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Magellan Telescopes Observatory Report

Magellan Telescopes Observatory Report. Personnel Accomplishments Observing Statistics Common Problems. Current Software Projects Seeing from Guide Cameras MASS/DIMM. Personnel.

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Magellan Telescopes Observatory Report

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  1. Magellan Telescopes Observatory Report • Personnel • Accomplishments • Observing Statistics • Common Problems • Current Software Projects • Seeing from Guide Cameras • MASS/DIMM

  2. Personnel • A sixth Telescope Operator (TO), Sergio Vera, was hired and began training in late-August. Sergio has an undergraduate degree in Astronomy from the Universidad Católica, and had been working at Las Campanas in the GMT site testing program. • The TO’s have been organized into two shifts with three TO’s each. Hernán Nuñez, Felipe Sanchez, & Victor Meriño form one shift; the other consists of Geraldo Valladares, Hugo Rivera, & Sergio Vera

  3. Personnel (cont.) • The third TO on each shift (when not substituting for one of the other TO’s when they are on vacation or sick) will work from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. • In the afternoon, they will perform the start-up of the telescopes. In addition, when feasible, they will assist the instrument specialist to gain familiarity with the setup and operation of the instruments. • In the evening, the third TO will be able to cover for both of the TO’s during their lunch breaks

  4. Personnel (cont.) • Finalists for the Magellan Telescopes Engineer position have been interviewed. An offer is likely to be made within the next week or so.

  5. Accomplishments • ADC corrector installed on Baade telescope (May). [Good images obtained over entire f/2 field of IMACS. Full commissioning of the ADC part has been postponed due to higher priority tasks. Software control of the hardware has been implemented and initial tests performed.] • Baade telescope M1 & M3 washed (May). [Frank will report on results] • Full collimation procedure performed for Baade, including characterization of M3 displacement as function of elevation (May).

  6. Accomplishments (cont.) • Instrument performance reports presented at SPIE meeting (Jun). [Papers given on PANIC (Martini), IMACS IFU (Schmoll), and Magellan Instrumentation (Osip)] • Continued commissioning of IMACS (Jun, Jul, Sep) [Hartmann mask tests, further commissioning of IFU, testing of GMAP functions, instrument and component optical alignment, etc.] • Testing and implementation of rotator guiding (May, Jun, Jul, Sep)

  7. Accomplishments (cont.) • Guide camera software additions (Jun) [Guiding on star in slit; ability to switch between on-chip amplifiers] • Continued commissioning of MIKE Fibers (Jul) • Campaign begun to seal M1 actuator cylinders (Jul) [Will take ~1 year to complete job on both telescopes] • Visit by Harvard-CfA-SAO F/5 group (Aug). [Measurements made for wide-field corrector installation.] • Clay M1 & M3 aluminization (Aug). [Frank will report on results]

  8. Accomplishments (cont.) • Development and testing of new, web-based laser mask submission software (Aug) [Ready from prime time once new web server installed.] • Installation of new Galil PWM amplifiers on 1) Cass rotator of Clay (Jul), and 2) West NIR of Baade telescope (Sep). [So far, all are working fine.] • Final software & hardware commissioning of detent system for Cass rotator on Clay telescope. • Completion of seeing tower and installation of MASS/DIMM (Sep) [see end of this report for early results]

  9. Observing Statistics 6.5-m Baade Telescope Instrumentation Usage:

  10. Observing Statistics 6.5-m Clay Telescope Instrumentation Usage:

  11. Observing Statistics Baade + Clay Telescopes Instrumentation Usage:

  12. Long-Term Trends: Instrument Usage May 2001 through Apr 2004

  13. Observing Statistics 12 Apr 2004-20 Sep 2004:

  14. Observing Statistics Instrument Downtime:

  15. Long-Term Trends: Baade May 2001 through Apr 2004

  16. Long-Term Trends: Clay May 2001 through Apr 2004

  17. Most Common Problems: Telescopes • Primary mirror support (mirror panics, faulty actuators) [Campaign underway to seal air cylinders in actuators; redesign of actuator electronics cards in progress; ~50% of all time lost on both telescopes is due to these problems!] • Guiders [air cylinder issues associated with cold weather] • Rotators [Remaining reliability and tracking issues] • Azimuth drive bearings of Clay telescope[found to be rusted due to lack of lubrication!]

  18. Most Common Problems: Instruments • IMACS [f/2 filter server, disperser server, guiders] • MagIC [video boards, bad image header, LOIS freezes] • PANIC [stuck filter wheel]

  19. Current Software Projects • M3 turret ADC control for Baade telescope [good progress made; waiting for telescope testing] • Rotator guiding [excellent progress made, but more tests needed] • M3 turret control for Clay telescope [reprogramming required for automatic tip-tilt of M3] • Guide probe control (non-Sidereal tracking, MIRAC guiding) [on hold, awaiting new, modified guider] • Dome control software [conversion from fortran to C++, automation of moon roof and windscreen control]

  20. Image Quality • Guide Camera images taken through red (RG610) filter • Approximately corrected for measured image quality limit of guider optics of ~0.32 arcsec FWHM by subtracting this number in quadrature • Corrected to an airmass of 1 and a wavelength of 500 nm • 415 nights of data • Median seeing = 0.66 arcsec

  21. MASS/DIMM

  22. A Good Night…

  23. A Poor Night…

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