Indian Astronomi al Observatory

Mt. Saraswati, Hanle, India

Himalaya Faint Obje t Spe trograph And Camera (HFOSC)

Users Manual

May 2003

Indian Institute of Astrophysi s,

Bangalore 560034

1
Contents

1 Introdu tion 5
1.1 Overview of the Instrument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Dete tor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.3 The Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.4 Slits, Filters and Grisms available with HFOSC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2 Observing with HFOSC 11

2.1 Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.1 Operating remotely with VNC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.1.2 IDL User Interfa e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.1.3 Starting the BIAS software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2 Observations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2.1 Imaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.2.2 Spe tros opy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
2.2.3 Camera Fo us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.4 Data A quisition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2.2.5 Obtaining Flat Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.6 Observing with bat h le . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
2.2.7 Exiting the software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.3 Getting the observed data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.4 Reporting problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

A Troubleshooting 25
A.1 Unable to get star/obje t image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

B Present Instrument Con guration 26

C BIAS COMMANDS 28
D FITS Header 34
E Comparison Spe trum 36

1
List of Tables
1.1 Basi hara teristi s of HFOSC system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2 Gain and Readnoise of the HFOSC CCD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.3 Available slits, lters and grisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

B.1 Present set-up of the FASU unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

B.2 Mounted slits, lters and grisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2
List of Figures
1.1 S hemati diagram of the HFOSC main instrument. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1.2 S hemati diagram of the FASU. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
1.3 The spe tral response of the CCD hip. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

2.1 The HFOSC User Interfa e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2.2 SaoImage display utility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 BIAS status window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.4 BIAS ommand line window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.5 Examining images using BIAS imexamine ommand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

3
Chapter 1

Introdu tion

1.1 Overview of the Instrument

The Himalaya Faint Obje t Spe trograph and Camera (HFOSC) is an opti al imager um spe -
trograph built ollaboratively at the Copenhagen University Observatory. The instrument is a
fo al redu er type of instrument i.e. by a using a ollimator with the same F -number as the
teles ope and a amera the e e tive fo al length of the teles ope an be redu ed. This allows
a larger eld overage for a given dete tor, and also low-resolution grism spe tros opy with
the insertion of dispersive elements between the ollimator and amera. It is possible to shift
between these two modes in se onds.
HFOSC onsists me hani ally of an opti al ben h on whi h the ollimator and amera are
pla ed. There are three wheels: an aperture/slit wheel in front of the ollimator in the teles ope
fo al plane, a lter wheel and a grism wheel both between the ollimator and the amera in the
parallel light beam. Between these two latter wheels is a rotational shutter. All wheels have 8
positions. The amera an be moved relative to the end- ange of the instrument. The three
wheels have teeth on the outer ir umferen e and are moved by a small tooth wheel whi h is
geared to a stepper motor. The wheels are given a small preload and have a postioning a ura y
of 2 m. The beam from the teles ope is bent by 100Æ , 30 mm after the teles ope fo al plane to
save spa e behind the teles ope mirror.
The onverging beam from the teles ope passes through an interfa e unit, the Filter and
Spe tral lamp Unit (FASU), whi h is mounted between the teles ope instrument mount ube
and the main HFOSC instrument. The main instrument is mounted onto this interfa e unit. The
FASU, whi h houses the narrow band lters and spe tral lamps for wavelength alibration, has
two lter wheels and three wavelength alibration lamps and one at- eld lamp. Both wheels
in the FASU have 5 slots ea h.
After the telesope beam has passed the FASU, it omes to fo us on the aperture wheel in
the main instrument. The beam then passes through the ollimator and forms a parallel beam.
The parallel beam is imaged by the amera on the CCD. As mentioned above, the lter and

4
grism wheels are pla ed in the parallel beam, in between the ollimator and the amera.
The s hemati layout of the HFOSC is shown in the Figure 1.1, that of the FASU in Fig-
ure 1.2. The basi hara teristi s are given in the Table 1.1.
The instrument is mounted on the on-axis port of the instrument mount ube of the 2-m
HCT.

Table 1.1: Basi hara teristi s of HFOSC system

Wavelength range 350 900 nm
Dete tor 2048  4096 pixels CCD with pixel size 15 X 15 mi rons
CCD Pixel S ale 0:29600
Collimator fo al length 252 mm
Camera fo al length 147 mm
Redu tion fa tor 0.58
Spe tral resolutions R 150 to R 4500 using a set of 11 grisms
FOV 10  10 ar min (unvignetted)
Filters Bessell UBVRI and
372.7(10), 486.1(10), 500.7(10), 656.3(10), 672.4(10) narrow bands
Performan e (not ne essarily Imaging: R=22.20:18, with exposure time 1200 se onds
limiting) 2-sigma dete tion of  23:0 mag/ar se 2 in 40 minutes
(H-alpha lter)
Spe tros opy: V=18.5, Resolunion = 300; S/N=22 for exp. time
20min.

1.2 Dete tor

The dete tor used with the HFOSC is a SITe ST-002 CCD thinned and ba kside illuminated
hip. It has an imaging area of 2048  4096 pixels of size 15  15 ea h. The entral unvignetted
2048  2048 hip area is used in the imaging mode, whereas part or whole dete tor is used in the
spe tros opi mode. The dete tor has two output ampli ers, A & B, whi h an be operated
in both high and low gain modes. Though both ampli ers an be used simultaneously, reading
out through a single ampli er is usually prefered for simpli ity of redu tion. The ampli er A
is re ommended due to its slightly lower RON. The gain and readnoise values obtained during
laboratory tests are given in Table 1.2. The sensitivity of the dete tor in the form of QE varies
from 20% near U & I bands to 70% at V& R bands (see Fig. 1.3). The dark ounts are found to
be 0.3 e /h and 2.0 e /h in MPP and non MPP modes respe tively. The full well apa ity in
MPP is found to be only 51K ADU and hen e ounts above 51K su er from severe nonlinearity
in the gain.
The default mode used is ampli er A in the MPP and high gain mode.
The CCD ontroller takes nearly 20 se onds to lear the dete tor from residual as well as

5
 Figure 1.1: S hemati diagram of the HFOSC main instrument.

Table 1.2: Gain and Readnoise of the HFOSC CCD

Amplifer A Amplifer B
High Gain Low gain High Gain Low gain
RON e 4.8 8.0 5.1 8.0
Gain e /ADU 1.22 5.6 1.21 5.6

harges a umulated due to dark urrent. This overhead is due to the spe ial ar hite ture of the
SITe CCD being used. The entire 2K  4K hip is read out in 165 se onds whereas as entral
2K  2K region, used in imaging mode takes only 83 se onds.

1.3 The Software

The HFOSC is operated using two softwares. One for the ontrol of the instrument, and another
for ontrolling the CCD operations.
An IDL based User Interfa e (UIF) software is used to ontrol the instrument operations su h
as (a) positioning the two wheels in the FASU, (b) sele tion of alibration lamps, ( ) positioning
the aperture, lter and grism wheels, and (d) amera fo us
The CCD operations are ontrolled through the Brorfelde Image A quisition System (BIAS)
software. The intera tion between the hardware interfa ing to the amera ele troni s and the
user interfa e is performed by this software. The software enables the observer to make obser-

6
 Figure 1.2: S hemati diagram of the FASU.

vations e e tively, examine the date online and save the data for later pro essing.

7
 Figure 8: Global quantum eÆ ien y versus wavelength for the SITe ST-002 CCD, measured from
Figure 1.3: Global quantum
the sigma- eÆ ien
lipped mean y versus
of the wavelength
entral area of a at for
eld the SITe ST-002
exposure. CCD,atmeasured
Measurements -100Æ C andfrom the
sigma- lipped mean of the entral area of a at eld exposure. Measurements at 100Æ measure-
-80Æ C are shown to illustrate temperature dependen y of QE. For ea h temperature, C and 80Æ C
are shown to ments are made
illustrate about 6 days
temperature apart, to yshow
dependen the stability
of QE. For ea ofh the sensitivity. For
temperature, omparison, the
measurements are made
QE of the engineering grade array is in luded.
about 6 days apart, to show the stability of the sensitivity. For omparison, the QE of the engineering
grade array is also in luded

1.4 Slits, Filters and Grisms available with HFOSC

A list of the slits, lters and grisms available with the instrument is given in Table 1.3.

13

8
 Table 1.3: Available slits, lters and grisms
Slit Filter Grism
slit width length Grism Wavelength range Resolution
mi ron ar se ar min 
A
67 0.77 10\ Bes U Gr 5 5200-10300 870
67 0.77 11` Bes B Gr 7 3800-6840 1330
100 1.15 2.1` Bes V Gr 8 5800-8350 2190
100 1.15 11` Bes R Gr 9 (e helle) 3300-10500 4500
134 1.54 10\ Bes I Gr 10 ( ross disp) 3300-6500 230
134 1.54 11` Bes I Gr 11 ( ross disp) 3700-7400 390
167 1.92 11` Bessell z Gr 12 ( ross disp) 5200-10400 205
335 3.85 11` 486.1 (10) Gr 14 3270-6160 1320
1340 15.41 11` 500.7 (10) Gr 15 3300-6000 745
656.3 (10) Gr 17 7600-10500 2640
672.4 (10)

9
Chapter 2

Observing with HFOSC

2.1 Getting Started

2.1.1 Operating remotely with VNC

The HFOSC system is ontrolled by a omputer named anders, (WAN) IP address 192.168.100.25
running under Linux Red Hat 6.1 at IAO, Hanle. One an get a ess into this system through
the VNC (Virtual Network Computing) viewer. The ommand vn viewer on the system at
CREST will start the VNC. If the ommand is given with no arguments, it will prompt for a
VNC server to onne t. Alternatively, spe ify the VNC server IP number and desktop number
(it ould be 1,2,3,4 depending on number of vn servers that have been started):
vn viewer 192.168.100.25:1 -Options

A few useful options are listed below

-shared : Whether to leave other viewers onne ted. Default false.

-fulls reen Full s reen mode. Default false.
-viewonly Blo k mouse and keyboard events. Default false.
-geometry Spe ify the size of the desktop to be imported. Default is 1024  768.
-depth Spe ify the pixel depth in bits. Default is 8.
If the VNC server is su essfully onne ted, the user will be prompted for the password.
On e the password is authenti ated, a window will appear showing the desktop of the VNC
server. To make the VNC faster, it is re ommended to start the VNC server and viewer with
redu ed depth and geometry (re ommended depth = 8, geometry = 640  480). Usually the
desktop ontains an xterm window, otherwise li king the right mouse button will provide a
menu to start a new xterm.

10
2.1.2 IDL User Interfa e
The UIF is a tivated in the xterm window by issuing the following ommand
runuif
When the ommand is a tivated, a small window pops-up at the bottom of the desktop, broad-
asting the progress of the system startup. After a few se onds, a dialog box appears at the top
of the desktop window, with the following query
do you want to initialize fos system
Sele tion of the yes option will initialize all the wheels and the amera fo us. During the ini-
tialization pro ess two windows are opened, one at the top of the s reen, showing the status of
all the 5 wheels, the amera fo us position, and the status of the alibration lamps. The other
window that is opened, to the right of the s reen, is the menu-based ontrol of the instrument.
The desired setting of the instrument is a hieved through sele tion of the appropriate buttons
on the menu.
Fig. 2.1 illustrates the appearan e of the desktop with the HFOSC status window and the
instrument ontrol widgets.

2.1.3 Starting the BIAS software

The BIAS software is a tivated by issuing the following ommands
d data1
startb
BIAS will start within a few se onds, opening a status window, an image display window,
whi h is the Smithsonian Astrophysi al Observatory image utility, and a ontrol window where
ommands are given for the operation of the CCD. Ea h window will be des ribed brie y in
subsequent sub-se tions.

SaoImage:
The BIAS software uses SaoImage, a utility for displaying astronomi al images whi h runs under
the X11 window environment. The SaoImage in ludes a main image display window, a button
menu panel, a display magni er, a pan and zoom referen e image. Images obtained dire tly
from the CCD or from already saved FITS le in the hard disk an be viewed in SaoImage. A
number of push-buttons with various fun tions are available for ontrolling the displayed image
(see Fig. 2.2). The lower left orner orresponds to (1,1) pixel of the CCD. The x,y oordinates
along with the intensity of the ursor position on image is shown in the top part. If the image
plane has not been rotated then North is at the bottom and East to the right.

11
Figure 2.1: A snapshot of the HFOSC user interfa e window for sele tion of slits, lters, grisms, amera
fo us and the alibration lamps.

12
 Figure 2.2: The SaoImage display utility.

Bias Status window:

The status window gives information about the setup and the ondition of the CCD. The snap-
shot of the Status window is given in the Figure 2.3. Following is a brief des ription about the
status window.

the rst line gives the date and time (in UT)

TOTX and TOTY : Total eld size in x and y (physi al dimensions)

IMX and IMY : A tual eld size hosen.
BEGX and BEGY : Starting pixel x and y values.
BINX and BINY : Binning sele ted.
The CCD IDLE is the status of the CCD ontroller, it an be IDLE, CLEARING, INTE-
GRATING, READOUT or PENDING. IDLE is when the CCD is waiting for a ommand.

13
 Figure 2.3: Snapshot of the BIAS status window.

CLEARING is during the pre- ush. INTERGRATING is when the CCD exposure is going
on. The time left for the exposure is onstantly displayed. READOUT indi ates that data
is being read. The line-number being read out is shown. PENDING is the status during
writing the data le on the disk with the appropriate FITS header.
Temperatures and pressure: The next part shows the CCD temperature and its referen e
temperature. The digits will blink if the CCD temperature is more than 5 degrees from
the referen e temperature. The Dewar pressure is also shown.
Ampli er and Gain: The 'Ampl' se tion shows the sele ted ampli er setup. The sele tion
for SITe hip an be 'A', 'B' or 'AB'. Under this, the gain setting (high or low) is shown,
and also the sele ted MPP mode.
Storing the data: IMPATH is the path of the dire tory in whi h the image les and log les
are stored. The default value at startup is the urrent dire tory, or the dire tory stated
in the '.biasr ' le (see below). Along with this the available disk-spa e (in megabytes) is
shown. The REM IMPATH is the path on a remote ma hine, where images are stored.
Image le name: The 'NEXT FILE' is the name of the next le being stored, 'FILE' is the
latest stored- le, or the le displayed in the SaoImage window. If les are being saved
automati ally after a readout, 'AUTOSAVE' is ON. HIGHCUT, LOWCUT and ZOOM
are the values used in displaying the image. The ZOOM value is NOT updated when using
the zoom buttons in SaoImage.

14
Figure 2.4: BIAS ommand line window. This is the main CCD ontroll window where BIAS ommands
are given to the system.

BIAS CCD Control Window:

This window prompts for the BIAS ommands on the ommand line. At the BIAS> prompt,
ommands are given to the system, with the ommand parameters. Giving the ommand alone
will prompt for the parameter value, indi ating the previous value as default.
It is only ne essary to input the ne essary number of hara ters for the system to re ognize
the ommand (ex ept for quit and exit ). Ba kspa e or Delete key deletes the last hara ter. The
previously used ommand an be retrieved by the Up/Down arrow keys. The TAB key tries to
omplete a ommand or an argument. The mouse an be used to ut and paste the text in the
ommand window. A few ommands do not prompt for data as they use default values if no
parameters are used. These are: exp, mexp, dark, mdark, fo us.
The ommand "help" generates a help window with short des ription of all ommands.

2.2 Observations

The HFOSC is designed to work in imaging as well as spe tros opi mode. It is very easy to
shift between the imaging and spe tros opi modes of operations. In the following subse tions,
a brief des ription on how to use HFOSC in imaging as well as spe tros opi mode is given.

15
2.2.1 Imaging
Sele ting an Aperture
Sele tion of an aperture is through the HFOSC User Interfa e. HFOSC is used in the image
mode by hoosing the `free' aperture. Sele tion of the aperture is done by li king on the button
in the `FOSC' window, depi ting a slit ( rst left). A sub-menu pops at the lower half of the same
window, indi ating the various slits and their orresponding position. Cli k on the `free' button.
When the aperture is sele ted, the status window indi ates `A tive' during motor movement.
On e the motor is positioned, the status window shows the sele ted aperture.

Sele ting a Filter

The appropriate lter sele tion is made using HFOSC user interfa e. Narrow band lters are
mounted on FASU wheels whereas broad band lters are in the HFOSC lter wheel. For hoosing
the narrow band lters, li k on FASU A or FASU B depending on the wheel in whi h the lter
is mounted. The mount on guration of the FASU wheels is available in Appendix B. The broad
band lters are sele ted by li king on the button depi ting a lter (se ond left). As in the ase
of the aperture sele tion, a submenu pops in ea h ase, and the appropriate lter is hosen by
li king on the relevant button.
Make sure that lter/grism wheels and the FASU wheels other than the one in use
are in the `free' position.

Choosing the Image area

By default, the entral unvignetted 2048  2048 image area with unbinned mode is used. This
is set by issuing the following ommands in the BIAS ommand line window:
BIAS>resetxy
BIAS>xbegin 1
BIAS>ybegin 1025
BIAS>xsize 2048
BIAS>ysize 2048
BIAS>xbin 1
BIAS>ybin 1

If the observer wishes to use a smaller area of the CCD, the same may be a hieved by hanging
the xbegin, ybegin, xsize and ysize values. Binning is a hieved by hanging the values of xbin
and ybin.

16
2.2.2 Spe tros opy
Sele ting the Slit
The slits are mounted in the HFSOC aperture wheel. Sele tion is through the HFOSC User
Interfa e, by li king the button depi ting a slit ( rst left). A sub-menu pops at the lower
half of the same window, indi ating the various slits and their orresponding position. Cli k
on the button orresponding to the desired slit. When the aperture is sele ted, the status
window indi ates `A tive' during motor movement. On e the motor is positioned, the status
window shows the sele ted slit. A list of the slits urrently mounted in the instrument is given
in Appendix B.
Note: At present there is no autoguider, therefore, long exposures (>600 se onds) with narrow
slit (1") is not re ommended. The mean teles ope tra king error of 1.38" over 600 se onds
would ause the star to move out from slit before the exposure ends.

Sele ting a Grism

The grisms are mounted in the grism wheel, and may be sele ted by li king on the button
depi ting a grism (third left) in the user interfa e. As in the ase of the aperture wheel, a
submenu pops and the desired grism may be sele ted by li king on the appropriate button.
The lter wheel and the FASU-A and FASU-B wheels are to be positioned in
the `free' slot during spe tros opi mode of observations.
Appendix B gives the list of the grisms mounted in the instrument along with the orre-
sponding position in the wheel.
NOTE: Grims 10 and 11, whi h are used a ross-dispersers with the e helle grism are mounted
in the lter wheel. Grism 12, whi h is also used as a ross-disperser is to be mounted in the
lter wheel.

Sele ting the alibration sour e

Fe-Ar and Fe-Ne hollow athode and Hg-Cd lamps are available for wavelength alibration, while
a Halogen lamp is available for at- elding. The light from the alibration sour e is dire ted
into the instrument with the help of re-imaging opti s mounted in FASU-A wheel (designated
al-mir). The re-imaging opti s ensures the f-ratio of the beam from the alibration sour e is
the same as that of the teles ope.
The desired lamp is sele ted using the `lamps' button in User Interfa e ( rst right).
Appendix E gives the identi ation of the spe tral lines in the sour es.
Note that the Calibration Mirror ( al-mir) mounted in the FASU is to be positioned
before exposing the alibration sour e.

17
Setting image area
Before starting the exposure one has to sele t the spe tral image area. The image region depends
on the slit and grism hosen. For the e helle grism, the entire hip is used. For the other grims,
the dispersion is along the long-axis of the CCD (y-axis), and almost the entire hip is used
in that dire tion. However, the image size along the dire tion perpendi ular to the dispersion
dire tion (x-axis) may be redu ed by using the xbegin and xsize ommands as des ribed earlier.

Centering a star in the slit

As HFOSC does not have a slit viewer it is ne essary to use a dire t image of the eld to
determine the o set needed to bring the obje t to the enter of the slit. It is re ommended to
use a small window of the CCD entered around the slit enter (say 400  400 for stellar like
obje ts) to speed up the ontroller read out. The enter of the obje t an be obtained using
imexamin ommand with a keystroke. One an obtain the required teles ope o -sets in RA/De
by supplying the x-,y-position of the star to the program spe .

2.2.3 Camera Fo us
The amera fo us is set using the User Interfa e, by li king on the button depi ting the lens
ray. The sele tion of the fo us position is a hieved by s rolling the fo us button in the submenu
at the bottom panel up or down. After sele ting the desired value, li k the set fo us button
to set the fo us. The fo us value in use is shown in the FOSC status window.
The best fo us estimate for the HFSOC amera is 1415. A slight dependan e on
wavelength is noti ed, however, the hange in fo us for the broad band lters is very small,
resulting a hange in the PSF by only 0.4 pixel or 0.11 ar se for any seeing value.

2.2.4 Data A quisition

Data a quisition using the HFOSC CCD is through ommands issued in the BIAS ommand
line window. We des ribe below the ommands that are essential during observations.

Bias frames
There is no separate ommand to take bias frame. The ommand
dark 0
is used to a quire the bias frame.

Obje t exposures
On e the teles ope is pointed to the desired lo ation and the aperture, lter/grism is set, expo-
sures of the desired eld/obje t may be obtained using

18
Figure 2.5: The ontour and radial pro le plots, generated while examining CCD image using BIAS
imexamine ommand

exp nnnn
where nnnn is the exposure time in se onds.

Image examination
The BIAS imexam ommand repli ates the IRAF imexamine ommand and an be used to
examine the displayed image using various key-stroke ommands. For example, the key-strokes
\a, e, s" an be used to he k fo us and image quality by inspe ting radial, ontour and surfa e
plots of stars in the eld (see Fig. 2.5).
See Appendix C for all available options.

Obje t name
The ommand
obje t xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
is used to in lude the obje t name (text; 16 hara ters) into the FITS header. The parameter
value of this ommand is taken from a default value/previous entry if not spe i ed.

Comments
The ommand

19
 omment xxxx
an be used to in lude a omment in the FITS header. Value of this text parameter may not
ex eed 40 hara ters. There is no default value for this ommand, and unless spe i ed, the eld
will remain blank. However, using the x omment ommand will preserve a previously entered
value.

Saving images
Images that are obtained may be saved automati ally by using the
autosave+
ommand. However, it may not always be desirable to have the automati saving mode. In su h
a situation, automati saving of les may be swit hed o by using
autosave-
ommand. When automati saving of les is not a tivated, the les may be saved using the
ommand
save
This ommand saves the most re ent exposure image.
All data are stored as 16-bit unsigned integers in FITS format.

Filenames
The lenaming is done automati ally. The automati lenaming me hanism gives a default
lename with the following onvention

mj030025
||||||||
||||------------------- Automati in remented number
||||
||--------------------- Day of the month
||
|---------------------- Month, a=jan, b=feb, ...
|
----------------------- Year, 1991 = a, 1992 = b, ...

If some lenames already exist when the program is storing, they are not overwritten, but the
next free number is found. (might be onfusing if some les are deleted and the program is
started again.)
A log le alled logmj03.001 is reated, showing all the input/output on the BIAS s reen.

20
Display saved image
Images whi h are already saved to the disk an be re-displayed on SaoImage using ommand
disp imagename
One an also read FITS header with header ommand.

2.2.5 Obtaining Flat Fields

At present, there is no provision to take dome ats. Morning and/or evening twlight sky ats
are obtained lo ally at Hanle by the IAO sta . It is possible for the observer to make at
observations from CREST, but, working through the VNC puts onstraint on the speed with
whi h subsequent exposures may be obtained during the restri ted twilight periods.
Sky ats are usually obatined by pointing the teles ope 45-60 degrees above the anti-solar
horizon. Teles ope is put into tra k mode and after ea h exposure it is shifted by 5 ar -se ond.
E orts are usually made to a quire at least three sets of observations in ea h lter su h that
the ount levels are 30,000 to 40,000 ounts. Normally, exposure times of less than one se ond
is avoided.
In the spe tros opi mode, ats are taken using the Halogen lamp available within the FASU
unit.

2.2.6 Observing with bat h le

The ommand run lename, is very useful for running often used observing sequen es. The
le ontaining valid BIAS ommands is exe uted. When an exposure ommand is given, the
ommand interpreter waits for the integration and readout to nish, before issuing the next
ommand. The le must be in the urrent dire tory or the path must be spe i ed. A simple
example of a bat h le for observations of the same obje t through various lters is given below.

autosave-
pre lear+
impath /home/fos /data1
autoshow+
resetxy
xbeg 1
ybeg 1025
xsize 2048
ysize 2048

obje t SN2K3DU
omment Filter U Exp 500s

21
exp 500
save
wait
omment Filter B Exp 300s
exp 300
save
wait
omment Filter V Exp 120s
exp 120
save
wait
omment Filter R Exp 120s
exp 120
save
wait
omment Filter I Exp 100s
exp 100
save
wait

The wait ommands auses a pause in the exe ution of the program until a key is hit. Filters
may be hanged during the `wait' period. The autoshow+ may be repla ed by autoshow- if a
display of the a quired image is not required.

2.2.7 Exiting the software

To exit from the BIAS system, give the ommand
quit or exit
at the BIAS> prompt in the ontrol window.
To exit from the User Interfa e, li k on the quit button in the FOSC ontrol window.

2.3 Getting the observed data

All data obtained during the night are stored on the HFOSC omputer lo ally at IAO, Hanle.
The data are normally downloaded at CREST by the systems engineer the following morning.
It is not re ommended to download the data during observations as it would slow down the
speed of the link and may a e t the teles ope/instrument operations. At present the maximum
rate of data transmission one an expe t to get is around 75-100 kbytes/se onds. This implies
that one image of 2K  2K size will take nearly 2 minutes to download from Hanle to CREST.

22
Generally in imaging observations spanning the whole night, nearly 800 MB data is a umulated
by an observer. This takes around 3.5 hrs of downloading time. On e the data are ompletely
downloaded, they are opied into CD.

2.4 Reporting problems

Any problems may be reported to the Astronomer on duty at night. However, it is likely that
some problems may not get solved during the night and would be attended to during day time.
Please enter all problems en ountered in the log book available with the Astronomer on duty.

23
Appendix A

Troubleshooting

A.1 Unable to get star/obje t image

1. Teles ope mirror over is losed.

2. Dome and teles ope is not aligned.

3. Wrong port has been sele ted? Che k axis ontroller on the TCC.

4. Che k positions of the aperture, lter, grism, FASU-A and FASU-B wheels.

5. Che k sky ondition.

24
Appendix B

Present Instrument Con guration

The slits, lters and grisms mounted in the FASU and the HFOSC main instrument are listed
in tables B.1 and B.2

25
 Table B.1: Present set-up of the FASU unit
FASU-A FASU-B
Position Filter Position Filter
1 free 1 free
2 486.1 2 672.4
3 656.3 3 free
4 Cal-Mir 4 free
5 500.7 5 free

Table B.2: Mounted slits, lters and grisms

Slot slit Center Slot Filter/Grism Slot Grism

1 134 l (1054,1968) 1 free 1 fo us pyramid
2 1340 l (1054,1969) 2 Gr 10 2 Gr 8
3 167 l (1022,1968) 3 Bes I 3 Gr 9
4 134 s (1012,1971) 4 Bes R 4 Gr 7
5 100 m (1034,1964) 5 Bes V 5 Gr 5
6 67 l (1050,1969) 6 Bes B 6 Gr 17
7 67 s (1080,2025) 7 Bes U 7 Gr 15
8 free - 8 Gr 11 8 free

26
Appendix C

BIAS COMMANDS
A brief des riptions of frequently used BIAS ommands is given in this appendix.

help This starts an xterminal window, whi h runs the data viewing utility 'less' in a separate
xterm window with a short des ription of the available ommands. With the ursor in this
window, use PgUp , PgDwn and arrow keys to move around. '/' an be used to sear h for
text. Use 'q' to quit the window. If 'BIAS' is stopped, the window remains, please stop it
using 'q'.The mouse ursor must be in the window for any keys to work.

quit Exit BIAS. alias: 'exit'

All windows are destroyed. If an integration is going on, BIAS an be restarted and
ontinued in integration mode.

expose ( T ) Start a normal exposure with optional integration time T (in se onds). If no
integration time, T, is given, the default T given with the 'tint' ommand is used.

mexpose ( T ( M ) ) Start M integrations of ea h T se onds. If 'M' is left out the program

will use the default 'mult'. If 'T' is not given, the default T, given with the 'tint' ommand
will be used.

dark ( T ) This is for dark exposures. Works as 'exp' with the shutter losed.
mdark ( T ( M ) ) This is for multiple dark exposures. Works as 'mexp' with the shutter
losed.

fo us ( T ) A fo us sequen e is started, ea h exposure of T se onds. At the ompletion of ea h

exposure, you are prompted to start a new ( hit the 'spa e bar' ), or nish the sequen e (
hit 'q' ) and readout the d. At this time, there is no option to move the teles ope and
fo us from this program.

abort Stop an ongoing integration or readout. The data are NOT readout, and an not be
re overed.

27
readout Readout the CCD now and store the image. The orre t resulting integration time
is stored in the FITS header.

addtime (nn) Add 'nn' se onds to the integration time. Negative numbers are allowed. If
the resulting integration time is negative and larger than the remaining integration time
the CCD is readout.

hold During an integration, the shutter is losed and the CCD is not readout.
resume Resume a previously 'hold'. The nal integration time may vary by a few hundred
millise onds.

lear Clear the CCD.

dreadout-
dreadout+ These 2 ommands set/reset a ag ontrolling whether the ontroller should
readout the d after an integration. Please note that the integration time in the FITS
header will not be orre t, when this ommand is used with the ommand `pre lear-'.

pre lear-
pre lear+ Controls whether the d ontroller lears the d before an integration. The ag
is reset (to pre lear+) after an a tual readout.

save Save the image stored in the omputer memory and shown in saoImage. Useful if 'au-
tosave' has been o .

save8 Save the urrent image as 8 bit FITS image. Uses a linear transformation between
low ut and high ut.

header [name ℄ View the FITS header in an image le. Starts an xterm window with 'less'
on the lename. Works like 'help'.

tint ( T ) Set the default integration time in se onds.

mult ( M ) Set the default number of multiple integrations.
xbegin ( X ) Set the xvalue of the rst pixel to be read-out from the CCD. The values start
with 1. If xbeg + xsize is larger than the CCD's total x-width, xsize is redu ed. Default
= 1.

ybegin ( Y ) As 'xbeg' in the y dire tion ( lines ). Default = 1.

xsize ( XZ ) Set the x size of the image to read-out. Default = 2052.
ysize ( YZ ) Set the y size of the image to read-out. Default = 2052.

28
xbin ( n ) Set the binning in X dire tion. xsize might be adjusted when an integration is
started if ampli er AB (2 ampli ers) is used and the resulting number of pixels on a line
is uneven.

ybin ( n ) Set the number of lines to bin.

bin ( n ) Set the X and Y binning to the same value. Alias 'xybin'
resetxy Reset the size, beg and binning values to the default.
xovers an nn This value de nes an overs an in x. A tually the ommand rede nes the on-
troller to believe the d is a tually nn pixels wider. For that reason a 'resetxy' is performed
automati ally. When using partial readout, an over-s an will only be available if the a tual
readout ex eeds the physi al d. This means that to get overs an with:
ampl A: xbeg+xsize-1 > physi al d size
ampl B: xbeg < xovers an
ampl AB: Overs an will be there due to the readout s heme. The image line is rst en-
tered in the serial shift register, and then readout. 2 zones of ea h xovers an/2 will appear
at the right of the image, one for ampl A, the other for ampl B.

yovers an nn Overs an in the y dire tion. Extra dummy lines are read out.
gainlow Set the CCD preampli er gain to low gain.
gainhigh Set the CCD preampli er gain to high gain. High gain is 2.2 times low gain.
mpp+ Set MPP mode ON. Alias 'mpp'.
mpp- Set MPP mode OFF.
ampl ( XX ) Sele t the d output ampli er used. This d has 2 ampli ers (A and B) at
the end of one serial shift register. Default is ampl A, valid values for XX is: A, B or AB.

autosave+ Store the CCD images in the spe i ed 'impath' after ea h exposure. When les
are stored, there is a he k for the remaining diskspa e. A warning is given at 20 Mbyte
remaining, with <10 Mbyte left the le is not saved. Alias 'autosave'.

autosave : Do not store images readout. This is often used for a qui k look. A warning is
given at the start of every integration if autosave is o . Images an manually be stored
with 'save'.

remsave+ Turn on saving on remote disk. The remote workstation and path must be de ned
in '.biasr '. Alias 'remsave'.

remsave- Turn o saving on remote ma hine.

29
impath (path) Set the dire tory (or path) where images and log les are stored. Default is
the startup dire tory. The spe i ed path is he ked for write permissions, and a ess is
denied if the permissions are inadequate.

remsystem some server Use the remote UNIX ma hine 'some server' for storing remote.
rempath (path) Set the remote path for storing of images.
lename (name) Spe ify the next lename to use. The rst hara ter must be a letter, the
length <= 8 and the last 4 hara ters must be digits. The last 4 digits are in remented
every time an image le is stored with a he k for the existen e of the new lename. When
spe ifying the 4 last digits, any number an be spe i ed as the starting value.

autoshow+ Show images in SaoImage. Alias 'autoshow'.

autoshow- Do not show images in SaoImage.
ls Unix list 'ls' in the impath dire tory.
ll Unix long list 'ls -l' in the impath dire tory.
imexamine Start a pseudo Iraf imexamine in the SaoImage window. The ursor moves to the
SaoImage display window. Hitting the below listed keys starts the des ribed a tion at the
ursor position. The plot utility 'gnuplot' is used for graphi al output. At this time the
following ommands are implemented. Please note the ommands that use the aperture
size while others use the imexbox.

a: aperture photometry. Cal ulates enter, sky and ux. Also FWHM, ellipti ity
and position angle.
 z : Print the values of the pixels in a 10x10 box around the ursor.
 m : Cal ulate statisti s in the aperture.
 : Plot the ursor position olumn a ross the entire image.
 l : Plot the ursor position line a ross the entire image.
 s : Make a surfa e plot from inside a box spe i ed by the ommand 'imexbox'.
 e : Make a ontour plot from a box spe i ed by the ommand 'imexbox'.
 v : Ve tor plot. The 1. position is where the mouse pointer was when 'v' was typed,
2. position when the next 'v' is typed.
u: Ve tor plot symmetri ally around 1. position. 2. position when a se ond 'u' is
typed.
=: Print on the posts ript printer the last plot. The plot s reen disap-pears for a
few se onds.

30
  h : Print a histogram of the entire image.
 X : Bin the image in the x dire tion, and display.
 Y : Bin the image in the y dire tion, and display.
 q : quit imex, and return to BIAS.
Please note that when an integration has just nished, imexamine is automati ally aborted
and program ontrol returned to BIAS.
imexbox (IB) Spe ify the box size used for the imex ommands s and e.
aperture nn The aperture size in pixels. (adjusted to an uneven number ).
magzero nn.nn Set the magnitude zero value for aperture photometry in imexamine
display (name) Display a FITS image in SaoImage from the harddisk. Alias 'ld'.
sethigh H Set high ut and show the image in SaoImage. Alias 'z2'.
setlow L Set low ut and show the image in SaoImage. Alias 'z1'.
z+ Zoom in and out. This zoom works independantly from the
z- SaoImage zoom, this means that the zoom shown in the status display might be wrong. z+
and z- has the advantage the zooms of other fa tors than 2 an be used.
obje t ( Obj ) Spe ify a text to be put into the FITS header with the keyword OBJECT. The
obje t text is left un hanged until next 'obje t' ommand. Maximum no. of hara ters is
16.
omment (text) Comments to put into the FITS header. Maximum 40 hara ters. The text
is leared after it is used in the header.
x omment (text) An additional omment eld. This omment is NOT leared after being
written to the FITS header.
logon Start a log of BIAS ommand s reen input / output. By default a log le is reated.
logo Stop the logging.
rbias Re-read the '.biasr ' le. If the le has been hanged, this ommand re-reads the user
setup.
run ( lename) Run a bat h le. The le ontaining valid bias ommands is exe uted. When
an exposure ommand is given, the ommand i interpreter waits for the integration and
readout to nish, before issuing the next ommand. The le must be in the urrent
dire tory or a the path must be spe i ed. The ommand is espe ially useful for often used
sequen es, perhaps with spe ial geometry.

31
sleep tt Suspend the pro essing of a bat h le for 'tt' se onds.
wait Wait until a key is hit. Useful in 'run' s ripts.
status An 'R' for ready, or a 'B' for busy is returned, indi ating the status of the amera.
(only ready when IDLE). This is a preparation for remote ontrol of the software. The d
temperatures and and optional pressure is also printed, along with the line number being
readout and the exposure time left.

xrun boxsize ommand Control is sent to the SaoImage window, when hitting the 'spa e'
bar, the area of the image de ned by boxsize is stored in a le alled '?????', and ' ommand'
is exe uted as a system all.

saoimage Earlier versions of SaoImage were somewhat unstable. Use this ommand to restart
saoimage.

32
Appendix D

FITS Header
The FITS header at the start of the les ontains information about the exposure. You an
view a le header with the 'less lename' utility in a seperate xterm window, or with the 'head
lename' ommand from inside BIAS.An example is shown here.
OBSERVAT= ' ' /
TELESCOP= ' ' /
INSTRUME= 'HFOSC ' /
DETNAME = 'Site 2kx4k ' /
DATE = '2002-12-16T06:59:12'/
DATE-OBS= '2002-12-11' /
FILENAME= 'll110010' /
OBJECT = 'GRB021211/R/600' /
EXPTIME = 600.000 /
TM START= 76714 / 21/18/34 UT start time
TM END = 77447 / 21/30/47 UT end time
CRVAL1 = 1 /
CRPIX1 = 5.0956130027771 /
CDELT1 = 1 /
CRVAL2 = 1025 /
CRPIX2 = 1.91363000869751 /
CDELT2 = 1 /
COMMENT =
COMMENT =
GAINM = 'HIGH ' / High or Low
AMPLM = 'A B021211/R/600 ' / A / B or AB
CCDTEMP = -100.1 /
LN2TEMP = -186.2 /
COMMENT =

33
MPP = 1 /
CHIPID = 'SITe002 2K x 4K ' /
XOVERSC = 0 /
YOVERSC = 0 /
P DEWAR = 3.5E-07 /
UT = 76714 / 21/18/34 UT start time
SHSTAT = 'OPEN ' /
APERTUR = '8 Free ' / FOSC Aperture ID, step position = 280000
FILTER = '4 Bes R ' / FOSC Filter Des ription
FILTID = 75 / Filter number. 0 = Empty or N/A
FILTPOS = 120000 / FOSC Filter wheel step position
GRISM = '8 Free ' / FOSC Grism ID, step position = 280000
CAMERA = '1415 ' / FOSC Camera fo us
AFILTER = ' 1 Free ' / FU #A Filter des ription
AFILTID = 0 / NOT Filter number. 0 = Empty or N/A
AFILTPOS= 0 / FU #A lter position
BFILTER = ' 1 Free ' / FU #B Filter des ription
BFILTID = 0 / Filter number. 0 = Empty or N/A
BFILTPOS= 0 / FU #B lter position
LAMP = 'OFF ' / Calibration lamp value = 0
WCSDIM = 2
CTYPE1 = 'LINEAR '
CTYPE2 = 'LINEAR '
CD1 1 = 1.
CD2 2 = 1.
LTV1 = 4.0956130027771
LTV2 = 0.91363000869751
LTM1 1 = 1.
LTM2 2 = 1.
WAT0 001= 'system=image'

34
Appendix E

Comparison Spe trum

The identi ation hart of FeAr and FeNe omparison lamps obtained using Gr 7 and Gr 8 are
presented here.

35