Below you see the DeVeny Camera Control view which is the primary way for controlling and commanding the DeVeny spectrograph. In addition to direct control of the CCD, some other functions related to the instrument can be performed from this view for convenience. For instance, the TCS Offset commands can also be issued by the TOs on the TCS control panel but it is probably more convenient for the astronomer to issue them directly. The main functions available in this view are:

Tooltips are available for most fields.

Setup & Starting an Exposure

The top section of the view allows the observer to setup and initiate an exposure command. The most common parameters for the exposure command are exposed in this view but for full control of the CCD, one needs to go to the Engineering Mode Control view. 

The top row contains the buttons for initiating or stopping the exposure:

  • Test - initiates the exposure in test mode so the image is saved in test.fits. This file will be overwritten the next time the button is pressed.
  • Promote - Converts test.fits to a numbered image. This only works if test.fits was the last image taken.
  • Go - starts an standard exposure based on the values of the text fields on the view. The image will be saved in a named and numbered file based on the parameters set in the info view.
  • Pause - Not implemented yet.
  • Stop Series - This will stop the series when the number of exposures is greater than 1. The current exposure will continue.
  • Abort - Aborts the current exposure but does not affect the series.
  • Reset - Changes all the text field values back to the default startup values which are read from the config file.

The text fields are self-explanatory. For more detailed information on the text fields for the camera control please refer to the instrument manual. One thing to remember is that subframe = 0 means full frame.

Grating Setup

The grating changes are done manually by the TOs. The drop downs below the last FITS Comment text box are used for inclusion in the FITS headers.

Motorized Stages

There are three motorized stages for DeVeny; Slit Width, Collimator Focus and Grating Tilt. The readouts in each widget indicate the status, motor step and encoder values (where available) for the stages. The status info is cryptic but putting the cursor on it will show a tooltip explaining the codes.

It is important to move the stages one at a time. Due to power requirements for the stages, moving more than one stage at a time is not allowed.

The software should not allow the execution of a move if one of the stages is already moving. Under rare circumstances, the status for one or more of the stages may not reflect the completion of a move command. In such cases, the software would not allow the execution of a move command till the status has been cleared. Make sure that none of the stages are moving and then initialize the stages.

Controlling the Arc Lamps

The arc lamps can be controlled via a PDU (Power Distribution Unit). The execution on the widget is disabled by default as a precaution to not accidentally turn a lamp on or off. Enable the widget to control the lamps  but it is advisable to disable it after one is done with calibration. The timestamp below the widget shows the last time the PDU was queried for its status. If the label is red, it means that the last query was longer than the standard query period and that there is a problem with communication with the PDU.

TCS Offset Command

There are 2 types of offset commands in the TCS; User and Handset. The User offsets are absolute and the the Handset offsets are relative. There are three modes; TPLANE, SIMPLE, and PA.

It is advisable not to use relative offsets except when one is using the hand paddle as they are not supported for cases such as guided offsets.

Sending the clear command is equivalent to sending 0,0 as an absolute offset and the absorb command causes the pointing center to change to the current location and clears the current offsets in the TCS.

The hand paddle allows one to send incremental relative offsets for each of the three modes. Pressing one of the hand paddle buttons will increment the current offset parameter and send it immediately to the TCS. The hand paddle only issues relative offsets.

The tooltips on the labels show the appropriate units for each parameter. The hand paddle text also shows the relevant units for each mode. 

Rotator Position Angle

Similar to the TCS Offset Command widget, this widget is also presented for the user's convenience. Generally speaking the TOs issue this command on the TCS GUI. 

Defining Subframes

xpix & ypix are the center pixel values and the xsize & ysize are the number of pixels you want for the subframe being created. Then you just have to pick a number for the subframe and make sure to put the correct subframe number in the box on the upper right before taking the image. By default subframe number of 0 is reserved for full size image.

Setup for Focus Sequence

This widget allows the user to set up acquisition of images for a focus sequence. For more detail refer to the instrument manual.