planning for '02-'03 work at Pole (Giles, Dave)
work at Pole in '02
- protect SPARO from accidental damage during summer
- protect dogsled and tertiary (still on roof?) ask Whitehead
- figure out how to test SPARO a/d box for temperature-induced damage
- learn passwords
- software testing - note this can be done in US also if we
have stateside simulation
to bring
- TR thesis
- logs
- spare HWP motor from lab
advance planning for
summer season
- when are Moon and planets available? When is
NGC 6334 not too close to Sun?
- look at flow chart - need your sources picked out, for
all pointing and all other operations to be done in this
flow chart. we might use same flow chart as a way
to organize the summer work as we used it to organize the
winter work. then Dave and Megan can help stateside.
to locate
- Corona focus motor cable
- equipment needed to cool SPARO (see below)
- teflon fill-tube seals for X-fers
- liq. nitrogen and liq. helium needed for summer
- the small ACBAR sky reflector (or was it the
big one that i used?)
- both alcatel 2015 pumps
basic tests
- cool and lab-test the dewar
- equipment needed:
- 2 Cylinders UHP He gas
- LN2
- Orange Mechanical pump
- 4 KF valves
- Sufficient amounts of KF fittings, tubing and conflat 1.33 blankoffs
w/gaskets
- Capacitance manometer gauge and readouts
- 2 gas regulators w/2 psi resolution
- lock in amplifier
- laboratory cycling breakout box
- jfet heater(plexiglass- 9 volt array)
- reservoir pumping fixture
- blowout fixture
- pumped pot flushing fixture
- working turbo pump station - Paul Sullivan has working hi-vac gages
- working leak checker
- working hi-vac gauge
- Visual Inspection - check mostly for obvious problems concentrating
on
- seals-look for loose bolts or seals which aren't snug
- wiring/connectors: Are all pins ok?
- are preamp biases on or off
- what is state of He-3 valves - (green ones that connect He-3 system
to external tanks)
- Remove insulation from preamps.
- Check and record mechanical gauges on He-3 systems
- Check to make sure BOW is closed
- Close both heat switches (they should be closed - you can check if
they are closed by opening 5 turns and then closing 5 turns and seeing
if you hit a stop
- be sure to use two valves on pumped pot port (red-handled conflat and
KF)
- leak check SPARO if leak checker available and working
- cool SPARO
- cycle inside: noise & hand signals. use lockin.
- heat JFETs
- test computers
- check data-system battery. Was it left connected to data-system?
- Make a fake map; do fake photometry; do fake polarimetry (set flags in script:
SPARO on, telescope off)
- Analyse results for these fake data-sets. Save all work to computer
and make notes in logbook
- run cryocontroller program (concern was that cryocontroller BIOS may
not be ok with Y2K). also input a test voltage to cryocontroller.
- remove preamps:
- do load curves. will be a check of temperature of He-3
- check preamp bias - replace D-cells if necessary
- reinstall preamps
- install new pumpline for SPARO.
- carry out optics switchover.
- install SPARO onto telescope and begin basic instrument and software
checks:
- document and plan the dogsled switch (replace flatheads)
- measure JFET noise
on stripchart
- test half-wave plate motion
- set up chopper synched from mac
- cycle dewar - record all aspects
of cryostat performance
- log to computer: He-3 pressure as a function of time for both stages
- pay attention to voltage/resistance/current of charcoal heater
- measure detector/microphonics noise
on stripchart
- check signal level and phase up - blanket on secondary
- drive chopper and check waveform,
set phase, open blankoff
- check labels on all cables - especially 1 vs. 2
- check strain relief on cables
- system test: find a
bright celestial source
and map it. analyze data
- system test: do photometry. analyze data
- system test: do polarimetry. analyze data
- Note: even if no celestial sources available, obtain polarimetry/photometry files
and analyze. Carry out
this test in such a way as to be able to test if data appears correct:
i.e. look at detector noise for 5 hwp positions and then wave hand
in from of dewar during 6th postion.
- crossed grid test for spectral leaks?
- check signal level on source previously observed with SPARO: which?
- measure instrumental polarization on some celestial source: Moon;
planet; is NGC 6334 possible?
- system test: test battery lifetime
- verify focus and measure beamsize (in Az and El) using planet or
pointing/focusing sources
- develop first-order pointing model by peaking up on four sources
(2 high el and two low el)
- measure instrumental polarization, using one or several of Moon, Venus,
M-0.13-0.08, RCW57, jen's calibrator. Do "off-axis test" if possible.
- measure boresights of all pixels of both arrays and measure RGM.
- check computer connectivity
- ftp server and timbuktu on mac
- ftp server and timbuktu on cryocontroller
- can mac write to analysis machine?
- miscellaneous tasks:
- get new batteries soldered up
- snout should never get above 0 degrees C (?) - set it up
- Giles: Freeze, backup and document all software
- make CD backup of software on control (tcl scripts; all
analysis software)
- make CD backup of labview code located on our rackmount PC
- ask Matt to advise what is used or backup everything
- note rackmount serves two functions
- implement and experiment with flow control and measurement (see
"cryo"
other tests
- exersize system by observing astronomical source for 48 hours.
- microphonics? (experiment with detuning scope)
- noise?
- offsets?
- gain stable?
- phase stable?
- hwp noise and wait time?
- hwp lose pulses?
- chopper waveform?
- measure noise with blankoff and without. save to disk
- remeasure time constant (blanket on tertiary)
- Grid test at two nearby grid angles. Get Chi, efficiency, rel sign.
- look at low-elevation offsets from sun-shield - study time and weather dependence
- do off-axis test - planet or point-like mol cld.
-
Moon scans
- Polarimetric moon scans - looking for polarized sidelobes. Similar to
moon-scans, but do polarimetry at each position.
Scans in azimuth are most important. Cuts at various elevations might be
helpful also. Need to make a # for how bad this can be and still
do GC. Then plan for testing this on Moon. Integration time needed = ?
- Does focus depend on elevation or chop throw or temperature?
- Instrumental polarization: dependence on temperature.
(important only if instrumental polarization is > .01)
- does temp of coldstage depend on elevation. Impt. for photometry
- how does signal depend on time within one cycle. Impt. for photometry
- polarimetry of blank sky.
- measure beam size as a function of pixel, of chop
train winter-over
miscellaneous
- inventory
- photos
- bring back RHH filter?
- set up cryocontroller alarms and document them (optional)
- test spares, especially spare SPARO Mac
Contact g-novak@northwestern.edu. Last updated Oct 23, 2002.