Beginning of night

Focus

TBW

DetI

Three modes of observation are available, cube, coadd and multiple sampling readout (MSR). The MSR mode is currently unreliable and therefore disabled.

Offsets

If you want to perform an offset, click on "Offset" in ....
 

Scripts

You can write your own scripts in CShell. Small modifications of the provided reference scripts (in ~cfhtir/scripts) will probably be sufficient for most observers, but it's also possible to write highly customized scripts to support more complex observing procedures. Please talk to your SA/OA for examples, command syntax, and general advice.

For mosaics, we recommand that you avoid placing your object at the center of the array (unless of course it is extended enough that it fills a significant fraction of the detector). This is the intersection of the 4 chips that make up the full detector, and the cosmetic there is slightly degraded. The detector also has a few bad pixel clusters that you will want to avoid.
On a totally different matter, please make sure that your script does move the object back to the center before exiting.

Warning messages will appear in yellow in DetI window, error messages in red, including the warming up of the detector and the lack of disk space.

Ctrl-C to interrupt a script (xterm or hpterm window).

Then, in DetI:

>break: will break a sequence of exposures in cube mode. The current frame will be completed and the FITS Header will be updated accordingly, all frames being saved including this last one.

>stop : will interrupt the exposure, save the data and update the FITS header accordingly.

>abort: will interrupt the exposure and that exposure will be lost.

Please note that the break/stop/abort command may not be applied succesfully at first try, enter the command again if you get no feedback from DetI.

>? or >help for a list of commands, typing the command with no parameters will give you the proper syntax.
 

Telescope

Click on "....check...." in the main Pegasus menu bar, you will open a new window, displaying "Status", "Catalogs", "Safety" and "Dismiss", to get rid of that window.

Click on "Status" scrolls down a menu offering informations about the Telescope Control System Status, the first one is the most important one,  click on "Telescope information" will open a window displaying UT, UT Date, HST, Telescope and target coordinates, Equinox, Hour Angle, Airmass, ...
"Tiny information" opens a smaller window with the same informations.
"Dome Slit display" gives you the relative position of the Dome and the Telescope, the small circle indicating where the Telescope is pointing.
"Weather strip" is helpful to monitor the weather (evolution of the humidity, wind intensity and direction, pressure,...).
The other options allows you to obtain TCSIV status informations as complete as the ones available to the observing assistant, but the Telescope Status is the most important one for the observer.

Click on "Catalogs" scrolls down a menu with the available catalogs, SAO / USNO, User object lists (any list you may have given to your observing assistant), ObsLog object list (objects already observed during your run) and New GSC TCSIV (map of the field with available guide stars, this is the tool used by your observing assistant to search for guide stars, ask him/her for details).

"Safety" should give you the current limits according to the instrument and general conditions.
 

End of the night

Click on Pegasus/Aloha to end the Neptune session.