This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
Both sides previous revision Previous revision Next revision | Previous revision | ||
chara:new_alignment_procedures [2023/05/29 16:11] gail_stargazer |
chara:new_alignment_procedures [2023/09/22 20:02] gail_stargazer |
||
---|---|---|---|
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
====== New Alignment Sequences ====== | ====== New Alignment Sequences ====== | ||
- | At the start of the night, align the red and blue beacons following the " | + | **THIS PAGE IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED** - See relevant sections in the [[: |
+ | |||
+ | At the start of the night, align the red and blue beacons following the " | ||
**IMPORTANT NOTE:** For the beacon/ | **IMPORTANT NOTE:** For the beacon/ | ||
If the green beacon box position are retained from night to night, use the blue starlight boxes instead to see the IR flux misalignment on the STST camera or use the green beacon boxes to minimize the misalignment with repeated targets. | If the green beacon box position are retained from night to night, use the blue starlight boxes instead to see the IR flux misalignment on the STST camera or use the green beacon boxes to minimize the misalignment with repeated targets. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== New Beacon Alignment Sequence at Stow ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | At the start of the night align the red and blue beacons at stow using these steps: | ||
+ | |||
+ | - Send M7 to default. The End Night sequence usually does this, but it is good to confirm this. | ||
+ | - Load default boxes on tel WFS (DEFBX on obsgtk). This may not allow for full beacon illumination on the TWFS. See below. | ||
+ | - Load default flat on labao (LD DEF on obsgtk). Default is loaded with every server restart. | ||
+ | - Load default flat on tel WFS (LD DEF on obsgtk). | ||
+ | - Use blue starlight boxes to align beacon or zero beacon offset for the green beacon boxes (ZERO button on obsgtk) | ||
+ | - Align red beacon to telescope WFS using the beacon flat. The alignment cheat sheet can give you directions to go to get the beacon. | ||
+ | - Align blue beacon on labao using dichroic. | ||
+ | - Focus beacons (first blue on labao, then red on twfs). | ||
+ | - Recenter red/blue beacons again. | ||
+ | - Check higher order terms - look at "TOG ABER" plots (on WFS/TT tab for wfsgtk, on ALIGN tab for labao). | ||
+ | - <font 11pt/ | ||
+ | - If aberration terms are high on labao, try making a new flat on labao using the blue beacon. (Note that the terms on labao might not go to zero because of the uneven illumination of the beacon.) | ||
+ | |||
+ | Checks to make sure beacons are aligned properly to TWFS: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * The beacon may need to be centered in the ACQ hole to fully illuminate the TWFS. Do not use the Default boxes position if it only partially fills the boxes with beacon flux. You will need to move the blue boxes to the centered beacon using the Adjust pop up window. W1 and S2 are the ones that most likely need centering of the beacon. | ||
+ | * Change tel WFS to 5 msec (default 2 msec; 10 msec on W1) - make sure we see all spots on TWFS. Change back to standard observing values after. | ||
+ | * Check alignment of blue/red beacon on labao - make sure they are aligned properly with labao boxes. Change FPS as needed so that you see the red beacon. Use red beacon to find center of pattern then turn on blue to be sure the spots are in correct boxes. If not, move dichroic to center with correct boxes. Note that the blue/red beacons are offset by about half a box. | ||
+ | |||
+ | **Aberration plots**: The engineering versions of the wfsgtk and labaogtk are open on the wolverine2 screens. Click reopen to activate the aberration plots at the start of the night. Use these guis to ZERO CENT during the start up procedure and to montior the aberration terms during the night. | ||
===== Alignment Sequence for Visible Combiners: SPICA and PAVO ===== | ===== Alignment Sequence for Visible Combiners: SPICA and PAVO ===== | ||
Line 13: | Line 40: | ||
To avoid any confusion, at the start of the night, clear any offset between the position of the beacon boxes and the starlight boxes on the telescope WFS using the “ZERO BCN” button on obsgtk. | To avoid any confusion, at the start of the night, clear any offset between the position of the beacon boxes and the starlight boxes on the telescope WFS using the “ZERO BCN” button on obsgtk. | ||
- | - Slew to star. | + | - Slew to star. You can turn on M7AUTO to hold the blue beacon during the slew. It will turn off at the end of the slew. |
- | - Align red beacon to the starlight boxes on the telescope WFS using the beacon flat. | + | - Align red beacon to the starlight boxes on the telescope WFS using the ALN BCN button. |
- | - Align blue beacon to lab WFS using M7. | + | - Align blue beacon to lab WFS using ALN M7. If beacon is not in boxes, use the yellow M7 buttons on the WFS tab to get centered. |
- | - Focus beacon on labao WFS with beacon parabola. | + | - Focus blue beacon on labao WFS with FOCUS button. (LABAO:) |
- | - Focus beacon on TWFS with ACQ/TWFS parabola. | + | - If needed, focus red beacon on TWFS with FOCUS button |
- | - <font 11pt/ | + | - Turn off red beacon |
- | - Turn off red beacon and lock star on TWFS and turn on DM servo. | + | - **Turn off blue beacon and lock star on TT only. Move TWFS boxes (ADJ popup button on obsgtk) to have star centered |
- | - Turn on DM AUTO, Labao servo and DM Tilt (which stays on after turning on during first slew). The message from DM Tilt will be "NOT Ignoring DM tilt…" | + | - Turn on the blue beacon and the lock star on telescope AO and labAO. Turn on TT servo, DM servo, |
+ | - **If the coma and astigmatism terms are high on the aberration plots, create a new sky flat using the SV FLT button on the obsgtk. Turn off the DM servo, flatten, then relock the DM servo. The DM servo uses the flat to guide the optimal correction. If the signal is good on the tel WFS, it is a good idea to make a new sky flat on every star. ** | ||
+ | - **Check aberration plots. If X/Y terms are not going to zero, try stopping servo loops, recentering alignment, and turning back on servo loops. If X/Y and higher order terms still not going to zero after checking alignment and making a new flat, then this likely means a new reconstructor needs to be made.** | ||
+ | - SPICA uses MIRCX as a fringe tracker and MYSTIC as a fringe finder so having the STST open to monitor the IR beam quality is helpful even if you will not be doing the additional STST beacon flat alignment. Center the star flux in the Crop boxes with the CenBox button and use the drift from center, along with SPICA team input, to make beacon flat corrections as requested. | ||
+ | - At times, Mircx will have such poor flux that a beacon flat correction to align to the STST reference position will be needed. This will occur on E1 pop 4 and S1 pop 5 due to their extreme distances from the telescope to the lab. Follow the SPICA team guidance in making this correction to improve the flux to keep Mircx usable as a fringe tracker with those baselines. | ||
===== Alignment Sequence for IR Combiners: MIRC-X/ | ===== Alignment Sequence for IR Combiners: MIRC-X/ | ||
Line 42: | Line 73: | ||
- Start camera. | - Start camera. | ||
- Click "Start RTD" to start the display. | - Click "Start RTD" to start the display. | ||
- | - Take backgrounds | + | - Take backgrounds |
- Select " | - Select " | ||
- Select "Load ref" to read in last saved ref box positions. | - Select "Load ref" to read in last saved ref box positions. | ||
Line 52: | Line 83: | ||
If the STST camera is already running, you can open a second GUI by typing " | If the STST camera is already running, you can open a second GUI by typing " | ||
+ | |||
+ | **The STST centroiding servo now works for long exposures. If you change exposure time or coadds, you need to stop the camera, config the camera, restart the camera, and retake backgrounds. Try changing coadds to 5 or 10 for 1 sec integration to reach H=6 mag. Centroiding has been shown to work for H=8 mag using 50 sec exposure (1 coadd). **Please inform chara_engineering list if you determine settings that work good for the using the auto STST alignments at different magnitudes. | ||
==== Star Acquistion for IR Combiners ==== | ==== Star Acquistion for IR Combiners ==== | ||
Line 57: | Line 90: | ||
Before the start of the night clear any offset between the position of the beacon boxes and the starlight boxes on the telescope WFS using the "ZERO BCN" button on obsgtk. This procedure is for the first slew and uses the standard alignment to see the IR flux misalignment on STST. Subsequent slews will use fewer steps. | Before the start of the night clear any offset between the position of the beacon boxes and the starlight boxes on the telescope WFS using the "ZERO BCN" button on obsgtk. This procedure is for the first slew and uses the standard alignment to see the IR flux misalignment on STST. Subsequent slews will use fewer steps. | ||
- | - Slew to a star of Hmag 4 or brighter. The Find IRC function on CD can do this quickly. Enter your desired star on a second line and hit Find IRC to get the new bright star. Close shutters as needed to avoid saturating the combiners. AUTO M7 can help keep the beacon aligned during the slew. | + | - Slew to a star of Hmag 4 or brighter |
- On the first slew, align the red beacon to the blue star boxes on the telescope WFS using the beacon flat. On subsequent slews (after green boxes have been set using STST - see below), align the red beacon to the offset green beacon boxes. | - On the first slew, align the red beacon to the blue star boxes on the telescope WFS using the beacon flat. On subsequent slews (after green boxes have been set using STST - see below), align the red beacon to the offset green beacon boxes. | ||
- Align blue beacon to lab WFS using M7. | - Align blue beacon to lab WFS using M7. | ||
- | - If focus term is high, focus beacon on labao WFS with beacon parabola. | + | - If focus term is high, focus blue beacon on labao with beacon parabola, FOCUS button. |
- | - If focus term is high, focus beacon on TWFS with ACQ/TWFS parabola [QUESTION: What are consequences of focusing on off-centered beacon?] | + | - Focus the red beacon |
- | - <font 11pt/ | + | - Turn off the red beacon. |
- | - Turn off the red beacon. | + | - **Turn off blue beacon and lock star on TT only. Move TWFS boxes (use popup from ADJ button on obsgtk) to have star centered |
- | - Turn on DM AUTO, Labao servo, and DM Tilt (which stays on after turning on during first slew). | + | - Turn on the blue beacon and the lock star on telescope AO and labAO. Turn on DM servo, |
- | - With the star locked on telescope WFS and blue beacon locked on labAO, move the beacon flat to align the starlight into the STST reference boxes. The green cross marks the center of the box and is your target, the red cross marks the centroid of star. If the star is within the STST reference box, then click the " | + | - **If the coma and astigmatism terms are high on the aberration plots create a new sky flat using the SV FLT button on the obsgtk. Turn off the DM servo, flatten, then relock the DM servo. The DM servo uses the flat to guide the optimal correction. If the signal is good on the tel WFS, it is a good idea to make a new sky flat on every star. ** |
- | - If the star is outside of the STST reference box, move the beacon manually. Refer to notes on the rotation matrix | + | - With the star locked on telescope WFS and blue beacon locked on labAO, move the beacon flat to align the starlight into the STST reference boxes. The green cross marks the center of the box and is your target, the red cross marks the centroid of star. If the star is within the STST reference box, then click the " |
+ | - If the star is outside of the STST reference box, move the beacon manually. Refer to the rotation matrix | ||
- If the required move is large, ~1000 steps on the beacon flat, or about 25 pixels on STST, it may help to turn the Labao Servo and DM AUTO off and manually move the blue beacon with M7 back to center on labao until the flux is closer to the STS center. AUTO M7 can also be used for medium sized moves, ~333-500 steps or so of the beacon flat. | - If the required move is large, ~1000 steps on the beacon flat, or about 25 pixels on STST, it may help to turn the Labao Servo and DM AUTO off and manually move the blue beacon with M7 back to center on labao until the flux is closer to the STS center. AUTO M7 can also be used for medium sized moves, ~333-500 steps or so of the beacon flat. | ||
- | - When the star is aligned on STST, stop the telAO tracking, move the star away, and turn on the Red Beacon. | + | - When the star is aligned on STST, tun off the DM servo and TT, move the star away, and turn on the Red Beacon. |
- Click " | - Click " | ||
- | - Click " | + | - Click " |
- If needed, adjust focus and zero center. | - If needed, adjust focus and zero center. | ||
- | - Toggle | + | - If your target is the one you used for the STST alignment, turn off red beacon, toggle |
- | - Turn on DM AUTO (DM Tilt should already be on) and Labao servo. | + | - If this is an STST only star, slew to the first target and align as needed there, which shouldn' |
+ | - **Check aberration plots. If X/Y terms are not going to zero, try stopping servo loops, recentering alignment, and turning back on servo loops. If X/Y and higher order terms still not going to zero after checking alignment and making a new flat, then this likely means a new reconstructor needs to be made. ** | ||
+ | When slewing to the subsequent stars, align the red beacon using the new positions for the green beacon boxes (not the blue starlight boxes), then switch to the starlight boxes when locking starlight. If the slew is close on the sky, you might not have to re-align the beacon flat to STST (skip steps 9-15 above if star is already well aligned on STST). | ||
- | When slewing | + | Faint stars (H > 5 mag) will not be easily visible in STST. Slew to a nearby bright |
- | Faint stars (H > 5 mag) will not be visible in STST. Slew to a nearby bright | + | Programs with bright IR stars may not need any red beacon alignments when slewing and can just use the M7 and labao focus alignments. Lock the star on the blue boxes and use the STST to fine tune any misalignment of the beacon flat. |
==== Changing Beam Configuration During the Night ==== | ==== Changing Beam Configuration During the Night ==== | ||
If you need to realign the lab dichroic or the IR mirror on the beam sampler stage during the night, make sure to remove STST stage (using the shutter gtk) before doing any alignments. Put STST back in the path after you are finished with the lab alignments and are ready to go on back on sky. | If you need to realign the lab dichroic or the IR mirror on the beam sampler stage during the night, make sure to remove STST stage (using the shutter gtk) before doing any alignments. Put STST back in the path after you are finished with the lab alignments and are ready to go on back on sky. | ||
+ | |||
+ | STST gets the beam information from the telemetry server. Try clicking RECONNECT button on ststrtd_gtk. Also try resending the updated configuration from Cosmic Debris and the OPLE GTK (yes try both!). If that doesn' | ||
+ | |||
+ | * killall telemetry_server | ||
+ | * bootlaunch_master | ||
+ | |||
+ | Reopen Cosmic Debris and resend configuration again. If that doesn' | ||
==== Shutting Down STST at the End of the Night ==== | ==== Shutting Down STST at the End of the Night ==== | ||
- | When you are finished using STST, click the “Start Camera” button to turn off the camera (the button will go from green to gray). Then change the filter wheel to the closed position. Using the shutter gtk, remove the STST stage from the beams. For now, the daytime alignment is done without STST in the path so it is important to remove STST at the end of the night. | + | When you are finished using STST, click the “Start Camera” button to turn off the camera (the button will go from green to gray). Then change the filter wheel to the closed position. Using the shutter gtk, remove the STST stage from the beams. Reopen if needed to get stage to show it is moving out. For now, the daytime alignment is done without STST in the path so it is important to remove STST at the end of the night. |
+ | |||
+ | ===== Trouble Shooting ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | If AO performance is bad try these steps in the following order: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * Check aberration plots. If X/Y terms are not going to zero, try stopping servo loops, recentering alignment, and turning back on servo loops. | ||
+ | * Turn off the blue beacon and check the centering of the star on the ACQ hole. Adjust box positions to center star (ADJ popup on obsgtk). Hint - zoom in on ACQ display. | ||
+ | * Make a new sky flat. | ||
+ | * Look at red beacon on tel WFS and try zeroing the centroids using ZERO CENT on wfsgtk -E. Note if you are using IR combiner, then align red beacon to blue starlight boxes (not the offset green beacon boxes) before clicking ZERO CENT. Align beacon back to STST reference after. | ||
+ | * Check alignment of blue/red beacon on labao - make sure they are aligned properly with labao boxes. Use red beacon to find center of pattern then turn on blue to be sure the spots are in correct boxes. If not, move dichroic to center with correct boxes. Note that the blue/red beacons are offset by about half a box. | ||
+ | * Go back to stow and check the full beacon/ | ||
+ | * If X/Y and higher order terms are still not going to zero after checking alignment, making a new flat, and zeroing centroids, then this likely means a new reconstructor needs to be made. Notify charatech (maybe try taking onsky reconstructor). | ||