Systems Overview

• Building Layout
• Telescope Control Panels
• Camera Control Panel
• Computer Systems and Displays
  
  
• Teal's Five Main GUIs
  • XTCS ( X Telescope Control Software gui )
    6 Subsections
    11 Buttons
  • XOE ( X Object Cache Control gui )
  • Guider GUI ( Controls Guide Stage and Pick-Off Mirror )
  • Comparisons GUI - ( controls Comparison Source and Internal Flat Lamps )
  • Linux TV Guider GUI

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Building Layout

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The 2 meter telescope is housed in a 3 level building.


The ground floor contains a lobby area, including restrooms, and a maintenance area which is off-limits to both the public and to observers.

You access the observing area of the facility by entering the downstairs, and then either going into the locked door directly across from the restrooms, or by going upstairs and entering the locked doorway to the right of the visitors gallery. Your "MM" (mountain master) key will let you in to these doors, as well as opening the catwalk doors for you. The second floor is actually only a ``half-floor'' which contains the computer room and tape drives, as well as the telescope drive servo racks. Use caution when going to the computer room as there are a couple of places with low head room (watch your head).

The third floor includes the control room, and telescope and instrument access via the observing area.

For detailed facility images use the Kitt Peak - Mountain Image Database (opens in a new window)

 

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Telescope Console Control Panels

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Camera Control Panel

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Computers System and Displays

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Teal's 5 Main GUIs

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The above screenshot shows the following on Teal's desktop:

# 1 ) XTCS GUI (top left) main telescope control software gui.

# 2 ) XOE GUI (top right) object coordinates cache control.

# 3 ) GUIDER GUI (bottom left) guider camera and pick-off mirror control.

# 4 ) COMPARISONS GUI (bottom middle) turn comparison sources and flat lamps on and off.

# 5 ) LINUX TV GUIDER GUI (bottom right) set up guiding with the Linux TV Guider Software.





Special note on color changes in these GUI's:


When you interact with all of Teal's GUI's be sure to watch for color changes. A color change to orange (from red or green) indicates a change is occurring in a device. Watch the gui colors for a final position color change of Green, which indicate that the device has arrived at the desired position.

Make sure the mouse cursor is off of the text indication you are watching. If you leave the mouse over the text that you are watching, the text will stay orange and the change in color you are waiting for will not be seen.



Special note on Closing out these GUI's:


When you want to log out of teal at the end of the night, or you need to close any of these GUIs, it is important to look for the "close" buttons and use them on the GUI itself. Do not use the X at the top of the window to close the program, use the "close buttons" instead.

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Teal GUI # 1 ) XTCS gui "2.1m Telescope Control GUI"

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1. XTCS TARGET Subsection

This section contains the coordinates of the last position (if applicable), the current position, and the next position, if it has been selected.

The blue arrow indicates which object the telescope will be sent to if the Go There button is selected at present. This is also the object which will be the default position for the Object Stats button. The object which is highlighted with a blue arrow may be changed simply by selecting the yellow arrow underneath either of the other objects.

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2. XTCS FIELD AQUISITION Subsection

This section contains several buttons which are used to bring up GUIs which assist in selecting and moving to a field.

(a) New Next

This button brings up a GUI into which coordinates of new objects may be typed.

(b) GSC Search

This brings up the GSC Search GUI as described below:


XTCS's - GSC Search GUI (Guide Star Catalog Search)

This GUI is, as its name implies, used to search for and select guide stars. When it pops up it usually has an object in the selected object section. If the default object is the object for which a guide star is required, simply select the search catalog button. This will bring up a list of guide stars and automatically select a default guide star which is the star closest to the current guide probe position.

If there is no object, or an incorrect object, selected, select the next target using the Next Target button or input a position manually.

If the search catalog text turns red, the search engine has timed out and the button should be selected again. Guide stars are usually picked based on brightness, on a clear night, with average seeing, stars with brightness of approximately 11-12 magnitude are suitable.

(c) Guide Field This button brings up a window showing the positions of guide stars relative the last object used in the GSC Search GUI.

(d) Sky Survey This brings up a picture of the position given in the Target section which is highlighted with the blue arrow. This is a useful source of finding charts.

(e) Go There Selecting this button sends the telescope and the guide probe to their new positions, based on the coordinates in the Targets section which are highlighted with a blue arrow.

(f) Previous Targets This button brings up a list of the last 5 positions to which the telescope has been sent, and allows the selection of any of these objects to put in the Next Target window.

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3. XTCS OFFSETS Subsection

This section contains 6 buttons and 2 text input windows. These controls may be used to move the telescope small amounts either while guiding or with guiding disabled.

The two text input windows are for the input of R.A. and declination offset amounts. The numbers input in these text windows are, by default, assumed to be arcsecs. To change the scale of the offset from arcsecs to seconds of time and back use the buttons in the bottom of the section labeled arcsec and sec.

(a) The home button will move the telescope back to a position where the offsets are zero. This will either be the last position the telescope was sent to using the Go There button, or the last position where the zero button (see below) was pressed.

(b) The apply button moves the telescope (and the guide probe, if active) the amount and direction specified by the values in the input boxes.

(c) The back button moves the telescope (and the guide probe, if active) the amount and direction specified by the values in the input boxes, but in the opposite directions.

(d) The zero button forces the offset values to (0,0). This does not affect the telescope pointing, it merely sets the position which is ¨home¨. This becomes the position to which the home button will return the telescope.

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4. XTCS TRACKING Subsection

There are four buttons. The telescope tracking may be turned on or off, and the dome tracking may be turned on or off.

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5. XTCS POINTING Subsection

(a) The SAO button searches for the SAO star nearest the current position, and sends its coordinates to the Next Target window.

(b) The ``Z'' button tells the telescope control system that the current position is really the position which corresponds to the coordinates to which the telescope was last sent. This changes the telescope pointing.

The two buttons are complementary in that one can go to the nearest SAO star, center it on the zero point marked on the acquisition monitor, and select the ``Z'' button to reset telescope pointing.

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6. XTCS SET PARAMETERS Subsection

There are two buttons and an input box in this section of the XTCS.

The equinox button is used in conjunction with the input box. The equinox button brings up a menu containing the following options.

(a) equinox If there is an equinox entered into the input box when this option is selected the equinox which the telescope control system is using will be changed.

(b) guide rate If there is a number in the input box when this option is selected the rate at which the telescope moves when set for guide speed will be changed to the corresponding number of arcsecs/sec.

(c) search rate If there is a number in the input box when this option is selected the rate at which the telescope moves when set for search speed will be changed to the corresponding number of arcsecs/sec.

The Shortcuts button brings up a menu containing the following options.

(d) Go to white spot Note: Telescope will move at slew speed. This moves the telescope and dome into position to do dome flats.

(e) Go to zenith Note: Telescope will move at slew speed. This moves the telescope to the zenith and turns off telescope and dome tracking.

(f) Stow dome This moves the dome to an azimuth of 90 degrees.

(g) Servo reset This restores computer control of the telescope drives when recovering from a drive failure.

(h) Re-index (filter wheel) This rotates the filter wheel until the encoder encounters a position which it can identify. This is used when the filter wheel loses track of where it is when it has been using relative positions.

(i) Clear VDU errors This will refresh and remove errors from the screen on cyan's Telescope Status Monitor.

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11 main buttons on the XTCS GUI

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1. XTCS OPEN Button

This button brings up an new window with the startup checklist shown below. (You'll be following the checklist that is laminated to the console by teal for currency). You will use the last item on this GUI's checklist though - in order to initialize the telescope.

When you press the pink bar, to initialize the telescope, a "big pink button" will come up that says "press here to initialize the telescope". That button needs to be pressed to initialize the telescope.

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2. XTCS STOW Button

This button brings up the shutdown checklist shown below. The first item on the shutdown checklist stows the telescope and the dome by sending the telescope to zenith and the dome to 090 azimuth turns off computer control of the telescope. You'll have a current "closing checklist" that is also laminated to the control console.

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3. XTCS GUIDER Button

This button brings up / or hides the "GUIDER GUI".

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4. XTCS COMPS Button

This button brings up or hides the "COMARISONS GUI"

The comparison GUI is used to select calibration lamps and move a lens and flat mirror into the light path to direct light from the calibration source to the detector. In general this GUI will not be used when doing imaging.

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5. XTCS CONFIGURATIONS Button

This button brings up a menu which allows selection of instruments, save tcs, and restore tcs. This is a very important menu since, if pointing is lost, or for some reason the telescope configuration is lost or corrupted a configurations>restore tcs will likely restore the pointing.

When ever you close and restart the XTCS (like a reboot of teal, or a logout from teal) you will need to reselect the instrument configuration you are using. You do this with the configurations menu - by selecting the instrument you are using.

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6. XTCS PROCEDURES Button

This button brings up a menu of procedures which the staff members or other operators use to setup the telescope pointing when an instrument is first put on the telescope.

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7. XTCS TELEMETRY Button

This button brings up a menu of buttons which in turn bring up various windows which give the status of different parts of the telescope. This can be a useful tool for diagnosing problems.

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8. XTCS DRIFT RATE Button

This button brings up a GUI which allows the operator to setup telescope tracking for rates other than the sidereal rates.

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9. XTCS ORACLE Button

This button brings up a GUI tool which shows observing information of the currently selected XTCS object (the currently loaded coordinates in the XTCS - Next Target window) These tools include a graph of parallactic angle, ZD, airmass versus time, and so on.

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10. XTCS HISTORY Button

This button brings up a GUI which shows the text commands being sent to the telescope control computer from the GUIs running on teal. This is generally another troubleshooting tool which the duty tech. or other operators may use.

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11. XTCSEXIT XTCS Button

This button brings up a large square window/button, confirming the user's wish to exit the XTCS. Either exit, or minimize the window to continue using the GUI.

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Teal GUI # 2 ) XOE gui "Xobjects - Client GUI"

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Once the desired object is found it can be selected either by double clicking on the object, which will send it directly to the Next Target window of the XTCS or by single clicking it which will put it in the selected object portion of the XOE. Selecting the Send Next button will send the selected object to the XTCS.

After selecting an object, the Search GSC button can be used to bring up the GSC Search GUI, or the get guide button can be used to get a default guide star.

Observer caches can be modified using the new, edit, delete, and save buttons.

Objects which have been selected recently may be re-selected by choosing them from the history window.


 

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Teal GUI # 3 ) Guider GUI

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1. Mirror Position

In the Mirror Position section there are four buttons.

(a) instr

This button sends the pickoff mirror out of the telescope beam allowing the instrument to ``see'' light, and the guide probe to ``see'' guide stars. (This can take up to 60s)

(b) tele center

This moves the pickoff mirror to an intermediate position used for seeing measurements.

(c) tv

This button sends the pickoff mirror into the beam, which sends the image of the object to the ISIT/Acquisition camera. (This can take up to 60s)

(d) Reset mirror

This button sends the mirror up against the stops at one end of its travel and resets the encoders. This is used when the mirror loses track of where it is or will not move.

2. Mode

The mode section only contains two buttons which enable or disable guiding - they are the "guide" or "off" modes.

3. Jog

The jog section has four arrows which allow the user to move the guide probe around when the guider is in the off mode. You need to turn tracking off as per the instruction below for the motions to work properly.

When you first go to a new field, the guide probe is in a "tracking mode" and when you use the 4 arrows to "jog" the guide probe around to move the guide star on the guide field, the star will "return" to it's original position on the field. To disable this tracking function, just click on "off" in the "Guider GUI" modes section. Then when you move the guide probe with the arrows, the star's position on the camera's field will move where you want it to go.

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Teal GUI # 4 ) Comparisons GUI

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(a) Quartz This moves a mirror and lens into the light path and turns on a quartz lamp which can be used for calibrations.

(b) HeNeAr This moves a mirror and lens into the light path and turns on a HeNeAr calibration source.

(c) Remove comp This removes the calibration mirror and lens and turns off whichever calibration source is on.

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Teal GUI # 5 ) Linux TV Guider GUI

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