In Warm Room
* Power up Spock
* Bring up CCDOPS from the Windows desktop
* Power on the TV monitor showing the Orion 80mm FOV and widefield view (can switch between views with switch on desk)
* Click on the NIST Time link on the top of the browser list of links, to bring up the live clock of true time.
* bring up a black CMD box and command line. Type in "time" and hit ENTER and the enter the true time a few seconds in the future, and hit ENTER when that moment arrives. This synchs true time into SPOCK so it is used in the pointings. If you fail to do this, I notice the computer internal clock doesn't keep great time any more. It wanders after a week by many seconds - enough to screw up your GoTo's. So this addition of setting the computer time is new and should be obeyed.
In Dome
* Turn on the power strip hanging on the platform right next to the concrete pier, low down. This turns on almost everything. You should hear the exhaust fan under the back wall, and the fan motor on the CCD camera. You should also hear a Windows sound effect on Spock as it recognizes the camera coming on. If not, something's wrong.
* Turn key to the right, on dome motor switch on the right side of the base of the blue dome. This powers the dome motors.
* Toggle the Gemini computer up, which is the metal box just underneath the telescope mount and above the concrete pier
* Open dome slit halfway, then use stick on dome sill to push the remaining few feet till fully open
* Push rope on the slit handle down through the metal rod on far end of slit, and hang the old padlock (don't close it!) so the weight will keep it taught and so it won't catch on the finder scope screws ( a real danger!) during the slewing during the night.
* Remove lens covers to
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12" scope,
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Orion ShortTube finderscope
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The tiny videocam on front lip of scope - carefully - so you don't move it!
In Warm Room
* Click Camera | Setup
* Consult the thermometer near the TV monitor, which radio-receives the temperature from the sensor in the dome, and decide what temperature to set the camera to. You can go 40 degrees Celsius below ambient, but try and use a temperature we already have logged, so save having to make new dark frames. Verify the camera is cooling (lower right of screen should show power at 100% and temperature reading dropping). Currently, thermometer doesn't work, so try a low temperature like -30C and if it can't get there, then raise the set temperature to the temperature that the CCD seems to be able to get down to. Enter the temperature and click "active".
* Click focus to put the camera in focus mode, and click warm pixel fix and dark frame, and use 1 second for integration time. Verify you're getting images downloading every few seconds.
* Click on the rainbow colored Gemini.NET icon on the desktop and see the red virtual hand paddle (VHP) appear on the screen. Make sure to do this before C2A.
* Click connect on Virtual Hand Paddle (VHP)
* Click on warm restart. (Do NOT click warm restart CW down, as this tells Gemini that you've moved the scope while powered off and will wreck your mount model!) and then click Start Now
* On VHP click setup | Advanced Gemini Settings and verify Hand Controller Mode to still set to Allspeeds Also make sure the Gemini Expects J2000 Coords box is unchecked (and if you had to change either, then click crooked arrow on right side of the box, which uploads to Gemini computer).
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Bring up C2A on the blue C2A desktop icon. Do not bring up C2A until the VHP is up and connected. Otherwise, they don't handshake properly
* Click on Telescope | Connect to Telescope. This synch's C2A with the telescope position relayed by Gemini
* Click on Telescope | Go to Telescope Position. If you previously parked the scope, you should now see the telescope bullseye pointing to very close to the North Celestial Pole in C2A
* Pick a bright star about 40 degrees up in the southwest and send telescope there by, in C2A, right-click'ing on the star and telescope | slew telescope
* Center the star on the CCDOPS using the VHP buttons to move the scope, using middle speed "c" (centering speed). and synch it in C2A and in VHP
* (The mount model which currently works well is dated Aug 17, 2013.)
Orientation of the TV, C2A, and CCD frame
* Scope pointing to Western sky: TV field and C2A are aligned. Look at C2A field and crick your neck 90deg to the left and this is the CCD field
* Scope pointing to Eastern Sky: Rotate TV field 180deg to agree with C2A field. Look at C2A field and crick your neck 90deg to the right and this is the CCD field
Focusing
Because they use the same computer I/O port, you can't run both CCDOPS and MaxImDL at the same time. If you try, you'll freeze everything and end up doing a cold-boot of Spock. So...
* Shut down CCDOPS, (click "x" in upper right of screen) and when it asks whether to shut down cooling, say No.
* Click on FocusMax icon. This will automatically also start up MaxIm/DL, so wait till that's accomplished
* In MaxIm DL, in the little foreground box, click focus
* In the next foreground box, make sure CCD has the black dot, seconds is 1.0, dark and continuous are checked,
* Then click start focus, it should then start downloading a new image every second or two.
* Now in FocusMax window, click 'jog button and it'll bring up a little jog focuser box.
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Set the step size (the number in the middle) to
about 100, but it's not critical. It's how much travel the focuser will do when you click in or out.
* Now just click in or out until the stars look sharply focused.
* You're done. Close out of FocusMax, then close out of MaxIm/DL. It'll ask if you want to shut down camera, say yes
* Then immediately after FocusMax and MaxImDL are closed and gone from the taskbar, start up CCDOPS
To Add Stars to the Existing Gemini Mount Model (see Michael Herman's tutorial on model building)
* Right-click on star, telescope | slew telescope
* Fine tune the position using VHP diamond buttons so the star is centered on the CCD chip, then again right-click on star, and in C2A click telescope | calibrate telescope synchs C2A and Gemini to star's coords.
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In the Gemini VHP click Func | Additional Alignment at Current Coordinates which sends coords to Gemini model. Note the little error box which pops up at this time. The error offsets from the model should be a few arc minutes or less, eventually.
* do NOT hit "synch" on any but the first star in a model build! If you do, your model will fail to build, and especially crossing the meridian will always be bad.
Shutting Down the System at the End of the Night
In Warm Room
* In CCDOPS click Camera | Shutdown and shut down temperature control too.
* On VHP, click Park to park telescope at the north celestial pole, counterweight down. It'll ask you to confirm.
* Shut down C2A
*On VHP click disconnect
* Click the red "X" on the red VHP computer desktop panel to shut down the Gemini software. (note the Gemini computer is still on at this point)
* You might have to click off the rainbow icon down on the task tray as well. Make sure it's off, otherwise there's perhaps a risk it'll keep driving the scope in some cases.
* Shut down CCDOPS. It'll ask whether to shut down cooling to camera, say yes.
* On Spock - Start | Turn off Computer | Hibernate
* Turn off finderscope TV monitor power switch and see the little red light go out
In Dome Room, and before Leaving
* Toffle off the Gemini computer above the telescope pier under the mount.
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Cap the 12", Orion ShortTube finderscope, Meade finder scope, and videocamera lens
* Rotate the dome so slit is north, install pulley bar, use the rope to pull slit cover till it pauses at the pulley bar. Remove bar and pull down all the way shut.
* Turn off the powerstrip next to the bottom of the concrete telescpe pier.
* Turn off all room lights, lock up.
Building a New G11 Mount Model from Scratch (I did this in Aug '13. Here's what I did...)
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If you're not already parked at the pole, then on VHP click Park | Park CW Down and confirm. .
* Make sure the telescope starts on the pole, with counterweight down (CWD). Use a plumb bob to insure that you have CWD. If necessary, adjust the positioning using the VHP until you are satisfied it's fairly close to pointing to the NCP and CWD.
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Start up as usual except choose Warm Start on VHP when it comes up.
* click on SetUp | Advanced Gemini Settings
* At bottom of box, click on Model Parameters, bringing up box showing parameters. If they're not all zero...
* Click Clear All | OK
* Click on Apply in the Advanced Gemini Settings box and confirm.
* Click the crooked arrow and send the 0's model parameters to the Gemini computer
* You've now got a zero model.
* Gemini should be assuming you're still aimed at the pole, and it knows the right time and long/lat, so tell it to go to a star in the south/southwest so you can see it in the Meade finderscope, which is very accurately aligned with the main scope...
* In C2A, click on a star (any star) in the south west about 40 degrees or less above horizon (so you can stand on steps and see it in finder scope)
* It'll probably be off by a degree or more. Center it using VHP controls on CCD chip
* In C2A, click Telescope | Calibrate Telescope
* On VHP, click Synch at Current Coordinates
* For all subsequent slews, center each new target star using VHP, click in C2A Telescope | Calibrate Telescope, and in VHP func | additional align at current coords
* Your model will slowly build up. Each time you do this, you'll see a little box showing the error in the model in arcmin. Should start out large, maybe over a degree. It'll drop until after about 20 or 30 stars it's just 3 or 4 arcmin. When you have done ~20 stars on one side of the meridian, go to the otherside and so 20 more, then do a few going one side to the other and see how well it does the meridian flip.
* When you're happy with the model, then on VHP click Setup | Advanced Gemini | save profile and for a name give it the date e.g. Aug17-13.gp.
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If you ever redo polar alignment, you'll have to remake the model from scratch. Or, if you move the scope when powered off.
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If something goes bad, like you wreck your model by adding a bad new star position...
-- on VHP go to advanced Gemini settings tab, click load profile, then click the crooked upload arrow to send it to the Gemini. At the moment, the current working model is called Aug17-13.gp.
-- go to a star and synch at current coords