Kia

Kia is a small spectrograph made by Santa Barbara Instrument Group (SBIG). Kia's spectrograph is a passive device with both high- and low-resolution gratings (selected by a lever on the side), a micrometer that adjusts the grating's center wavelength, and a battery powered slit-illuminator. There is also a lever that allows you to block the guide camera's light path, which is used for reducing internal reflections when imaging very bright objects. The documentation suggests that "very bright" is something like the Moon or Sun. Please do not image the Sun with the 30 inch telescope. This lever should probably always stay "Open" when observing. Kia's camera unit includes two cameras: the "Imager", which images the spectra, and the "Autoguider", which images the slit. Note that, in spite of the name, we don't have the ability to autoguide (yet!).

The specs, according to the instructions (attached to this page, below) are:

Kia with its grating set to 6.5.

The useful wavelength range is less than the full range due to the (lack of) sensitivity of the ccd in the blue, and the paucity of calibration lines in that region from our Helium and Mercury lamps.

Kia Observing Checklist

1. Switch on power. Kia's camera LED and fan will turn on when both Popeye and the power supply are on.
2. Startup CCDSoft on Popeye and Setup Kia's cameras. Go to the menu item Camera->Setup. This dialog box controls both the main imaging camera and the guide camera, depending on the setting of the radio button in the top right. Select the "Setup" tab.
  1. Select the Imager camera, confirm that the "Camera" drop-down is set to SBIG ST-7/7E/7XE, while the Filter Wheel and Focuser dropdowns are blank. Press "Connect". If it can't connect, see Repairing the SBIG Driver below.
  2. Once connected, click on "Temperature" and turn on the camera's cooler (should be set to -5°C).
  3. Repeat these steps for the Autoguider camera (Connect, turn on the cooler is on and cooling to -5°C).
3. Setup your images. Switch to the "Take Image" tab. Confirm that the Imager camera is set to 1x2 binning while the Autoguider camera is set to 2x2 binning. The "Frame" drop-down menu sets the type of exposure: bias, flat, or "light" (spectrum). The "Exposure" controls set the exposure time, and allow you to take a series. If you want to save a series of images, setup AutoSave:
  1. (Optional) Setup AutoSave. This is useful for quickly saving your biases and flats. Switch to the "AutoSave" tab, select the Imager, select saving as FITS files, and choose your data folder. You may want to modify the starting number and the prefix, although the software will append ".BIAS" or ".FLAT" to the name whether you like it or not. The output image names follow the pattern prefix.00000001[.BIAS|.FLAT].FIT.
4. Check the spectrograph. Take a calibration lamp spectrum to check that the spectrograph is setup for your observing program. Reasonable settings to start with are to use the low-resolution grating, with the micrometer set to 5.5. If the neon lines are bright but mercury's are dim, the fiber bundle just needs to be rotated so the mercury fibers line up with the window a bit better.
5. Take biases. Set frame to "bias" and take 10. Confirm that they are saved where you expect.
6. Take flats. Move to Cover Position, turn on the dome lights, set frame to "flat" and take 60 second exposures to get ~10,000 counts w/ low-res grating. The camera goes non-linear around 50,000 counts.
7. Fine tune pointing and focus. Turn on the slit illuminator and use GTCC to point to a Vega (or Arcturus). In CCDSoft set frame to "light" and set the autoguider camera to take a large series of images. Unless you've turned on autosave, there's no reason not to just take a series of 1000 images and turn it off when you're done. If you don't see anything, confirm that the guide camera's light path is "open", but keep in mind that the field of the view of the autoguider camera is just a few arcminutes. We found it's convenient to center the star on the slit and focus simultaneously. Once the star is centered click "On Target" in the GTCC window.
8. Move to your first object. If needed, use the slit illuminator to help get the object's light into the slit. Turn off the slit illuminator before taking your science exposure.
9. Take lamps at each position. Possibly overkill, but it's good training for APO, and it's easy. After finishing with a particular target, take a 10 second lamp before slewing. Do the lamps after to give them time to cool down--they glow for awhile even after you turn them off.
10. Refocus occasionally while centering. A focused telescope is the product of a mindset, not the work you do at the beginning of the night. You only need to focus well enough to get most of the star's light into the slit.

Shutdown. When you are done observing warm up the cameras. Once the cameras are warm, press disconnect in CCDsoft for both the Imager and Autoguider cameras, and then close out of CCDsoft. Turn off the auxiliary control panel at the breaker. Go into the dome and turn off Kia's power supply, and confirm that the slit illuminator is off.

A low-resolution spectrum of the Ne and Hg calibration lamps.

Spectrum of MRO's calibration lamps with some lines identified.

Reducing your Data

Follow Phil Massey et al.'s Reducing_Slit_Spectra_with_IRAF.pdf. I have identified enough neon lines in this spectrum for IRAF to automatically identify the rest. The mercury lines are marked with '?' because apparently mercury isn't in IRAF's line list, so they don't get identified or used! If we can't use these lines, consider replacing mercury with argon or helium.

Mounting Kia. Note that this picture faces the telescope's mount.

Kia Installation Instructions

These steps are only performed by people checked out by Chris. Procure a kimwipe and hexkeys for the camera assembly.

1. Park the telescope, shutdown Popeye if on.
2. Disconnect cables, except for Spyder's: disconnect the shutter cable (on the telephone plug side), and the filter slide power and usb cable. Do not disconnect Spyder's cable!
3. Loosen the eight bolts that secure the lower camera assembly (shutter, filter slide, and Spyder) to the telescope and move to the observing floor onto a kimwipe.
4. Secure Kia with the handles facing east. It's possible to rotate Kia if it isn't lined up perpendicular to the telescope.
5. Attach the power cord, which is specific to Kia's cameras, and the usb cable that previously went to the filter slide.
6. Attach the fiber optic bundle to the opal window on Kia's side using the provided tiny screw. Do not lose this screw, it may be only the only one that's short enough to secure the fiber bundle! Make sure the fiber bundle lines up with the outline on the casing--this will ensure the mercury lamp's fibers line up with the little window.
7. Bring the focus OUT twenty-two times to get close to the real focus. While you're doing this, check that CCDSoft can connect to the SBIG cameras.

Repairing the SBIG Driver

For some reason, SBIG's driver gets messed up once or twice a season. The symptom is an error message when you try to connect to the camera. Don't panic! Shutdown CCDSoft, and go into the Windows Device Manager (from My Computer, or the Control Panel), select the SBIG USB Camera device (which probably has a cute little exclamation mark to indicate that it's lobotomized state), and reinstall the drivers. The correct driver is the second 2.0.1.0 one on the list: oem3.inf (see screenshot, at right). Any files it can't find are on the computer, in the directory the search box defaults to, and we also have a copy of the drivers in C:\Program Files\SBIG\Driver Checker 64\SBIGDrivers 3r2\.

Removing Kia

Removal is pretty much the reverse of installation. When you disconnect the fiber optic bundle do not lose that little screw! Re-insert the screw so we don't lose it. Remember to bring the focus IN 22 times.

Choose wisely.