Observer Cookbook - GST 8m
This is a summary of normal IGRINS use for queue observers at Gemini South Telescope.
Observing timelines:
An hour before sunset, begin the Start of the Night procedures.
30 minutes before sunset, take calibrations.
20 minutes before 12 degree twilight, your SOS will open and perform tuning if the weather is good. This should take 20 minutes.
at 12 degree twilight, your IGRINS on-sky time begins (nightly observing procedures).
at most, you can observe 50 minutes until sunrise.
when your SOS is ready, you will take calibrations (about 30 minutes).
The order of operations should be test, darks, flat offs, flats ons (this order is necessary to reduce persistence from the flat lamps on the calibrations), science.
Start of Night:
1. Wake up the observing iMac and login.
2. From the iMac: Screen share to the ICC. From the screen sharing program, open another screen share connection to the DSC. If this one isn't loading well, change the "view" tab to "full quality". After it loads, change back to "adaptive". Everything else following will be done on the ICC or DSC through the screen sharing.
3. On the DSC: Turn on the IG proxy.
> cd ~/igrins_admin
> sh run_tcsproxy_gemini.sh
When it launches, the proxy window will pop up. Leave the rotator box checked.
If the VII connection is working, you should see the heart symbol beating and correct coordinates displayed. If it is red or otherwise, you have to ask the SOS to restart the VII.
4. On the ICC: Close the HPK and IGRINS Hub windows on the Desktop if they happen to be open. There are several scripts you must begin now, each in a new terminal window.
Typically, begin at (c). (a) and (b) should already be done, but just in case are described here.
a. Mount the detector computers
> cd ~/igrins_admin
> sh mntrun
b. Upload the temperatures to the web with firebase
> cd ~/igrins_admin
> sh run_hk2firebase.sh
c. Turn on the IG software (HKP house keeping package, SCV slitview camera, DTP data taking package) by opening a new terminal and typing:
> cd ~/igrins_admin
> sh run_icshub.sh
When it launches, the "IGRINS Hub" window will pop up.
You should see the "check Mount" and "check Proxy" change from "..." to "Okay" status.
Start the HKP (click "run HKP"). In the HKP gui, click the “periodic monitoring” and, below that, the “Send Alert (T>20)” buttons.
Once you see that the HKP status says "connected" in the Hub, start the SCP (click "run SCP"). You should see the SCP window pop open.
Once you see that the SCP status says "connected" in the Hub, start the DTP (click "run DTP"). You should see the DTP window pop open.
d. Turn on the ICC audio
> cd ~/igrins_admin/misc
> sh run_ics_monitor.sh
Once you run this, then you can open a browser on the observing iMac. Make sure to push play on the bottom and that the speaker on the iMac is on!
e. Fill the digital logs
> cd ~/igrins_admin/misc
> sh run_log_uploader.sh 2018A_Gemini
It will pop open a web browser with the log opened.
5. On the ICC: Check the software
In the SCV, check if you are receiving the TCS information or not (blue values on the upper right, including RA, Dec).
Note - TCS will not be running without your TO. Images and cals can still be taken but headers will be incomplete.
In the Status box, the following lines (for the SVC, and then for both H and K in the DTP) should appear:
6. Test Exposures
Change the observer name to your Last Name. No single quotes or special characters. Commas are ok.
Change the object name to 'test'.
Take a test image on both SVC and with the HK detectors to test readout.
If you see noise pattern or low-resolution image, repeat the short exposures or contact observing support.
Calibrations:
The recommended calibrations are listed in the following table, and the procedure below. It should take ~25 minutes in total.
You should get 10,000 counts in the H band and 8,000 in the K band. You must have more than 4,000 and no more than 20,000.
Type | exposure time (s) | number | Number of Fowler Reads |
|---|---|---|---|
Dark | 10 | 10 | 6 |
Flat off | 10 | 10 | 6 |
Flat on | 10 | 10 | 6 |
※ How to put the program ID into fits headers of IGRINS daily/SKY calibration frames
'Daily calibration' is usually the first frames of each nights.