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10

QUIRC User Guide

program is described here.

7.1

Setting up

The setup file

.vf-init

has been installed in the home directory of the user

obs

. If running from

a different user name, you must have this file in your home directory, as well as the

*.cm

files and

ps proc

. The program can be run by typing the following in any window:

% vf &

To display images automatically, one must set the data directory to be the same as where qcdcom is
storing the FITS files. This is done by clicking on the “File" button and entering the proper path. One
must also issue the command

set vfout

in qcdcom to enable the link so that data are displayed

automatically.

7.2

Image display options

The qcdcom program is set up to display the last file written. The images are displayed to the “Big
Image" buffer, called E or B4 in the program. If the program is in chop or dither subtract mode, it
displays the

.chop

image. If not, the last normal data file is displayed. The magnification of .5x

will display the entire QUIRC image.

One useful feature is that if the data are not being saved and vfout is on, the data file is still written
to the

.chop

image and displayed in vf. Therefore the observer can take focus frames, acquire and

center the object, etc., without saving all the images as separate data files. This avoids filling the disk
with useless files.

7.3

Quick VF tips

The VF manual has a complete listing of the capabilities of the program. Listed below are a few
quick tips to get started:

After starting the program, click on the “E" button below the four canvases to display the big image
canvas. The grayscale levels can be set to Auto or Fixed and the max and min set manually. The
stretch can then be adjusted by pressing the right mouse button and moving it around the image,
similar to saoimage.

The “Zoom on ObjBox" is a useful feature to zoom in on a source. After the image has been displayed,
make a box around it by moving to the lower left corner and press & hold the middle mouse button,
then move to the upper right corner and release. Then left click on the “Zoom on ObjBox" button
and it will magnify it. Click on the .5x button to go back to full scale. When zoomed in, you can
use the LineCut display mode to show the profile in the X and Y directions. Click on “Box" and turn
AutoScale on to display the cuts through the box in the X and Y directions. You may need to adjust
slightly the X and Y axis to go through the center of the source.

Summary of Contents for QUick Infrared Camera

Page 1: ...Observer s Guide for QUIRC K W Hodapp J L Hora M R Metzger University of Hawaii October 30 1997...

Page 2: ......

Page 3: ...ith QUIRC The qcdcom program controls taking exposures and writing data in FITS format to disk operates the moving parts of the instrument such as the shutter filter wheel and pupil mask communicates...

Page 4: ...ation differences for integration times less than 1 second Therefore short exposures should be avoided particularly when exposing dome flats it is far better to dim the lights with the domelight dimme...

Page 5: ...elow assume a PSF of 0 5 arcsec FWHM Table 2 QUIRC Sensitivity UH 2 2m Telescope Filter Point SRC Mag Mag arcsec2 Jy ADU 1 sec J 18 6 17 9 1 052e 6 H 17 8 17 1 8 295e 7 K 16 2 15 5 9 622e 7 H K 18 6 1...

Page 6: ...ted image display capability A separate program should be used to display the data One option is to use the viewfits program vf This is a display program developed by Tony Denault at the IRTF that dis...

Page 7: ...ode is running The command to download the current standard DSP code is the following df quirc Occasionally the download will fail if the camera is in some undetermined state and a reset will need to...

Page 8: ...rash for any reason the parameters it reads in may be old and you may need to set them again Typically only resetting the file number is necessary 3 3 Taking exposures For each object you are observin...

Page 9: ...telescope and guide probe and turns the guider back on On the 88 this communicates with Atlas and MiniOtto over the ethernet to perform the guider movements and on CFHT commands are sent over a seria...

Page 10: ...6 H K dual 1 8 m 2 794 20 6 6 1 7 H2BP23 2 12 m 0 914 2 1 7 1 8 2260BP60 2 260 m 2 794 20 6 8 2 1 1560BP120 1 56 m 9 2 2 1710BP120 1 71 m 10 2 3 1 989BP50 1 989 m 11 2 4 1 506 60 1 506 m 12 2 6 1 107...

Page 11: ...th auto or the shutter will not open Also note that you should always do only one filter DARK followed by exactly one filter BACK always in pairs otherwise the filter wheel will get lost and require a...

Page 12: ...chop image and displayed in vf Therefore the observer can take focus frames acquire and center the object etc without saving all the images as separate data files This avoids filling the disk with use...

Page 13: ...P initialization commands In general you will need to initialize the DSP processor in the Leach electronics after power up or after a DSP reset because its cold reset state is not appropriate for runn...

Page 14: ...rform first data read of double correlation pair store image in memory 4 Turn off output amplifiers 5 Open the shutter and wait for a predetermined exposure time 6 Close the shutter 7 Turn on output a...

Page 15: ...e double correlated read on off Controls whether the device is read out before and after the shutter opening or only after If reading before and after the difference between the two are taken and this...

Page 16: ...o stay open slightly longer The exposure time recorded in the header however will reflect the true amount of time the shutter was open filter hnum commandi Set filter This command selects the filter s...

Page 17: ...fp q940811 go h num i Start exposure Go is the command to take an exposure As described above according to the param eters which are set go may reset the chip open the shutter and close it a predeterm...

Page 18: ...resulting image to a disk file set hparami n Set parameter Certain program parameters can be set or unset with this command To set a param eter for example save one issues the command set save To uns...

Page 19: ...direct access to the DSP computer hall hnloopi Read Hall sensors read the Hall effect sensors nloop times The filter wheel 1 sensor is displayed and depending on the position of the switch either the...

Page 20: ...en data is used as a seed for a random number generator and 65536 words of random data are sent per loop diag l3 hcnt fr cg data i Timing board loopback test Loopback test with timing board in place M...

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