Observing Plan

See also the Goodman Spectrograph Step-by-Step User's Guide (web version, local version)

Setup for August 2017 Run

Remote Observing From FNAL

See also Remote Observing from FNAL (DECam-specific)
  1. Start up Polycom to SOAR control room:
  2. Login to decam-cr-01:
  3. Start up SOAR vpnc on a terminal on decam-cr-01:
  4. Start vncviewers on a terminal on decam-cr-01:
  5. Observe!
  6. At end of the night:

Afternoon Check List

First Afternoon (maybe all afternoons)
  1. Check central wavelength of setup by taking a test image of a Comparison Lamp
  2. Take Focus Sequence
    1. Use narrow slit (0.46 arcsec)
    2. Turn on Comparison Lamps (HgAr + Ne)
    3. Be sure to ask telescope operator if lamp is on before proceeding with the exposure.
    4. Move mask in
    5. Set Mode: Focus_400
    6. CCD Read: 400 kHz, ATTN 1
    7. Exp Time: 1sec
    8. Loop through camera focus settings, -2000 to 2000, in steps of 500
      1. Type in desired focus in the "Target" window.
      2. Hit "Set" button and wait till the value in the "Actual" settles down (typically within +/-1 of the "Target" value
      3. Take an image at each focus value (given them a File Name Base of "focus")
    9. After finishing the focus sequence, go over to the IRAF window
      1. start IRAF "obsutil" task
      2. run IRAF "specfocus" command
      3. specfocus will tell you the best focus
      4. also run iraf imfocus command
      5. run "display 1" for each of the two focus images stradding the specfocus "best focus"
      6. run "imexam" ("j" key to check across lines, "k" key across columns) and measure FWHM of the arc lines as a cross-check.
    10. Set Camera Focus "Target" focus to the best focus -- in our case, it was +1000 -- and hit "Set".
    11. Take a test image of the Comparison Lamp
All Afternoons
  1. Ensure that setup is as described in "Setup for August Run" above.
  2. Do WaveCal
  3. Do Dome Flats (replaces doing internal quartz lamp flats)
  4. Do Biases
  5. Turn on Flexure Compensation

Start of Night Check List

During Night Check List

Science Targets

Since our targets are all brighter than r=18, Steps 1-3 below should be replaced by using the GACAM to acquire the target. Here is the info for using the GACAM:

Here is a check list, in Word format, for the actions described below: SOARObsForm.docx. It is helpful to print out about 20 of these per night, to go through for each target.

  1. Take acquisition image of the field:
    1. Mask out
    2. Grating out
    3. Take one 5-sec image of the target object (1 sec for standard stars)
    4. Within IRAF:
      1. display filename 1
      2. In ds9 Pan Zoom window, take Position Angle from Goodman GIU and insert into Rotate box
      3. Using a finding chart (e.g., from SkyView, SDSS, or DES) identify target in ds9 window
      4. Highlight target in ds9 window with cursor and hit "a" within imexam.
      5. Record values of COL, LINE from imexam to "Current Pixel Values" for X and Y, respectively, in Goodman GUI
      6. Change value back to 0 in Rotate box in ds9 Pan Zoom Window and Apply
      7. "q" out of imexam
  2. Take acquisition image of the slit:
    1. Mask in (for efficiency, you might do this before running the above IRAF step above, since moving the mask takes about 20 sec)
    2. Take a 5-sec image of the slit (1 sec for standard stars)
    3. Within IRAF:
      1. display filename 1
      2. Highlight line 474 on the image of the slit in ds9 window with cursor and hit "j" within imexam.
    4. Record value of the fitted CENTER from imexam plot to "Desired Pixel Values" for X. and Y, respectively, in Goodman GUI. For the Desired Y value, input 474.
    5. Click yellow "Calculate Required Offset"
    6. Announce to Telescope Operator that you are about to "Apply Offset"
    7. Click purple "Apply SOAR Offset"
    8. Wait until Telescope Operator indicates the offset has been applied.
    9. "q" out of imexam
  3. Take acquisition of target (hopefully!) in slit:
    1. Take a 5-sec image of the target in the slit (1 sec for standard stars)
    2. Within IRAF:
      1. display filename 1 zs- zr- z1=700 z2=4000
      2. at line 474 on the image of the slit in ds9 window, hit "j" within imexam at these positions:
        1. just above the target
        2. on the target
        3. just below the target
  4. Take a test spectrum of target in slit:
    1. Grating in
    2. Take an N-second exposure, where N is equal to one-third the exposure time from the Goodman Spectrograph Exposure Time Calculator (Link to ETC currently broken -- 8 August 2017)
    3. Within IRAF:
      1. display filename 1
      2. implot filename (use "c" to set a particular column of the spectrum to view, then use "w" and "e" and "e" to define a window to set the aperture, and then ":l line_lo line_hi" to extract the raw spectrum; typically, line_lo will be around 485 and line_hi will be around 495).
  5. If the test spectrum does not look like that of a white dwarf, move on to the next target without bothering to take addtional spectra of this target or a HgAr + Ne comparison lamp wavecal at this sky position (i.e., skip the next two steps).
  6. If the test spectrum looks like that of a white dwarf, take 3 more N-second exposures of the target.
  7. After taking the 3 additional N-second exposures of the target, take a single (or 5?) HgAr + Ne comparison lamp wavecal exposure at the same sky position as the target.
    1. Lamps: HgAr + Ne
    2. Exp time: 0.5sec
    3. Be sure to ask telescope operator if lamp is on before proceeding with the exposure.

End of Night Check List

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Last updated: 8 August 2017