NEWFIRM Manual

Here we describe the NEWFIRM observing GUI and discuss other information relevant for observing.

• Open VNC viewers (NEWFIRM Obs and NEWFIRM IRAF)
• Start NEWFIRM GUI in Obs VNC viewer
• Press "Start of Night"
  • Opens environmental cover
• Initialize system
  • Turn on detector power
  • Open filter tool
  • Initialize filters
  • Move filter position to "DARK" if the dark filter is not already in place
  • Set Proposal ID (PropID)
    • This will load the proposal PI and co-Is
    • No images can be taken unless the PropID is set to a valid PropID
  • Take a junk image to reset image counter/number
    • The image counter does not reset to 1 at the beginning of the night
    • Make sure dark filter is in place
    • Under Exposure Control:
      • Set Basename to "ajunk_"
      • Set Title to "Junk"
      • Set Exp. Time to "1.120"
      • Set Repeats to "0"
      • Set Coadds to "0"
      • Set Fowler to "1"
      • Set Sequence to "1"; This must be the last step.
      • Click "Expose"
      • The image counter will now be reset and calibration data will start with image number *0002*
• Take flats
  • Ask telescope operator to point telescope to white spot
  • Open flats tool on NEWFIRM GUI
  • The default flat script will take flats for JHKs and 1644, 2124, and 2168
• Take darks
  • Default script will take dark frames with exposure times corresponding to flat field exposure times
  • Add darks with appropriate exposure times, coadds, and fowlers as your expected science exposures
• Start of night
  • Telescope pointing
    • Use J filter
    • Go to a recognizable field (e.g., a standard star or a bright star near zenith).
    • Identify the object on the detectors.  The pointing is generally good so the object may be located in the detector gap
    • Perform offsets until you can see the object on detector 3.  This usually will require offsets to the east and north.
    • Use NEWFIRM IRAF task zp.cl
      • You will be prompted for an image name
      • The task will load the image for detector 3 into the ds9 window and start the "imexam" IRAF task
      • You will be prompted to locate the object on the detector and press the "a" or "r" key to determine the pixel values of the centroid of the object.
      • The output will tell you the offset needed to place the object at the center of the detector gap.
    • Ask the telescope operators to perform the offset.
    • Ask telescope operators to perform the zero-point after the offset is complete.
  • Telescope focus
    • Use the J filter
    • Select telescope focus script "focus_wide"
    • Input the value for the center telescope focus value based on the ambient temperature. The telescope operators have a tool to predict best focus value depending on temperature.
    • Execute the focus sequence
    • When the focus sequence is complete, a list of the focus images is written to the file "/tmp/focuslist"
    • The IRAF nffocus task does not understand multi-extension FITS (MEF) files
      • Edit the "/tmp/focuslist" file to only use one detector by appending the desired detector to the lines in the focuslist file
      • Change <filename>_<####>.fits to <filename>_<####>.fits[D] where "D" is the detector number
    • Use IRAF nffocus tool to determine best focus
    • The table of focus offsets from the JX filter to other filters is available in table located at (focus offset table page)
• Observing
  • Individual exposures
    • Set exposure time, coadds, and fowler
    • Select obstype
    • Choose basename
    • Title
    • Expose
  • Dithered exposures
    • All of above
    • Select grid pattern
    • Select number of grid steps in x and y
    • Select step size in x and y
    • Click OK
    • Click Start
  • Scripted exposures
    • Scripts can be text or JSON (examples of each)
    • Select Load
    • Click start
    • Sequences
      • Run multiple scripts