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4

QUIRC User Guide

3.1

Workstation setup

The program is run from a workstation in the control room, currently

io

(or

halley

on the 88”).

There is one configuration file that

qcdcom

reads upon startup to determine the telescope, secondary,

and other information. There are four preset configuration files currently used, located in the directory

/aux/inst/qconf

:

tel_config_06_quirc

tel_config_22_f10_quirc

tel_config_22_f31_quirc

tel_config_cfh_quirc

These files are for the 0.6m, the 88” at

f

=

10, the 88” at

f

=

31, and CFHT at

f

=

8. To install the

proper file, a symbolic link should be made in that directory called

tel config

that points to the

appropriate configuration. For example, to set up for the 88” at

f

=

10,

% rm /aux/inst/qconf/tel_config

% ln -s tel_config_22_f31_quirc /aux/inst/qconf/tel_config

This step only needs to be done once when the telescope or secondary changes, and should already
be set up properly for the current configuration. Be careful not to delete the configuration files
themselves.

One xterm should be devoted to the camera program. The qcdcom program does not provide an
integrated 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 displays images and has statistical and graphical analysis features. A link has been
provided from qcdcom to this program that displays images automatically. 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. See the section on vf below for more information.

The saoimage program can also be used to display the QUIRC images. The observer should open a
saoimage window on the camera workstation. The command line usually must be edited to read in
the fits file. This can be done by pressing the “n" key (for the “new" command) while in the saoimage
window. For example,

-imtool -fits /scr/aug11/q940811.004

would read in file number 4. When in chop mode, qcdcom writes each chop position to a separate
file, and the chop difference to a file ending in “chop" instead of the file number.

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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