User's Guide to the Nickel Direct Imaging Camera

Table of Contents

Introduction
Hardware Overview
Software Overview
Detector Characteristics
Filter Wheel
CCD User Interface
Eventsounds
Nickelfocus
Observing Hints
Checklists
Data Archive
Mt. Hamilton Homepage

Software Overview

Observing with the Nickel Direct Imaging Camera is controlled through a suite of programs that operate in concert, but are addressed through several GUI's, separated by function as follows:

Summary of Observing Software for the Nickel Telescope and Direct Imaging Camera
ProgramFunctionIconCommand Line
Data-Taker Control CCD array and set exposure parameters. 
nscicam_gui -xvideo
Motor Controller Filter wheel control. 
nfilt_gui
POCO Telescope pointing and control 
poco_fe
Auxilliary Telescope Hardware Dome shutter, windscreen, and flatfield lamp control. 
naux_fe
Guider Acquisition/guide TV and autoguider control. 
guider_nickel_start
Coords Read starlists and display starcharts 
coords
Check40 Permissions and Weather Status GUI 
check40_obs
Eventsounds Sound generator for exposure events 
eventsounds -a nickel

From the observer's perspective, all software runs on noir.ucolick.org. This manual focuses on data-taking and instrument control. Telescope and autoguider operation, and other ancillary software are described in the users' guides for the Nickel 1-m Telescope and Lick Autoguider.

Each software component can be started from its icons on the noir toolbar, as shown above, or by typing its command line argument. Observers may not need all the software listed, but in general will require most.

Support Astronomers (sa@ucolick.org)
Last modified: Fri Oct 30 19:43:55 PDT 2026