application
  10. Moved to another (non binary system star) for FWHM (HD 5914)
    1. Main Scope 4.478 +- 0.436
    2. Finderscope 2.986 +- 0045
  11. Attempted slewing to 3c 273
    1. Slewed to a completely different position 
    2. Onkar uploaded a quick capture to astrometry.net
    3. Scope was pointing to not 3c273
    4. slewed over to actual 3c273 and set object position
    5. weird lines???
    7. not sure whats up with that
    8. checked the camera and light baffle for obstructions, none that onkar connor or roy could find
    9. reslewed to 3c273
    10. took a 60s image in the V filter
  12. slewed to m82
    1. looks purdy
    3. 3x3 binning
    4. taking flats in each filter
      1. 150s in B filter w saturation lumens in upper 30,000s
      2. 60s in V filter w saturation lummens in lower 50,000s
      3. 20s in R filter w saturation lumens in lower 30,000s
    5. taking 3 darks unfiltered at 150s
  13. closing up
    1. followed standard closing procedures
    2. onkar could not find the ir filter to reinstall into filter wheel, pls help (idk/forgot where roy put it)
    3. nevermind connor found it, successfully reinstalled onto filter wheel

ToDo

  • Fix ASCOM error thingy on SharpCap
  • Find and execute better cable management solution
  • get new/better main monitor
  • further troubleshoot phd2
  • test out subtraction of flats and darks on m82 image

Notes

3c273 was weird

Weather

Wednesday(GOOD TO GO) 
NOAA
Cloud Cover 30%-5%
Wunderground
Cloud Cover 9%-0%
Astropheric
Cloud Cover 0%
Transparency: poor
Seeing:average 
Clear Dark Sky
Cloud Cover 0%
Transparency: above average
Seeing: average

Data

Normal place, synced to Google Drive

1 Comment
Observing Session - Cigars and Copeland
Onkar Rekhi posted on May 09, 2023

Time/Date

20230509T2130-2359

People

Observatory: Onkar, Tara

Spaces Occupied

401, 433C, dome

Goals

  1. take images of:
    1. M82 - The Cigar Galaxy
    2. NGC4535 - The Lost Galaxy of Copeland

Log

  1. Startup
    1. Opened dome approx. 9:45PM
    2. Turned on fan/vent
    3. connected cameras via sharpcap on data computer (dc)
    4. opened phd2 and connected mount
    5. opened dfmtcs, ascom, ts6 on control computer (cc)
    6. flipped on drives, autodome, track, MTR DRIVER CHASIS and unlatched halt motors
    7. installed asi294mm and filter wheel on-axis
  2. Venus
    1. found it, set object position, nice
  3. Polaris
    1. set object position, took a while was at an awkward angle
  4. M82
    1. found it and  had to slew a bit to get it in picture
    2. tried turning on autoguiding but phd2 kept crashing after clicking on a star
    3. switching to phd2 trouble shooting after taking a few frames of m82
  5. phd2 troubleshooting
    1. problem description:
      1. connecting equipment: works
      2. begin looping: works
      3. phd2 identifies star
      4. click on star to begin looping: CRASHES
      5. crashes after phd2 restart, cameras rebooted and when pc rebooted
    2. solutions:
      1. uninstalled phd2 v11, installed v10
        1. still crashes
      2. wait for another night to get help from connor
        1. seems like a good idea
  6. NGC4535
    1. couldnt find it : (
  7. closing up
    1. closed dome
    2. turned off fan/vent
    3. disconnected and turned off everything
    4. typical closing procedure

ToDo

  1. fix phd2
  2. look into fixing tracking if phd2 fix is unsuccessful
  3. not leave things velcro'd open in the future

Notes

  • why did we do this

Weather

NOAA Cloud Cover: 79%-71%

Wunderground Cloud Cover: 69%

Astropheric Cloud Cover: 29-10% Transparency: below average Seeing: average

Clear Dark Sky Cloud Cover: clear Transparency: below average Seeing: below average

Data

Normal place, synced to Google Drive

OR Office Hours - Machined Screw Nut Solution Attempt
Onkar Rekhi posted on May 08, 2023

Time/Date

20230508T1600-1800

People

Roy, Onkar

Spaces Occupied

433C, dome

Goals

  1. Put mirror door motor/piston assemblies back together with new machined delrin screw nuts
  2. Test mirror doors with assemblies in place

Log

  1. Roy got screw nuts and screw pistons from Erik and brought to office hours
  2. Onkar and Roy learned that velcro was not undone from previous Friday's (20230505) observation session
    1. Primary mirror was left exposed all weekend
    2. Let's not do this
  3. Screwed screw nut/piston onto lead screw still attached to motor assembly
    1. Started with North
    2. Then did west
    3. Then south (was hard to screw on) – did not complete
    4. Then east (was EASY to get on)
  4. Note: some of the pins needed to be swapped around based on length during this process
  5. Onkar attempted to open and close the mirror doors five times with DFM TCS GUI
    1. EAST was not actuating
    2. Swapped SOUTH with EAST
    3. Same issues with both screw nuts/pistons

ToDo


Notes

Weather

N/A

Data

N/A

Observing Session - What The Flat?
Onkar Rekhi posted on May 05, 2023

Time/Date

20230505T2030-2359

People

OBS/AstroPol: Onkar, Tara, Matt, Natalie, Shrey briefly, Roy via discord

Spaces Occupied

401, 433C, dome

Goals

  1. images of:
    1. 3C273
    2. Venus
    3. starfield over time
    4. m81 (bodes galaxy)
  2. testing of:
    1. autoguiding (phd2 via DreamGuideST4)
    2. taking flats, darks and biases

Log

  1. Startup
    1. Opened dome approx. 7:45PM
    2. Turned on fan/vent
    3. connected cameras via sharpcap on data computer (dc)
    4. opened phd2 and connected mount
    5. opened dfmtcs, ascom, ts6 on control computer (cc)
    6. flipped on drives, autodome, track, MTR DRIVER CHASIS and unlatched halt motors
    1. velcro'd open mirror doors
    2. installed asi294mm and filter wheel on-axis
  2. Venus
    1. slewed to Venus
    2. set object position
    3. took 25 1ms frame each in the UV, V, B and R filters (so 25 R images, 25 V images, etc etc)
    4. took 100 frames each in the UV, V, V and R filters with THE DOME CLOSED (gasp) 
      1. going to use these as our darks or flats or whatever they best fit as idk we just learned this stuff twelve minutes ago
      2. exposure times match the times used for the actual images
  3. M81 - Bodes Galaxy
    1. slewed, set, very nice
    2. turned on autoguiding via phd2 on the finderscope
    3. took one 3 min frame each in R, V and B
    4. took exact same thing as above with the DOME CLOSED
  4. 3C273 - Quasar Hunting
    1. slewed, set obj pos, enabled autoguide via finder
    2. took one frame at 1min exposure over 5 min (so 5 total frames) with the V filter
    4. took one frame at 180s exposure over 9 min (so 3 total frames) with the UV filter
    6. at this point a fat cloud decided the top of the physics building was the perfect place to camp out for the night
  5. closing up
    1. turned off dome exhaust fan
    2. closed dome
    3. undid velcro
    4. brought down the cameras
    5. turned off / disconnected everything in the control room

ToDo

  1. learn how to do better post processing
  2. learn more about flats, darkflats, lights, biases, etc and how to better develop our images
  3. get instrument rotator working so that our images are "north up"

Notes

Meyer:

  1. There were enough sources in the FOV to match to DSS! That means I can transfer a WCS (world coordinate system) which is literally required to know "which way is up". Which brings me to my next observation: we should attempt at the beginning of the night to align the detector "north up" using some astrometric field on our local meridian. As you can see in the screenshot of the side-by-side comparison with DSS, our orientaiton is totally random. This makes it harder to do the catalog match. ALso note: no, the orientation will not stay north-up once you move off the meridian. Also, technically the detector footprint on the sky rotates slowly with time. This has implications for long stares, and it's my plan to have an independent study student take a look at this in the fall, just FYI
    2. (If you're curious about detector footprints etc you can actually model this exceedingly well in Stellarium)
  2. I think we were a little out-of-focus. Another possible study project: how to monitor focus/seeing and keep us in the best of it.
    1. I'm also a little concerned by the asymmetries in the 'donuts' from being defocused. From what I've read that can indicate that we need to adjust collimation.

  3. Darks are nice and all, but I think we might be getting confused about when and how to take calibration frames. They're all important, but you really must have a flat. This will allow us to take out that 'donut' from a dust mote and the vignetting (dimming towards the edges). Flats should be taken every night, matching the gain of any light images, in each filter used. Temperature is not generally important, and you don't have to match the exact exposure time. You should take 20-30 to create a later "master flat". For dark frames, really you could set up a library with different combinations of gain/binning/exposure (again 20-30 to create a 'master' is good) and then this is likely good for a few months. It's tracking things like 'hot pixels' which don't tend to change over time much.

    1. Darks should also be taken in as dark of an environment as possible -- like put the camera in a light-tight box! It doesn't need to be on the scope, and if you don't have the dome completely pitch black, it will not be a good dark frame.

  4. Final thing: for the next run, I will attempt to give you a much more proper "plan" for obtaining standard and calibration observations as well as the main target exposures. What would help would be to have "finding charts" so if you are testing or looking at exposures on the fly, you know what you are looking at and if the source is really detected well.

    1. BTW 3C 273 is the source on the left in the above image. We don't detect the jet because it's a very short exposure. Next time I'd like to do some very deep ones to see if we can get it.

    2. Here it is in the SDSS cutout"

    3. (jet is the thing pointing down and to the right)

  5. One more thing to add to the list: the camera we used Friday was the cooled ASI194MM Pro. It has a "bin 1" mode which is the highest resolution, but it would actually be better for our case to use on-chip binning to reduce the resolution a bit. We are massively over-sampling our PSF and seeing disk with 2.3 micron pixels. With larger effective pixels we get better S/N and (if needed) the ability to do higher frame rates.

  6. And one more thing to add: what you have in here as darks appear to be flats! Which is great, but we should get the naming correct.

  7. And we also need darks.

  8. I swear this is my last post on this and then I really need to do all the other work I was supposed to be doing this weekend. Here is a side-by-side comparison of the 3C273 V-band average stack before (left) and after (right) flat-fielding with the averaged "dark" frames (really flats). I think I heard someone mention these were done on clouds, which probably explains the residual vignetting that is uncorrected in the frame at right, though it is still much better than at left. Remember that flats should be done on the actual 'flat' calibration panel we have in the dome. We may need to take a look at it to make sure it's really illuminated in a uniform way as well. 

  10. If anyone is interested in what I've done here, see the Jupyter notebook under 'DataAnalysis' in the Observations folder.

  11. (It's not totally a complete toolkit/example as I use ds9 for image display and aligning to catalogs, which AFAIK doesn't have an implementation in python notebooks)

  12. As an aside, I spoke to Bill just now and we were both a little confused by the high level of "vignetting" -- this is the appearance of being dim at the edges. It can be caused by straightforward limitations of the optics, but given all we know about the relative sizes of the detector, nearness of the filter, and the geometry of an f/8 converging beam... there really should not be any vignetting to speak of. It's also not being corrected well by the flat i made. It's possible that what we're actually seeing is not vignetting but stray light contamination, from e.g., lights on campus or near the building or (?) in the dome. There are some checks we can do to distinguish the two, like take a reasonably bright star and move it around to the edge of the frame and see if it really appears to dim (vignetting) or not.

  13. If it is stray light, we may want to think about how we can reduce it, such as putting additional light shielding around the scope, looking at the parking lot lights nearby and seeing if any need to be adjusted to scatter less light upwards, etc.

Weather

- cleardarksky reports clear to 10% cloud cover with an outlier 60% at 2100

- NOAA reports 16-20% cloud cover

- wunderground reports 37-40% cloud cover, a clear outlier to the rest

confidence in reporting: 3.5/5

Data

Normal place, synced to Google Drive

OR Office Hours - GAM Testing
Onkar Rekhi posted on May 01, 2023

Time/Date

20230501T1600-1800

People

Obs/AstroPol: Onkar, David, Connor

Spaces Occupied

433C, dome

Goals

  1. Test GAM

Log

  1. Setup
    1. plugged in gam cable into gam and gam port of telescope
    2. turned on gam switch
    3. turned on dfmtcs and opened gam control
    4. turned on MDC and enabled drives and depressed halt motors
    5. clicked "update GAM status"
  2. Testing
    1. south port filter wheel
      1. encoder: 
        1. tested by physically rotating south port filter to filter positions 1-7
        2. after each rotation, clicked "update GAM status", verified values
        3. NOTE: we have 8 south filters which displayed values 1-8 but in the manual only says we have 1-7 positions
        4. manual is labeled job408, our telescope is job721, lol
      2. motor:
        1. could successfuly issue motor position via gam control by entering value 1-8 and clicking "apply"
        2. gam status info automatically updates after clicking apply to new position
      3. SUCCESS
    2. translating stage
      1. encoder
        1. tested by physically moving the thingy on-axis and updating the gam status, still read a value of "3"
        2. upon visual inspection it is not clear if the encoder is attached to the 37pin gam cable or the serial connector
        3. no updates after moving the translating stage to the stowed or on-axis position, or after actuating the encoder switches physically
      2. motor
        1. did not respond to motor commands, probably because of encoder reading value of "3"
    3. on-axis filter wheel
      1. encoder
        1. at some point, sending commands just didnt work anymore and none of the gam software would respond or update, this was solved by restarting the gam control switch by powering it off and then back on as well as restarting dfmtcs
        2. anyway
        3. not sure if this is connected to the 37pin or the 14 pin but not updating after physical movement, still saying "2" when not on position "2"
      2. motor
        1. cannot test without 14 pin connection
    4. rotating mirror
      1. encoder
        1. accurately reported positions for north and west, however having issues with east and south, see below
      2. motor
        1. responds to motor commands BUT there appears to be physical friction keeping the motor from rotating the mirror to south or east, believe its the nub thing that sticks off the motor rubbing against the motor housing (the part that is shiny from all the rubbing)

ToDo

  1. test with 14 pin and serial connections
  2. buy the berg belts for the respective motors
  3. inspect encoders for faulty connections or replace, especially for translating stage

Notes

  • used page 21 in "telescope operations manual"
  • used page 349-209 in electrical drawing package

Weather

N/A

Data

N/A