Calypso Observatory

OBSERVER'S GUIDE TO THE 1.2 METER CALYPSO TELESCOPE

Index

• Introduction

 

• What Every Observer Should Know
• Emergency Procedures
• Never Observe When...
• Avoid Light Pollution

 

• Operating the Telescope
• Terse Checklist
• Annotated Checklist

 

• Problems

 

• General Information

Introduction

This document is a guide to operating the computer controlled Alt-Az telescope and the two cameras; the HRCAM, and the WFCAM. It contains emergency and troubleshooting procedures as well as checklists for getting the telescope ready to observe and for shutting down the telescope. We provide a terse checklist to prompt experienced observers who are a little rusty and an annotated checklist with sufficient detail to get the first-time user up and running. It should be noted that novice observers must be trained by a staff member prior to using the telescope alone.

In order to understand the operation of the telescope you should be familiar with the three main components of the computer control system:

• TOI - the Telescope Operator Interface
• The primary graphical user interface (GUI) that runs on the Sun workstation jupiter in the telescope control room.
• TCC - the Telescope Control Computer
• The control program that manages the pointing and tracking of the telescope that runs on the Compaq alpha charon, also in the control room.
• Ziatech - the servo control computer
• The PC computer that communicates between the servos and the TCC. The ziatech is located in the electronics room at the base of the telescope pier

In addition there is an Instrument PC that controls the cameras and the Tertiary servos, and a Guider PC that controls the WFCAM guider. Both of these are also located in the electronics room.

What Every Observer Should Know

• Emergency Procedures
• Emergency Contacts
• Injury
• Power Outages
• Manually Parking the Telescope
• Manually Closing the Building
• Shutting Down the Computers
• Emergency Shutdown
• Never observe when...
• Avoid Light Pollution

Operating the Telescope

• Terse Checklist
• Opening
• Observing
• Closing
• At the end of your run
• Annotated Checklist
• Opening
• Observing
• Closing
• At the end of your run
• HRCAM Guide
• WFCAM Guide

Problems

• Trouble Shooting Guide

General Information

• Phone Numbers and Mail
• Geographical Location:
• Long: 111:36:07.9 D:M:S West
• Lat: 31:57:30.8 D:M:S North
• Alt: 2071 meters (6795 ft) at Elev Trunion Axis

www@calypso.org
Last updated: 11-Oct-02