30"/PFC Guide

A quick look at the 30"

At the beginning of the night:

• Telescope hand paddle: the handpaddle has a variety of control buttons. Currently only dome and telescope movement are functional. Telescope coordinates are NOT fed to any of the computers.

• Filling your instrument dewar: move the telescope straight south at HA=0h until you hit the limit. Please do not go beyond the limit. A buzzer will sound on the main console as soon as the limit has been reached. Remove the anti-spill tube from the PFC dewar. Fill the PFC dewar from the 50l LN2 dewar, then, when the fill tube hose has thawed enough to remove, replace the anti-spill tube before moving the telescope again. You must press the HORIZON LIMIT OVERRIDE for a short time until the telescope has risen above the RA limit. Please note: If you are worried about LN2 hold time, you can gain 2+ hours if you do NOT leave the stinger from the 50l dewar in the CCD dewar. Please do not leave the anti-spill tube insertion tool on the 50l dewar. The large dewars move around a lot. Hold time for the PFC dewar is typically 8-10 hours (not much difference in different seasons), depending on when the last pumpdown was, and the condition of the activated charcoal inside. Unless something is very wrong, you can count on 8 hours (if the stinger from the LN2 tank is not in the dewar).

• When leaving the dome (if it is closed--ie, end of the night or for extended periods), ALWAYS make sure that the telescope is pointed at its STOW position. The dome leaks seriously. If it rains while the telescope is at a position other than STOW, water may get into the telescope and instrument with disastrous effect.

At the end of the night:

• If you are using the CDE desktop and you wish to remain logged in to the computers during the day, please disable the password screen lock in your account. We need to have access to the Sun consoles in the daytime. If your account locks us out, we may have to dump you off.

• Finish filling out your night report (type "xreport" in a window on Luna). You must complete a report if you are scheduled to observe, even if you didn't open the dome. Please be sure to close your xreport before you leave in the morning. If you wish to have the PFC dewar filled in the morning, please say so. It also helps us if you log the times you filled the PFC in the Problems section of your night report. We may not be able to manage requests for fills at times other than first thing in the morning, especially on weekends or holidays, as the person on report duty is only required to hang around until 10am.

• Close the dome. Move the dome to the park position and plug in the pigtail plug. Close the bottom shutter first! Move the slider for the bottom section (if open) to the right, then move the knobbed lever to the right. Once the shutter has stopped moving, move the lever to the neutral position. Repeat the process with the top shutter.

• Park the telescope (0h HA and -20 deg DEC), fill the PFC dewar, turn off the telescope tracking and main power, turn on air conditioning in dome and control room (even if it is already cool when you leave) and make sure the outside door is locked.

• If this is your last night, and all is done, please remove any signs on the outside door to the 30".

PFC Resources

McD Fire/Medical Emergency Call List