V4.1, 2004 January 07 jle, aasg
Preface: communications protocol
All communications concerning MagIC should be directed to the instrument PI at MIT (currently Jim Elliot; <jle AT mit DOT edu>, 617-253-6308) and the mountain director (currently Mark Phillips; <mphillips AT lco DOT cl>, x623), or their appointed representatives (currently David Osip; <dosip AT lco DOT cl>, x617, for Mark Phillips). These people are hereafter referred to as the points of contact at MIT and LCO. The maximum response time for any communication is 2 business days. [In our last video conference, Paul Schechter pointed out that this communications protocol does not match the Magellan organization chart presented at the 2003 November SAC meeting. This issues needs resolution.] The <magic AT lco DOT cl> electronic mailing list is maintained by LCO, and will include all internal email communications concerning MagIC. Nightly telescope reports and technical servicing emails should be sent to the entire list. A web site (currently http://occult.mit.edu/instrumentation/magic/) will be maintained by MIT (see Section 7). A MagIC Instrument News and Forums web site (http://comet.lco.cl/WebLogs/magiclog/magiclog.php), containing such things as technical issues, a list of spare parts, and a performance log, is maintained by LCO. This protocol is established in order to keep everyone appropriately apprised of the current status and future plans for the instrument.
1. Instrument Description
The Raymond and Beverly Sacker Magellan Instant Camera (MagIC) is a permanently mounted f/11 imager on a folded port of the Clay telescope with its own rotator and guider. Although the guider was initially built through collaboration between LCO and MIT and is committed to the MagIC instrument, it is now supported by LCO. MagIC has a single dedicated cryo-tiger refrigerator mounted below the azimuth disk. The electronics for the filter wheel and CCD are mounted on the instrument mounting plate, and the instrument control computer (a SPARC workstation) is located in the utility room. From the telescope control room, the observer operates the instrument with a LINUX workstation (which is shared with other instruments). The instrument is continually powered on, and is cooled by ambient air.
2. Configuration
- Specify the intended port
- MagIC is currently located on folded port number 3 on the Clay telescope. Since use of this instrument will require an exchange of the secondary mirror when f/5 is implemented on the Clay, the instrument will then be moved to a folded port on the Baade.
- Specify the secondary mirror and ADC
- The secondary mirror is f/11. No ADC is required.
- Provisions for guiding: Does the instrument require one of the observatory guiders and, if so, specify which model
- The instrument has an advanced, dual-probe guider, maintained by LCO.
- Specify instrument size and weight
- TBW xx What are size and weight? Include picture xx Weight is dominated by the filter box which weighs ~275 lbs.
- List size and location of instrument racks, compressors, and other equipment
- This instrument does not require any racks. Airflow across the external surface of the dewar window comes from the air compressors at LCO. The power supplies for the filter wheel and shutter are mounted on the telescope, while the CCD and shutter electronics are mounted on the instrument filter wheel.
- Description and location of the control console. Is this dedicated equipment or shared with other instruments?
- The instrument is controlled by an SPARC workstation (Sun Ultra 10) located in a rack in the equipment room at the Clay telescope. The CPU (labeled “magic”), an 18” monitor, a keyboard, a mouse, and a black box converter for serial communication to the filter wheel are all in the equipment room. The computer, monitor, and black box must be plugged in on ungrounded lines. When using the instrument, this computer is accessed remotely from a shared LINUX workstation in the control room. The controlling workstation is dedicated to this instrument, while the user interface instrument is shared.
- Discuss telescope and rotator balance considerations
- TBW – counter weight system is documented at LCO.
- Specify special baffle requirements
- Folded port baffling needs to be in place.
- Cable description and layout. State if the cables are permanently installed and if they are shared with other instruments. Is a cable wrap required?
- The following cables run in the umbilical, from the instrument to the telescope base:
1 orange double optical fiber cable (for CCD communication)
2 ~3/16” diameter light gray cables (one to provide serial communication to the filter wheel, and one spare line)
1 ~1/4” diameter clear tube (to provide filtered air flow across the detector and prevent condensation)
1 ~3/8” diameter orange cable (power extension cord to the CCD electronics box)
1 ~3/8” diameter dark green cable (power cable back to the power supplies in the cell structure)
1 ~3/4” diameter dark gray cable (to provide power to the filter wheel and shutter)
2 silver CryoTiger lines (to service the cooling system)
The cables on MagIC are permanently installed, and are not shared with other instruments. There is a cable guide on the instrument to prevent cables from being caught in the rotator. Xx A cable wrap is being considered. xx
3. Service requirements
- Requirements for power, compressed air, and coolant
- Power required for CCD electronics, shutter box, instrument computer, and cryotiger is xx how many? xx watts. The SPARC workstation and monitor run from 120 V outlets. Filtered, compressed air is required to flow across the dewar window and prevent condensation. No coolant is required. There are coolant plates for the Leach electronics box in the equipment room of the Clay telescope, but they have not been implemented.
- Air ducting for heat extraction
- Passive dome cooling system is adequate to extract heat from MagIC, and no additional ducting is necessary.
- Requirements for cryogens
- The CryoTiger does not require any specific service. A mechanical support to provide strain relief for the CryoTiger lines was provided by MIT, but LCO plans to modify this as necessary before they mount it.
4. Routine Support
- Description of the routine servicing & periodic maintenance that will be performed by the Observatory Staff both when the instrument is on and off the telescope
- The instrument has no routine servicing, but requires the following periodic maintenance (listed in order of decreasing frequency):
- regular monitoring of the CCD flat fields and noise levels (during engineering runs, once per month),
- regular pumping of the dewar to maintain an adequate vacuum (the present contamination of the CCD requires pumping and heating the dewar every 2-3 months),
- dust removal from the filters and dewar window (roughly once per year).
- Technical personnel required for operation and an estimated amount of time they will regularly devote to the instrument
- The periodic maintenance operations are performed by the point of contact at LCO, or their designated technician. Regular monitoring of the instrument can occur during each observing run involving MagIC and during monthly engineering runs. Adjusting the tertiary mirror rotators takes approximately 20 minutes when the issue is discovered. Pumping down the dewar and heating it to eliminate CCD contamination occurs when necessary (currently every few months) and takes roughly one day (the actual procedure requires a technician for only brief periods of this time; however, the instrument must be removed from the port).
- Consumable supplies required for operations with estimated quantities
- There are no consumable supplies required.
- Power, air, and coolant requirements
- The SPARC workstation requires a 120 V wall power supply. The instrument requires xx how many? xx watts. How much air is required to prevent condensation? The present cooling system in the dome is sufficient for removing heat from the instrument.
- Description of the procedures required for instrument changes. These include pump down and cool down procedures, cabling, power up, filter and mask preparation, preparation of the data system, and actual start-up procedures. Actual handling procedures are described in a later section
- Procedures required for:
Pumping down the dewar — The instrument is removed from the port. A vacuum pump is attached to the dewar and it is pumped down while concurrently being heated by an external light bulb.
Cabling??
Power Up??
Filter insertion and removal — documentation has been supplied to LCO (?).
Data preparation and software interfacing — A LOIS user manual is provided in hardcopy at the telescope and online at http://occult.mit.edu/instrumentation/magic/#section_3. It contains procedures for data file preparation and start-up. Documentation is divided into that needed by the three groups below:
- user (astronomer)
- maintainer (LCO staff
- developer (instrument group).
- Requirements for status reports from the support staff to the instrument group. Here the instrument groups would specify what feed back they expect from LCO on the operation and performance of the instrument
- Nightly status reports are distributed to the email list. These contain observing conditions, a description of any instrument maintenance performed, and any other pertinent information regarding the operation of MagIC. Instrument problems should be specifically reported to the point of contact at MIT, as listed in Section 6. A log should be kept on the MagIC Instrument News and Forums web site (http://comet.lco.cl/WebLogs/magiclog/magiclog.php), containing (1) instrument noise levels and CCD temperatures at the beginning and end of each run, (2) the details of all periodic maintenance, and (3) a record of when spares are swapped into the instrument.
The use of spare parts, or requests for additional parts, should be reported to the point of contact at MIT. A current spare parts inventory is available online, under the topic MagIC Spare Parts on the MagIC Instrument News and Forums web site.
- Instrument mailing list and the names of its members
- The current (08/28/03) list, as maintained by LCO (Skip Schaller), is:
| <magic AT lco DOT cl> |
| Email address | Name |
| <jle AT mit DOT edu> | Jim Elliot (MIT) |
| <eab AT space DOT mit DOT edu> | Ed Boughan (MIT) |
| <schech AT mit DOT edu> | Paul Schechter (MIT) |
| <saint AT cfa DOT harvard DOT edu> | Andrew Szentgyorgyi (Harvard) |
| <mordway AT cfa DOT harvard DOT edu> | Mark Ordway (Harvard) |
| <ithompson AT ociw DOT edu> | Ian Thompson (Carnegie) |
| <gulbis AT mit DOT edu> | Amanda Gulbis (MIT) |
| <susank AT mit DOT edu> | Susan Kern (MIT) |
| Astronomers alias list at LCO: | - |
| <mroth AT lco DOT cl> | Miguel Roth |
| <mphillips AT lco DOT cl> | Mark Phillips |
| <dosip AT lco DOT cl> | David Osip (LCO point of contact) |
| <nmorrell AT lco DOT cl> | N. Morrell |
| Programmers alias list: | - |
| <jsoto AT lco DOT cl> | José Soto |
| <sbaeza AT lco DOT cl> | Silvia Baeza |
| <sschaller AT lco DOT cl> | Skip Schaller |
| Electronics, small telescopes alias list: | - |
| <ppinto AT lco DOT cl> | Patricio Pinto |
| <arivera AT lco DOT cl> | Andrés Rivera |
| <mleroy AT lco DOT cl> | Mark Leroy |
| Electronics, Magellan alias list: | - |
| <ecerda AT lco DOT cl> | Emilio Cerda |
| <pjones AT lco DOT cl> | Patricio Jones |
| <daruich AT lco DOT cl> | Felipe Daruich |
| Instrument specialists alias list: | - |
| <mnavarrete AT lco DOT cl> | Mauricio Navarrete |
| <oduhalde AT lco DOT cl> | Oscar Duhalde |
| <Gmartin AT lco DOT cl> | Gabriel Martin |
| Magellan project alias list: | - |
| <Fperez AT lco DOT cl> | Frank Pérez |
| <mjohns AT ociw DOT edu> | Matt Johns (Santa Barbara) |
| <chull AT ociw DOT edu> | Charlie Hull (Santa Barbara) |
| <sshectman AT ociw DOT edu> | Steve Shectman (Santa Barbara) |
5. Troubleshooting and Repair
- List the subsystems that are serviceable by the observatory staff and describe those repair procedures that may be attempted by the local staff for each subsystem
- Subsystem procedures that are serviceable by the staff include all procedures required for routine support in Section 4. Swapping spares and exchanging visitor filters in the filter wheels can also be done by the staff. If the control system crashes, standard procedure includes restarting the software, rebooting the instrument workstation, and recycling power to the CCD control electronics and filter electronics. Detailed instructions on these operations are in the user’s manual. Any troubleshooting or repair should be listed in the nightly telescope reports and distributed to the entire email list.
- List the critical subsystems and repair procedures that specifically may not be attempted by the local staff
- The following procedures should not be made by LCO mountain staff without the presence of the MIT PI or his designated representative:
- Opening the dewar
- Changing the instrument-control software, including the FITS headers
The following procedures should not be made without prior concurrence from MIT and LCO:
- Removal (or moving) of any filters from the basic set (i.e. Johnson-Cousins BVRI, Sloan u'v'r'i'z', and the VR filter)
The following procedures should be reported to MIT within 24 hours:
- Installation and removal of visitor filters.
- Installation of spare modules or components.
- Removal or alteration of the guider.
- Specify the procedures that must be followed when a problem occurs. This should include who is the responsible [individual] that should be contacted at the home institution, how notification is made, who coordinates the local effort at the observatory
- If a problem occurs, the primary points of contact at MIT and LCO should be notified. Together, they will coordinate efforts at the observatory. The notification should be in the form of a phone call or acknowledged email message.
- Specify who authorizes and pays for replacement parts and contracted services
- The primary point of contact at MIT authorizes and provides support for replacement parts and contracted services.
- Specify what constitutes chronic or severe problems that go beyond the ability of the staff to maintain the instrument and/or that place excessive demands on the technical staff such that normal observatory operation is impaired. Under these conditions intervention by the instrument group is expected
- Problems that go beyond the ability of the staff to maintain include severe degradation or failure of the detector, inability of the dewar to hold an appropriate vacuum, corruption of the executable software, and breakage of filters. Under conditions such as these, the primary point of contact at MIT will intervene.
6. Support provided by the Instrument Group
List the individuals at the home institution that are responsible for supporting the instrument:
- Principal point of contact
- The principal point of contact is Jim Elliot, PI (<jle AT mit DOT edu>; 617-253-6308). The secondary point of contact is Amanda Gulbis (<gulbis AT mit DOT edu>; 617-253-1785).
- Others: mechanical engineer, software systems, instrument scientist
None.
Describe the remote help that will be provided.
- On-line troubleshooting & consultation
- Instrument users can refer to the online user’s manual (http://occult.mit.edu/instrumentation/magic/#section_3) for a list of contacts pertaining to specific topics. If this resource is inadequate, consult the point of contact at MIT.
- Updating documentation
- MIT will maintain the web page (http://occult.mit.edu/instrumentation/magic/), which includes an updated user’s manual, supported filter descriptions, and instrument characteristics. Updates and changes will be made jointly with the point of contact at LCO. Any issues can be addressed to the primary point of contact at MIT.
- Purchasing parts and arranging repair service in the US
- Purchasing parts and arranging repair service will be done by the primary point of contact at MIT.
- Specify the period for this support. Normally this would be for the life of the instrument as a Facility Instrument
- The instrument will be supported for its lifetime as a Facility Instrument.
Describe the on-site help that will be provided:
- Individuals committed to traveling to Chile when necessary
- The primary point of contact at MIT will arrange travel when necessary.
- Time to respond
- Email notifications to the primary point of contact will receive a reply within 48 hours of receipt. Travel arrangements will be made when deemed necessary.
- Criteria and procedures for authorizing and scheduling trips
- Unique expertise from the support group, that cannot be provided remotely, must be required in order to necessitate travel. Travel will be authorized and scheduled by the primary point of contact at MIT.
Describe the training that will be provided:
- During the development phase at the home institution
- This phase has been completed.
- On-site commissioning
- This phase has been completed.
- Over the course of operations
- Instruction will be given by the primary point of contact at LCO for any changes to the user interface or support features.
- Individuals at Magellan responsible for supporting the instrument (added)
- Principal point of contact: David Osip, Magellan Instrumentation Scientist; Mark Phillips, Mountain Director. Others: Instrument specialists who operate the instrument on a routine basis.
7. Handling & storage fixtures
- Description of required handling & storage fixtures and a statement of how they are to be provided. When the instrument is on the telescope, storage is required in the equipment room for a SPARC station and for spare parts
- When the instrument is on the telescope, handling requirements are not an issue. The mounting cart is used for pumping down and baking the dewar, and a modification is required to allow remounting with the installed instrument cable guide.
- Procedures for moving the instrument to and from the telescope and mounting it on the telescope
- ??
- Description of the off-telescope storage requirements including amount of space, type of environment, and power or cooling
- Off telescope storage requirements include.. ??
- Description of shipping requirements, shipping costs and how arrangements are made. State if this is an on-going expense, e. g. instruments shared with other observatories. If parts of the instrument must be returned to the home institution for periodic upgrade or service, so state
- MagIC is currently located at LCO and there are no shipping plans. There are no ongoing expenses associated with shipping, and no parts are required to be returned to the home institution. Shipment of any parts required to support the instrument will be through the point of contact at MIT.
8. Special provisions
- Describe an special provisions, conditions or modifications at the Magellan facility not already covered above and necessary in order to operate the instrument
- The guider optics, hardware, and software need to be maintained by LCO. An adequate baffle also needs to be maintained by LCO.
Due to the needs of MagIC support, testing, upgrading, and development as well as the efficiency of carrying out these activities, MIT observing teams may at times consist of 3 to 4 members. These teams may need to arrive a few days earlier and/or stay later than usually required for an observing run in order to accomplish the required engineering work.
- List any factors associated with the instrument that would interfere with the operation of instruments on other ports or that otherwise constrain normal operations
- If MagIC is required to be removed from its port (for example, when pumping down the dewar), normal operations may be constrained.
- Are there arrangements with other organizations, observatories, or groups that affect the way this instrument will be used and supported at LCO?
- No.
2004-11-03
