PreCam Observers' Guide

(The PreCam Observers' Guide from September can be found here).

The lava lamp is lit; precam observations have started.

There is a public skype chat called Precam Obs that we are in every night. Ask the observer to be invited in.

Attention PreCam Observers:

Just a reminder that the bearings on the Curtis-Schmidt dome shutter are starting to show their age (see Pat Seitzer's email from Nov. 11)

Pat suggests:

"Please listen carefully when the dome opens and closes. If you hear strange noises, please report them immediately

on the [CTIO] nightly report. You probably will have to turn the fan off to hear anything."

General Sections:

• • PreCam Users Guide (v2_4) (PDF file)

    • Authors: Adam Sypniewski, with updates by Wolfgang Lorenzon, Douglas Tucker, Tomasz Biesiadzinski, Joe Bernstein, and Brian Gerke.

    • This is a guide for operating PreCam. It attempts to cover all of the operations a typical PreCam user/observer would need to consider. You should use this as a guide and reference when observing.

  • In particular, see "Nightly Checklist" in Section 1 for a detailed checklist for standard PreCam operations.

    • A gzipped tar file of the LaTeX file and images for the PreCam User's Guide can be found on the Desktop of the precam1 and precam2 computers (/home/precam/Desktop). Please feel to modify it as needed.

  • Curtis-Schmidt Telescope Operations Guide (PDF file)

    • Author: Pat Seitzer

    • Please send any corrections, suggested modification, or additions to Pat for inclusion in the master copy, which he will keep updated at the above link.

    • We should get a copy of this printed out and kept in a visible place in the DES Control Room. These are checklists to follow.

• Exposure Time Estimates