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UKIDSS Observer notes
UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey Observer
Notes
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These notes are intended solely for UKIDSS Observers coming to the
telescope.
Procedures are more or less the same as for visiting observers on
Cassegrain proposals and PATT. However here we gather together the
relevant links.
Arrival
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You should arrange to arrive at the JAC offices by mid-morning on the
day before your first observing night. This gives time for a discussion
with your support astronomer of any issues you need to be aware of
(instrument status, the various queues etc.) the link to the left takes
you to the JAC visitor information page.
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Reservations
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The JAC reservation request form must be sent to JAC by each
observer planning to attend the observing run. Please complete ALL
sections - your arrival time in Hilo is important so that we can
properly
schedule your travel between JAC and the Mauna Kea Residence. If you
encounter any problems with this form, please fax this text form.
For Proposal Number, enter UKIDSS. For Principal Investigator, enter A
Lawrence.
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Safety
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You will be given a safety briefing by your support astronomer. In
advance, please read the specific section of the JAC safety manual
linked to at the left. Your support astronomer will be your associated
staff member.
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These sections detail
summit operation of the surveys and assume that you have read the basic
online documents (Operational Model, execution tools documentation, OMP
documentation).
Startup
Startup and shutdown of WFCAM are both described in the RUNUP page. You should be
familiar with this before you get to the summit.
MSB Selection
In the QT, select Semester UKIDSS, Instrument WFCAM, set the seeing and
sky brightness. Click Search
and select MSBs
from the top of the resulting queue. Make sure you read the observer
notes in the MSB. All other execution is as stated in the UKIRT
Preparation and Execution documents.
See the WHAT'S
ON TONIGHT PAGE for priorities.
Calibration
The TSS is responsible for ensuring that the nights' data are entirely
calibratable. This includes taking observations of standard fields at
approximately two-hour intervals (in photometric time), dawn twilight
flats on selected nights,
and dark frames at an appropriate frequency. These calibrations are
mandatory and the TSS will carry them out interspersed with the survey
MSBs.
Survey Priorities
The UKIDSS surveys are set by the JAC and UKIDSS Survey heads. In all
cases the TAG priority (the integer part in the priority column)
is initially 50. TAG adjustment may be used by the UKIRT survey support
scientist to selectively
enhance the completion of a survey found to be falling behind (this
will be obvious in the integer part of the priority column entry). The
decimal part is set by the internal priority per msb, which is
generally as set initially by the survey head, but may be varied by JAC
if particular MSBs are considered to be important to complete.
Observers are asked not to
ignore MSBs at the top of the queue if they are (for example) badly
placed/setting; if this is the case, the priority may have been set
high in order that the survey does not miss its chance at getting those
particular MSBs.
Night logging
Please ensure that you make use of the following three levels of night
logging:
- Shift log comments - these are displayed at the top of the OMP
night log and should be used for "top level" statements of progress -
e.g. sky conditions, project switches etc.
- Obs log comments - these are interspersed with frames in the
detailed observation listing at the end of the log and should be used
to comment on properties of individual frames (e.g. when flagging a
frame as bad, please make a note of why it is).
- accept/reject - when you complete an MSB, a dialogue box pops up
which asks you to accept or reject the data taken. It includes a text
box; please use this to describe the result of running the MSB, even if
it's to say that there is no evidence of any problem.
Empty Queue Time
If there are no suitable UKIDSS MSBs given current conditions, then the
UKIDSS observer should firstly exercise flexibility of 0.1 arcseconds
in the entry in the "seeing" field in the QT. The rest of the fall back
sequence is detailed on the Priorities Tonight page. If still nothing,
then you are allowed to do your own backup if
you have any,
but it is essential that in doing so you adhere to the WFCAM template
library sequences, which will ensure that the data will be reducible
when they reach the CASU offices for pipeline processing. A project is
available for this type of observing: U/UKIDSS/B2. If you have none of
your own backup, check U/UKIDSS/B1 (the staff equivalent, which will
occasionally have MSBs for execution).
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