!! Perkins Operating Instructions Manual
Arrival
Approach
Use only parking lights after you reach the turnoff to the telescopes.
Gate
If you are the first person to arrive at the 72/42 (Perkins/Hall) compound, the gate will be locked with a chain and 1 locks.
While someone is in the compound, lock the gate using just the lock in the latch; don?t use the chain.
Building
Your key opens the front door of the Perkins and the Hall telescopes, as well as an interior door that leads to the observing floor and the telescope.
The bathroom, kitchen, and lounge are all located on the first floor. As you enter the building, take a left to find these rooms.
Dome
Turn on the main power on the console on the observing floor. This turns on power to the telescope drive (but no longer turns on power to the MOVE computer).
Computer Room
Turn on power to the MOVE computer. The MOVE CPU is labelled. You may need to open the door (with the key) in order to push the power button.
Control Room
Turn on the power switch on the computer rack. It is on the opposite end of the room as the door, and is at the top of the rack toward the left. This turns on power to the monitors in the rack.
Log in to the MOVE computer. The username is obs72, the password is written on the whiteboard in the upper left corner.
Choose G for Lowell Perkins autoguider, even if you aren?t using the guider
Start up MOVE fully before starting LOIS. To do this, follow the instructions on the MOVE screen. When it is fully up, the screen will show coordinate and telescope pointing information.
See MOVE documentation for further help. http://www.lowell.edu/Research/Mesa/MOVE/move.html
Log in to perkins, the Sun workstation. The username and password are the same as for MOVE.
Start LOIS. See instrument-specific LOIS documentation for further help.
- PrismQuickStartGuide - The PRISM Instrument Guide
- MimirQuickStartGuide - The Mimir Instrument Guide
- DeVenyQuickStartGuide - The DeVeny Instrument Guide
Topping the dewar
For most instruments you can leave the telescope at the home position (ho).
Remember to unhook and remove the dewar before attempting to move the telescope!
Opening Up
Opening should be done in this order to protect the mirror:
Shut off the main overhead lights before opening dome, to save observer at 42-inch from getting blasted
Open dome slit by holding the ?Open? button. It will take about 3.5 minutes. It is recommended that shorter people get the block to stand on; it is usually located by the stairs up to the dome slit, behind the console.
Open the mirror covers. The control is on the back of the telescope near the finder scope and is a 3-position switch. Center is neutral, toward the telescope opens the cover leaves, and away from the telescope closes them.
Open the instrument cover. This control is located on the black section between the telescope and the camera. You need to hold the ?Open? button for about 15 seconds until the light comes on.
Closing should be done in the reverse order.
Fans, Lights
Muffin fans
There is a small switch hanging down near the power strip bolted to the back plate. This turns on the set of small black fans that are on the back face of the telescope.
Dome extractor (cyclone) fans and mirror fans
These are the two big boxes that are on the wall just beyond the elevator opening. A switch on the right side of the right-hand fan turns it on/off. A switch on the left side of the right-hand fan turns on the other extractor fan as well as the mirror fans. These fans should be turned on only if the dome is open.
Rim lights
Lights mounted along the bottom rim of the dome can be turned on/off via a switch on the console on the observing floor. Can also be turned on/off via either paddle. Note that the paddle method doesn?t always work, so if you?ve turned them off via paddle, check to make sure they?re really off before continuing with observations (particularly when observing in the visible).
Health and Safety of the Telescope (LIMITS)
Guidelines for when you should not open the telescope (or when you should close if you?re already open)
Winds
sustained ? 30 mph
gusts ? 40 mph
Humidity
Humidity ? 90%
Smoke
There are often prescribed burns in the area that send smoke toward the telescopes. There are two considerations for smoke: one is whether there is the possibility of any damage to the telescope and equipment; the other is if the smoke is impacting your observations. For the former: if your flashlight beam shows smoke near the dome, shut down. Check this by walking outside the dome, don?t open if it?s too smoky. For the latter: if the material is higher up, one might be able to observe successfully even in moderately thick smoke. Certainly if it causes problems for the guider, then you should shut down.
Altitude
The telescope has hardware limits built in that keep it from going too far over. They vary based on hour angle, some examples are given here. There are two limits to be aware of: (1) slow slew region, and (2) horizon limit. When you have entered the slow slew region, a warning beep turns on and slewing slows down. You have two minutes to push the limit override button out on the observing floor console. If you do not hit the override button within this time period, loud alarms will go off and the telescope will stop moving. If you continue to the horizon a mercury switch stops the telescope and you must push and hold the limit override button while using the hand paddle to move the telescope away from the horizon. When you have reached the horizon limit, the MOVE software does not allow you to continue to lower altitudes, you must move the telescope in a way that will raise it to a higher altitude. You should be able to get all the way down to the horizon in the west. A third set of switches is wired directly to the motor drives to establish hard limits protecting the preload cables. You will encounter these before you reach the horizon in directions other than west.
West:
info will be posted later
Northwest (Dec=22deg)
slow slew at altitude of about 6.4 deg (airmass = 8.4)
horizon limit at altitude of about 0 deg
North
info will be posted later
Northeast
info will be posted later
East:
info will be posted later
Southeast
info will be posted later
South
info will be posted later
Southwest
info will be posted later
For more information about altitude limits, see the MOVE documentation, item number 9 under ?General Concepts?:http://www.lowell.edu/Research/Mesa/MOVE/move.html.
Proximity
There are NO proximity detectors or safeguards. YOU must watch the telescope and prevent it from hitting anything. Due to the asymmetric mount, the instrument package can hit the floor or the north pier (the taller one). The telescope tube can hit the hour angle wheel. Of course, if any ladder or other object is left on the observing floor, the telescope can hit this too.
To quickly stop the telescope, hit any direction button on the paddle (N, S, E, W, In, or Out) or any key on the MOVE keyboard.
It is the observer?s responsibility to know where the telescope is and if it is close to hitting something. When it is far away from all obstacles, you can do small moves from the control room. When it is near an obstacle AND/OR during large slews, one person should be out on the observing floor watching the telelscope move, ready to hit one of the direction buttons on the paddle in case it?s needed.
Departure
Control Room
Exit out of LOIS
Send the telescope home (ho). The homes both the telescope and the dome, and turns off dome following.
Top the dewar, if necessary
Exit out of MOVE (qu).
Fill in the observer log, on the table to the left of perkins.
Turn off the power switch on the computer rack.
Turn the heat off.
Computer room
Turn off power to the MOVE computer
Dome
Make sure the telescope and dome are in the home positions.
Make sure that all fans are off (muffin, cyclone, mirror).
Close the instrument cover.
Close the mirror covers.
Close the dome.
Turn off the main power on the console.
Building
There are wall-mounted heaters in most rooms. These heaters should be left on low in the kitchen/lounge and the bathroom, to avoid frozen water pipes.
Gate
If you are the last to leave the 72/42 compound, put the chain back up and lock the chain to the APS lock.
Driving home
Beware of elk standing in the middle of the road during your drive home. They often do this around sunrise.
Other Notes
Please Report Problems!
Please report any problems you may have experienced during your observing, even if it was resolved by a telephone call to someone. To report a problem, send an email to:
mailto.72statusatlowell.edu
Note that the mailto.?atlowell.edu? part is necessary even when sending from the observer account.
Problems that are not time-critical enough to warrant a telephone call can be reported in the same manner.
Control Room
The trash is emptied every other week (currently Thursday mornings). If the trash can in the control room is getting full, please bring it downstairs to the big trash can in the kitchen. If that is full then please either let Brian know or take the trash into town with you.
Updates
Please send requests for additional information, corrections, updates, etc. to: mailto.Brian.Tayloratlowell.edu.
-- Main.BrianWTaylor - 31 Jan 2008