ENR CTIO Blanco 4-m 2012-11-26

Full pointing map obtained Longer exposures for guider tests obtained. In full: A choppy start caused by an FCM timeout and ignorance cost us some time. The first zero went fine, but a subsequent object exposure appeared to hang (in retrospect, the FCM timed out). We did not notice the FCM timeout and tried to reset and reconfigure. The reconfigure command hung and we tried a full restart. We forgot to specify an .ini file and SISPI hung. We ended up killing processes until SISPI gave up the ghost. Then a restart worked and we had the same problem with the zero and then the FCM timeout. This time we noticed the FCM timeout and brought it back with an "ICS" "FCM" "get ad" command (as suggested by Hernan). Everything went fine from then, but we lost over an hour faffing about over this. Thanks to David James for bailing me out. SISPI is VERY confusing when you're not sure what you're doing! I repeated the pointing map of last night. This time, I calculated the offsets in Excel and gave them to Alberto to input them into the data collection program. Note: these offsets incorporate an arbitrary offset of -100" in declination to move the also arbitrary pointing center onto the detector S4. That is, the presumed center of the field for these offsets is actually 100" to the north of that used previously. This is so that I could occasionally actually apply an offset to make sure everything is doing what I think it is doing. To get the unadulterated I will send the Excel file to the relevant people at the end of the night. For those people, use the second sheet (named 20121126+27) and the columns are: Column A: the exposure number Column B: exposure type Column C: Exposure time Column D: Filter Column E: Entry number in the table of pointing map pointings Column F: Altitude of field in point map table Column G: Azimuth of field in pointing map table Column H: RA of selected field as reported by TCS Column I: DEC of selected field as reported by TCS Column J: CCD on which the bright star falls (S4 or N4) Column K: Physical x coordinate (DEC) on which the star is found on the CCD Column L: Physical y coordinate (RA) on which the star is found on the CCD Column M*: RA Offset to apply to put the star on the mid point of the CCD in RA Column N: DEC offset to apply to put the star 100" north of the mid-point of the gap between S4 and N4 Column O*: DEC offset to apply to put the star in the mid point between CCDs S4 and N4 Column P: Notes on the exposure (*) NOTE: Due to my (extensive) confusion over coordinate systems, some (many?) of the values given to the operator to record in the pointing map table were in error (Alberto and Hernan were very patient, but I was hopeless). Instead, please use columns _M_ and _O_ of the Excel table which I calculated as I figured out various mistakes. I am as sure as I can be that these numbers are now correct. 4MAP went down once and unfortunately I forgot to record it in my log, so I don't know when exactly. It should be noted that previous pointing maps have incorporated a cosine(DEC) correction to the RA offsets, which is not appropriate for the TCS analysis. That is, the images are probably good, but need re-analysis. I do not have a clue if this might improve matters for the TCS pointing model, but it is certainly something to try. We finished the night with 5 5 minute exposures starting 1 hour East of zenith. Unfortunately, they started right at the beginning of twilight, so I hope this works.