Telescope - User contributions [en]

File:Guidetab.jpeg

2011-02-07T21:49:46Z

Seckert1: Image of Guiding software

Image of Guiding software

Autoguiding

2011-02-07T21:47:29Z

Seckert1: /* AUTOGUIDING */

== AUTOGUIDING ==

Once you have focused the camera on the target, take a single image with MaxIm DL. On the “Camera Control” menu, click on the “Guide” tab. Click “Expose,” starting out with an exposure of around 10 seconds. If there is no bright star with which to guide on, depending on the field of view, you can move the telescope slightly. Click on the “Observatory Control” icon next to “Camera Control” and then click on the “Telescope” tab. There should be arrows pointing in the four directions. Move a few arcseconds–keeping track of which direction you move in so that you can navigate back–until you find a star of suitable brightness. Click on the star. Then, on the “Camera Control” window under the “Guide Tab,” click “Track” and then hit “Start”. If the object is too dim for MaxIm DL to track with, an error message will show up. Try increasing the exposure time or moving the telescope so that the guide star is more in the center of the guide camera’s field of view. If this is unsuccessful, search the field for another guide star, but only do this as a last resort.

If you lost the guide star due to clouds, stop, wait for clouds to disperse, and then restart guiding.

If the star is suitable, tracking will begin. Click on the “Graph” button just below “Track.” Use this graph to monitor the error in guiding.

f the angle is correct, you can fiddle with the agressiveness, as shown below. The agressiveness is a measurement of how "hard" the telescope is trying to keep the error at zero. If your agressiveness is too high, then that could result in jumps.

On the other hand, if your graph is drifting, AKA going in an angled line away from zero, until +/-5, then your agressiveness might be too low. The nice thing about changing the agressiveness, is that you do not need to stop guiding in order to do it.

Autoguiding

2011-02-07T21:47:19Z

Seckert1: /* AUTOGUIDING */

== AUTOGUIDING ==

Once you have focused the camera on the target, take a single image with MaxIm DL. On the “Camera Control” menu, click on the “Guide” tab. Click “Expose,” starting out with an exposure of around 10 seconds. If there is no bright star with which to guide on, depending on the field of view, you can move the telescope slightly. Click on the “Observatory Control” icon next to “Camera Control” and then click on the “Telescope” tab. There should be arrows pointing in the four directions. Move a few arcseconds–keeping track of which direction you move in so that you can navigate back–until you find a star of suitable brightness. Click on the star. Then, on the “Camera Control” window under the “Guide Tab,” click “Track” and then hit “Start”. If the object is too dim for MaxIm DL to track with, an error message will show up. Try increasing the exposure time or moving the telescope so that the guide star is more in the center of the guide camera’s field of view. If this is unsuccessful, search the field for another guide star, but only do this as a last resort.

If you lost the guide star due to clouds, stop, wait for clouds to disperse, and then restart guiding.

If the star is suitable, tracking will begin. Click on the “Graph” button just below “Track.” Use this graph to monitor the error in guiding.

f the angle is correct, you can fiddle with the agressiveness, as shown below. [[File:Guidetab.jpeg]] The agressiveness is a measurement of how "hard" the telescope is trying to keep the error at zero. If your agressiveness is too high, then that could result in jumps.

On the other hand, if your graph is drifting, AKA going in an angled line away from zero, until +/-5, then your agressiveness might be too low. The nice thing about changing the agressiveness, is that you do not need to stop guiding in order to do it.

Autoguiding

2011-02-07T21:46:49Z

Seckert1: /* AUTOGUIDING */

== AUTOGUIDING ==

Once you have focused the camera on the target, take a single image with MaxIm DL. On the “Camera Control” menu, click on the “Guide” tab. Click “Expose,” starting out with an exposure of around 10 seconds. If there is no bright star with which to guide on, depending on the field of view, you can move the telescope slightly. Click on the “Observatory Control” icon next to “Camera Control” and then click on the “Telescope” tab. There should be arrows pointing in the four directions. Move a few arcseconds–keeping track of which direction you move in so that you can navigate back–until you find a star of suitable brightness. Click on the star. Then, on the “Camera Control” window under the “Guide Tab,” click “Track” and then hit “Start”. If the object is too dim for MaxIm DL to track with, an error message will show up. Try increasing the exposure time or moving the telescope so that the guide star is more in the center of the guide camera’s field of view. If this is unsuccessful, search the field for another guide star, but only do this as a last resort.

If you lost the guide star due to clouds, stop, wait for clouds to disperse, and then restart guiding.

If the star is suitable, tracking will begin. Click on the “Graph” button just below “Track.” Use this graph to monitor the error in guiding.

f the angle is correct, you can fiddle with the agressiveness, as shown below. [[File:Guidetab.jpeg]]The agressiveness is a measurement of how "hard" the telescope is trying to keep the error at zero. If your agressiveness is too high, then that could result in jumps.

On the other hand, if your graph is drifting, AKA going in an angled line away from zero, until +/-5, then your agressiveness might be too low. The nice thing about changing the agressiveness, is that you do not need to stop guiding in order to do it.

Autoguiding

2011-02-07T21:45:06Z

Seckert1: /* AUTOGUIDING */

WASP transit objects

2011-02-07T21:37:11Z

Seckert1: Created page with 'WASP-33 Images taken in the R band with 2x2 binning. Exposure time used was 13 seconds, changed to 10 seconds later in the night when the star became oversaturated, and then ch...'

WASP-33

Images taken in the R band with 2x2 binning. Exposure time used was 13 seconds, changed to 10 seconds later in the night when the star became oversaturated, and then changed it back to 13 seconds as the airmass increased.

RA -02 26 51.05
DA +37 33 01.7

With these coordinates WASP-33 appears in the center of the field of view. We had no trouble finding a guide star when exposing using guiding with a star in the field of view.

Main Page

2011-02-07T21:36:27Z

Seckert1: /* Observing Lists */

<big>Swarthmore College Observatory Wiki</big>

This website is for information relating to commissioning and operation of the Peter van de Kamp Observatory, funded by the National Science Foundation through its Program for Research and Education with Small Telescopes.

== Observatory ==
* [[Location]]
* [http://astro.swarthmore.edu/observatory_directions/index.html Directions]

== Telescope ==
* [http://www.rcopticalsystems.com/telescopes/24truss.html RCOS 0.61m]

== Instrumentation ==
We do both imaging and photometry with the Apogee large-format CCD camera and the filter wheel. We use the eShel spectrograph in conjunction with the SBIG camera for spectroscopy. The spectrograph and its camera along with its calibration unit are in the control room.

* Apogee 16M
* filter wheel
* Shelyak eShel
* SBIG ST-10
* eyepieces

== Equipment and Technical Information ==
* [[Spectrograph Setup]]
* [[Dome Control]]
* [[Software/hardware troubleshooting and workarounds]]
* [[Apogee Alta Test Report]]
* [[Slit Width and Resolution]]
* [[Autoguiding|Autoguiding]]

== Documentation ==
* [[Documentation| Software/Hardware Manuals]]
* [[Local operation documentation]]
* [[Focusing the telescope]]
*[[Observing Log]]

== To-do items, Summer 2010 ==
* [[Task list]] - edit to add items or mark as completed.

== Data Collection ==
* [[Observatory Log]]
* Transiting Planets[http://astro.swarthmore.edu/~jsokol1/exoplanet.html]
* [[Observing schedule|Observation Schedule]]

== Observing Lists ==
* [[B Stars]]
* [[WASP transit objects]]

== Wiki Information ==
* MediaWiki [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Cheatsheet Cheat Sheet] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:How_to_edit_a_page How To Edit a Page]
* [[Sandbox]]

Autoguiding

2011-02-07T21:34:27Z

Seckert1: /* AUTOGUIDING */

Autoguiding

2011-02-07T21:34:01Z

Seckert1: /* AUTOGUIDING */

== AUTOGUIDING ==

When observing a target, once you have focused the camera, take a single image with MaxIm DL. On the “Camera Control” menu, click on the “Guide” tab. Click “Expose,” starting out with an exposure of around 10 seconds. If there is no bright star with which to guide on, depending on the field of view, you can move the telescope slightly. Click on the “Observatory Control” icon next to “Camera Control” and then click on the “Telescope” tab. There should be arrows pointing in the four directions. Move a few arcseconds–keeping track of which direction you move in so that you can navigate back–until you find a star of suitable brightness. Click on the star. Then, on the “Camera Control” window under the “Guide Tab,” click “Track” and then hit “Start”. If the object is too dim for MaxIm DL to track with, an error message will show up. Try increasing the exposure time or moving the telescope so that the guide star is more in the center of the guide camera’s field of view. If this is unsuccessful, search the field for another guide star, but only do this as a last resort.

If the star is suitable, tracking will begin. Click on the “Graph” button just below “Track.” Use this graph to monitor the error in guiding.