4map failed around 19:10 local time.
For some reason that I do not understand (likely my bad) the filter offsets does not agree with the values reported in the NEWFIRM Manual when the filters' AutoFocus option was checked. I noticed this close to the end of the night (~5:00am local time). For example:
Changing from JX to HX adds +270 units. It should be +100.
Changing from HX to KXs adds +120 units, which is correct if we take the difference between HX and KXS relative to JX.
Changing from JX to KXS adds 400, instead of 220; but from KXS to JX substract 220 units and does not go back to the original JX value. Further testing results in the "error" red "led" turned on in the filters section in the GUI. I did "INIT" in the Filters panel but the autofocus option will always result in the "error led" turning on. Marco, I may be missing something in the operation of the system? We can talk during the day and we should do some tests.
Separately, the AEON GUI failed to show the "TARGET ALIGNED" several times. It did appear if the browser was refreshed.
Total Times | Time Observed | Time Engineering | Time lost technical | Time lost weather | Time lost other | Total Program Time |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2025-07-09 | 0.0 | 11.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 11.5 |
Engineering night for AEON testing, with positive results.
- We ran AEON using the new "Blanco_admin" account from LCO. It worked well for uploading programs and to control the OSM during the night.
- We ran AEON for three different prop-ids. At the beginning, there were minor problems of communication between the NEWFIRM interface and AEON setting the observation propid. We called M. Bonati and he worked with Hannah and fixed this promptly.
- The test of the image headers showed that they work well now. After restarting the NEWFIRM GUI, there was another problem with the headers and two detectors were not displayed in the instrument's IRAF display. It is likely that this was related to a race condition from AEON sending commands to set the observations after restarting. The problem was fixed by Hannah and Marco.
- There was a problem for setting the filter offsets if the telescope was slewing or aplying offsets at that moment, which manifests by not applying the filter offset at all. Marco added a fix that allows the system to wait until the telescope slew finishes before changing the filter offset and increased the timeout duration. However, check the "problems" section.
- We tested the "rapid response" option in AEON and it worked well.
- We may need to consider disabling the "SLEW GO" request in the TCS for the AEON mode, and add restrictions on the AEON side.
We produced some usable science data, but some other is out of focus due to the problem of the focus offsets (for example, Palmeses's ToO)