AO Instrument General Operations Procedures

Last Update: 7 Oct 2001

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# Moving to a New Guide Star

1. Make sure that Fast WFS Pointing is close to 0 (within 2 arcsec) for
E-W. N-S direction can be off by many arcsec and still OK.

2. Put in Fiber Source (White Light Source recommended for most cases)

3. Jog Fiber Source to put it on WFS camera. 

4. Jog Fiber Source as telescope moves to keep source centered on WFS camera.

5. When telescope near target (within a degree or two), close TT Loop.

6. Adjust centering until you get even illumination.

7. Open TT Loop.

8. Move Fiber Source Out of the Way.

9. Put star on WFS (often it is helpful to open the Iris by 10000 counts
to make it easier to find the star)

10. Look at how many counts are in each subaperture on the CentDiag GUI.
Adjust AO rate so that you are running as fast as possible with at least
100 counts per subaperture.

11. Move telescope to sky and get a new cflat if running at a
different rate than the previous object (or if it has been a long time
since the last cflat).

12. Move telescope back to star.

13. Close TT Loop.

14. Make sure offloading is on.

15. Move TurningMirror X and Y to get evenly illuminated pupil.

16. Close AO Loop.


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# Field Steering

1. Have IRCAL operator move telescope and field steering motors from
WFS Steering/Nodding Control GUI.

2. Close TT Loop.

3. Adjust centering until get even illumination pattern.

4. Close AO Loop.

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# IRCAL Focus

1. Put in White Light Source.

2. Close TT Loop.

3. Adjust Centering if necessary.

4. Close AO Loop.

IRCAL operator does the following:
5. Put in the Br-Gamma filter.

6. Set auto fwhm in Image Browser.

7. Take an exposure (200ms x 5 coadds recommended exposure time).

8. Put IRCamFocus number in the focval box in Image Browser.

9. Press "focfit init" button if first focus measurement, otherwise press 
"focfit" button.

AO Operator:
10. Adjust IRCamFocus (steps of 5000 counts are typical, move in positive
direction or do backlash compensation if going to lower focus values).

11. Repeat steps 7 to 10 and set IRCamFocus to best focus value determined
by focfit program.


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# Image Sharpening

Procedure is the same as for IRCAL Focus, except do for each mode in the
hartmannMode GUI.  Typical step size is 5 for modes 2 through 7, 10 for
modes 8 through 10. Mode 1 is not adjusted and should always be left
at 0.

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# Pupil Alignment

This requires two people, one in the control room controlling the IRCAL
and AO software and the other at the telescope, communication via the
telex headsets.

1. Put in Red Source.

2. Put all IRCAL filter wheels in Open position.

3. Take image on IRCAL. (100ms to 1000ms depending on brightness of 
laser)

4. Use fwhm tool on Image Browser to determine spot centroid position.

5. Manually move 1st mirror in x and y to center spot on IRCAL (1/4 chip 
move is approximately 5 tics on the micrometers).

6. Repeat steps 3 to 5 until spot is centered.

7. Put in LGS Simulator.

8. Change red laser fiber from point source to 200micron source.

9. Turn up brightness of red laser.

10. Take image on IRCAL (100ms to 1000ms exposure times are typical, depending
on laser brightness).

11. Manually move 2nd mirror in x and y to center obscuration on IRCAL
(typical move is 3 tics).  The pattern is often difficult to interpret,
so use your best judgement on when the central obscuration is truly
centered.

12. Repeat steps 10 and 11 until centered.

13. Repeat steps 1 to 12 until pointing and central obscuration 
centering is good. This is an iterative and tedious process.