Operating TMS (updated)

Contents

Quick Review

1. Turn on the TMS lasers and send an email to telescopework@lbto.org to let everyone know the lasers are ON. Instructions can be found at this link.
2. Login to robs as user telescope and change directory to the one where the TMS scripts are located.
   1. ssh -X telescope@robs
   2. cd /lbt/lbto/supportscripts/MetrologySupport
3. If there is a recent, good, reference, use it to get started (see Using the last good reference as a starting point… below):
   1. Copy it (4 files) to /tmp
      1. cp /home/telescope/TMS_logs/<YYYYMMDD>/telescope_*_tmsoffset.dat /tmp
      2. cp /home/telescope/TMS_logs/<YYYYMMDD>/tms_[s,d]x_ref.dat /tmp
   2. Run the active loop to position M1 to it:
      1. ./tms_loop.py for binocular operation (the default)
      2. ./tms_loop.py -s 0 for operation only with LBCB on SX
      3. ./tms_loop.py -s 1 for operation only with LBCR on DX
4. Start “watcher” scripts. These are helpful because they show the TMS corrections that are being sent (labelled active) or reasons why TMS corrections are not sent (mirror or telescope moving, shutter open). Run each in its own, small, terminal window on telescope@robs:
   1. ./watch_tms_left.py
   2. ./watch_tms_right.py
5. (Optional) Start LBTplot to monitor TMS corrections
   1. ssh -X telescope@robs  (it may suffice just to run it from robs – TBC)
   2. LBTplot and look for SXTMS and DXTMS tabs near the top right
6. From here on, observe as usual with the LBCs, with the exception that dofpia/dohybrid will now be run from the Linux terminal window. The steps are outlined below for convenience:
   1. Slew to the copointing target for your first field. Stop the OB and wait for a TMS update before proceeding either:
      1. to take the pair of copointing images (from which you can assess image quality); or
      2. to run FPIA.
   2. run dofpia if necessary (TMS should hold collimation over slews and over time, so dofpia may not be necessary).
      1. The following examples are meant to illustrate the syntax. See Observing Procedure –> Collimating for all of the options which dofpia and dohybrid can take.
         • dofpia --askme --x2
         • dohybrid
         • dofpia --backout
   3. In IRAF, run lbcrangebal to correct pointing & copointing
      1. Note that with TMS running, these pointing and copointing corrections may be larger than normal (see the Notes section below).
7. Slew to your target. Stop the OB and wait for a TMS update before starting the first exposure (look in the "watcher" script output for the first line marked "active"). Once you see the update, play the OB.
8. Notes:
   1. WARNING: After you slew to a new field, always wait for a new TMS update before starting to take an exposure. (This is noted in red above, and worth repeating).
      
   2. To know whether TMS is sending updates, look for a new line with "active" printed to the terminal by the ./watch_tms_[left,right].py script
   3. For very low elevation targets, it is better to collimate at higher elevation where the seeing is better (~65-75 deg, though not > 80 deg because, here, rotational trailing may be an issue). Then set the reference and run the TMS loop to hold the collimation as you slew to the lower elevation target.
9. After finishing the LBC observations:
   1. Stop the TMS loop (control-C in the terminal window where you launched tms_loop.py).
   2. Turn the TMS lasers off and send an email to telescopework@lbto.org to let everyone know that the lasers are now off.