Changes post-upgrade

Both MODS underwent controller upgrades in the summer of 2025. As a result, there are a few changes which users should be aware of when preparing their programs.

• Exposure times must be <= 900 seconds. Take 4 15-min exposures to achieve 1 hour open-shutter time.
• Spectroscopic acquisitions will be made with the 3K x 3K (6′ x 6′) readout region of interest only. Scripts do not need to be changed, as the script-running engine will override the setting in the script to force the 3Kx3K ROI.
• Binning (1×2, 2×2 and 2×1) is supported only in full frame 8Kx3K mode, but not in any other mode.
• OBJNAME must be <= 32 characters and include no special characters.
• Old scripts will run, subject to the binning, exptime and ROI constraints given above.
• Please ask LBTO staff (sciops@lbto.org) for advice if you have a non-standard program or if you have any questions when preparing your scripts.

With the new Archon controllers, detector overheads are signficantly reduced, from  ~100-sec to 25-sec for a full frame 8K x 3K image. See Overheads for detector overheads in the supported modes, and for estimates of instrument and telescope overheads.

The data are now stored as multi-extension FITS files. See the Detector page for an explanation of the different extensions. The steps to create the files are described in Data Flow. Quick Look Tools under Looking at your Data will contain tips useful for assessing the image quality (though as of April 2026 it just provides the command syntax to display the 6th extension).