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Reverse Chronology
- 2023-01-10: NSF statement on NSF and SpaceX Astronomy Coordination
Agreement:
-
https://beta.nsf.gov/news/statement-nsf-astronomy-coordination-agreement
Contains the following bullet point regarding Starlink satellites and
the LCH:
SpaceX agreed to analyze the impact of astronomical facility lasers on
its satellites. Following this analysis, the Laser Clearinghouse
removed the coordination requirements for these lasers. Therefore,
adaptive optics lasers at ground-based facilities will no longer
undergo multiple closures every time the SpaceX satellites pass nearby.
- 2021-05-26: E. Gates writes:
-
Installed an external filter wheel on ShARCS with ND and the
narrowband filters that do not fit in the ShARCS dewar (i.e.
ND2, ND4, 2.2/0.04, Kcont, Hcont).
The filters are par-focal.
Sub-optimal because the filters are warm, but makes them
available.
Problem: Occasionally, communication to the Sci Filter
wheel become unresponsive. The recovery is to re-start the
saomot5 service.
- 2021-05-10: M. Shetrone writes:
-
In 2021B we do not expect to have the field steering tip-tilt for
the laser working. Thus, we expect you will have AO LGS on axis
in the same way it operated in 2021A. Please confirm with me that
this is acceptable. If not please let me know if you want to
withdraw your proposal or if you would prefer AO NGS.
- 2021-03-19: E. Gates writes:
-
The WFS Dichroic stage has been fixed (this is the first time it has
worked since the instrument arrived on Mount Hamilton in 2014).
Modified and aligned so that we should have
the full field steering range expected with the WFS stage upgrade.
The saomot GUI has changed slightly to reflect the new working state
of the motor and the two WFS Dichroic options (NIR Splitter and Empty).
For now we shall always want the NIR Splitter in until such time
as we get a visible dichroic beam splitter so we can do I-band (and
maybe R-band) imaging with ShARCS.
The following URL has been fully updated:
http://mtham.ucolick.org/techdocs/instruments/ShaneAO/saomot/
Other web pages that refer to this stage and shall be updated.
There is one pending repair to the WFS Dichroic stage, which is to fix
the cable loopback signal, which is currently not working.
This is not critical for operations, so will likely be fixed in April
2021 or as soon as Gabe can find time to get up to the mountain to
look into the SAO wiring.
- 2020-10-26--2020-10-30:
-
Re-commissioning of ShaneAO system follwing intervention to replace
Wave Front Sensor mechanism.
The content of some GUIs has been modified as a result.
Some motors/keywords, formerly used by the pre-2020-10-26 WFS
mechanism have been removed (e.g. STEER2RY, STEER2RX,
STEER1RX, STEER1RY, WFSFOCUS).
- 2019-10-28:
-
P. Zachary writes (AO TT Y-stage update):
I removed the brakes from both the X and Y axis and tried moving
the stages by hand, both seemed just fine. Next, I put a load on
the stage and in the horizontal orientation things seemed fine
but when I raised the stage to vertical I saw 8 inch-Lbs of force
needed to hold the stage and about 11 needed to move it. This
continued for almost half the stage travel at which point the 8
inch-lbs became zero and the force needed to move it rose very
slightly. From this it was obvious that there was a significant
amount of drag introduced to the system.
Disconnecting the lead screw made it obvious the the slide bearings
were just fine and the problem was in the motor drive. Loosening
the motor drive from the stage showed the ball-nut was free to move
and the binding was absolutely in the motor itself.
Disassembling the motor seems to indicate the front bearings are
fine and the problem was the rotor interfering with the windings.
There is some chance this contamination originated in the manufacture
or handling of the motor or stage since it is not completely sealed
but I feel there is a high probability this contamination this material
may have originated from within the brake located on the back (and
unfortunately above) of the motor. I'm cleaning the motor out now and
then we will wire it up for Will to test. I expect to be done with
the mechanical part later today but not sure when D. Black might
have it wired for W. Deich to test.
Overall, it feels like neither an endorsement nor condemnation of the
Griffin stage but is something to remember should we have problems in
future. It seems to me that it might be worth making sure the design
wiring allows removal of a motor without too much pain and then we
could buy a motor to have in case of trouble.
D. Cowley and C. Ratcliffe both feel it is not worth reinstalling this
stage in any case since the upgrade is just around the corner.
- 2019-09-07:
-
Standard set of LGS Alignment Stars near zenith introduced.
- 2019-08-20:
-
E. Gates writes:
I moved the telescope to see how the TTCamY stage moves at different
declinations. Movement is improved with the higher torque limit,
but we still cannot move the stage properly everywhere on the sky.
I believe we can do dithering as normal in the Dec range of +15 degrees
to +70 degrees, with the lower declination limit being a little
uncertain. Certainly at a Dec of +7 deg (30 degrees south of zenith),
the stage could not do moves against gravity successfully.
At Dec=+7 degrees, the torque was pegged at its maximum (-6.25V) just
holding its position. Our observer (Jon Zink) on Aug 21st only has
targets below Dec +7 deg, so his program will be unable to use LGS
dithering for any of their targets, so we will have to work around
that doing any offsets with the field steer motors with the telescope
near zenith, changing the mode to Pos OFF, then acquiring
their off-axis guide stars, and doing separate sky background frames.
I believe we need to further investigate the counterweight option for
TTCAMY so we can have proper motion over the entire 45 degree
zenith distance range of LGS operations.
We also have temperature monitoring of the motor housing working,
so I will keep track of that through the night to make sure we do
not cook the motor. Temperature of the motor housing right now is
about 42C with no extra gravity load, which I am going to assume
is normal.
W. Deich writes:
Yesterday afternoon I did some detailed tests to characterize the
motor further. Dale had posited that the Hall sensors might not be
reliably showing correct voltage, so I did a check of that, too.
One of the tests was to power-cycle the Galil -- to ensure consistent
starting conditions -- and then do a simple brushless init, carefully
monitoring the Galil-reported brushless phase. The init consists of:
BIF=-1 # Tell the Galil to use standard Hall inputs
BCF # Tell Galil to learn the precise phase angle.
SHA # Motor on
SPA=500 # Slow speed...
PRA=2500 # ...for 2500 counts of motion
BGA # Begin motion.
Two noteworthy points:
a) Sometimes the motor would draw excessive current as soon as 'SHA'
was given, which suggests the Galil did not get the correct phase
from the Halls. One thing I did *not* do, which in hindsight
would be useful, is to record the Hall sensor values immediately
before and after power-cycling the Galil. That would provide a
check on whether it is remaining correct.
b) I monitored the Hall sensor outputs while the galil moved through
circa 120 changes in Hall value. Each time, the transition came at
about the expected number of encoder counts (1111.1111), and the
Halls showed the expected value.
- 2019-06-17:
-
W. Deich writes:
We recently encountered an odd error with the TTCAMX and
TTCAMY motors: the Galil claimed it was putting out
maximum continuous torque (indicated by +-4V on TTCAMX,
+-3V on TTCAMY) to try and hold position at angles
where much less should be fine.
This was the case on Sunday night (2019-06-16), when TTCAMX
was unable to move correctly, and it was the case Sunday morning,
when TTCAMY was misbehaving.
The Galil has to know the brushless phase (with respect
to the motor windings). At initial power-up, it doesn't
know the phase precisely, so it uses the Hall sensors to
get a good enough value - it will typically be in error
by 30 degrees, but this still is enough to move the motor.
We tell it to learn the very accurate phase by watching
for the moment at which the on Hall sensors switch state.
If the Galil has the wrong phase, it will be range between
more difficult and impossible to move the motor.
On the off chance that the Galil somehow lost brushless
phase information, I told the Galil to re-learn the phase,
and that resolved the problem. Here's how to do this.
(I do not know why TTCAMX and TTCAMY were
at incorrect phase. The Galil claimed that the axes were
brushless-initialized, yet a re-init corrected their behavior.
It would require a combination of the motor encoder not reading
out, while the stage drifted by a hundred counts or more.)
-
First, this will not help if the Galil requires the usual
amount of 'torque' (voltage to the amplifier), and is simply
holding position poorly.
This might help if the Galil is putting out full
power (+- 4V on TTCAMX; +- 3V on
TTCAMY) to hold, when you are pretty sure that is
not normal.
-
Put the telescope at zenith (more or less).
-
Put the stage into the Halt state, using the GUI.
-
From shred (it has the saomot.io command
installed), issue low-level commands to turn on the motor,
start a "brushless calibration", and start jogging slowly:
For TTCAMX:
saomot.io ctrl1aux='SHF'
saomot.io ctrl1aux='BCF;JGF=500;BGF'
Verify that it is moving by observing that
the TTCAMX raw position is increasing by
about 500 cts/sec, then stop it:
saomot.io ctrl1aux='STF'
For TTCAMY:
saomot.io ctrl1aux='SHE'
saomot.io ctrl1aux='BCE;JGE=500;BGE'
Verify that it's moving by observing that
the TTCAMY raw position is increasing by
about 500 cts/sec, then stop it:
saomot.io ctrl1aux='STE'
You can now resume normal controls. The torque should no longer
be at max output.
Trouble issue(s): 11866;
11819;
11788.
- 2019-05-30:
-
TTCamX stage won't calibrate:
It appears to move fine until it gets to the Find Index stage,
where it turns the motor off and gives:
error -5413 "Decel or stop due to Off-on-Error - can be positioning error, amplifier error, or an 'abort' input."
It moves down fine, but has a lot of trouble going up.
I can sometimes get it to go up if I give it a helping hand.
I'm suspecting we need better tuning (happening tomorrow),
but maybe a mechanical help of a stronger spring might make a difference?
Trouble issue(s): 11866.
- 2019-04-18:
-
TTCam stage workaround for the rest of the run:
TTCamY stage won't move properly at all at Dec < 7 degrees,
Hence LGS mode dithering or field steering is not possible at
Dec < 7 degrees.
If observing at a 7 < Dec < 20 degrees, set OFE=-2.5:
user@shred: saomot.io ctrl1aux='OFE=-2.5'
If observing at a Dec > 20 deg, set OFE=0:
user@shred: saomot.io ctrl1aux='OFE=0'
If you have difficulty at Decs between 30 and 37,
try using OFE=-2.5.
user@shred: saomot.io ctrl1aux='OFE=-2.5'
If failures continue, employ on-axis LGS observing and nod to sky
to get backgrounds instead of dithering.
Trouble issue(s): 11819;
11788.
- 2019-04-18:
-
Intervention to address recent TT Cam X, TT Cam Y motor
failures. Limited success.
On receiving instrument for night operation, beam path was found to be
obstructed by Cal Y stage. Galil motor controller 2 (which
controls Cal Y stage via channel F) was found to be in error
state. Inspection of cabling to Galil motor controller 2 revealed
terminal strip fan-out connector/card that attaches externally to the
Galil controller was not properly seated (despite the caputure screws
being securely fastened).
Trouble:
11788;
11819;
11820.
- 2019-02-01:
-
Replacement Galil hardware and accompanying upgraded firmware and code
installed.
This should reslove a number of troubles with TTCam brushless motors
(e.g. Lenslet, TTCamX, TTCamY). Note:
-
Whenever the Galils are power-cycled, the saomot
dispatchers must be restarted.
-
To calibrate the brushless motor stages (lenslet,
TTCamX, and TTCamY) after a Galil
power-cycle, it is necessary to issue the calibrate commnad
twice.
Trouble: 11717.
- 2018-12-07:
-
Update of procedure to accommodate USAF Space Command additional/extra
shutdowns.
- 2018-10-26:
-
-
Introduction of 8x NGS mode scripts:
/local/u/user/observers/lgs/scripts/saoBxytmp8xNGS <nexpo> (center)
and,
/local/u/user/observers/lgs/scripts/on-axis8
- 2018-08-29:
-
-
- 2018-05-30--2018-07-02:
-
-
ShARCS on UCSC campus for overhaul.
Trouble: 11269;
Trouble: .
ShARCS returned to the mountain after filter wheel repairs.
After the first round of ShARCS servicing it was discovered
that filter wheel #2 was now repaired, but filter wheel #1
no longer moved. When warmed up, ShARCS #1 moved fine, so
there was clearly something wrong when the dewar was cold.
Over the (2018-05-19, 2018-05-20) weekend Dale Sandford took
things apart, rebuilt wheel #1 with the correct bearing, and
cooled and tested. ShARCS is now (2018-05-22) cooling and
just got cold enough to test motor motion.
Right now everything looks like it is working, need to do
the following:
- Check pupil alignment
- Check repeatability of aperture wheel positioning
- Check general alignment
Right now general alignment looks OK, with the white light
source coming in close to the position it was in before on
ShARCS when loops are closed.
- 2018-04-05--2018-05-15:
-
-
ShARCS on UCSC campus for investigation/replacement of filter
wheel bearings and all other necessary measurements (o-rings,
etc.) preparatory to the servicing/overhaul foreseen for June
2018.
Trouble: 11269.
- 2018-03-09:
-
ShARCS Filter Wheel Bearings:
- 2018-02-XX:
-
- 2018-01-30:
-
-
Shane primary mirror support readjustment and migration of LGS
parameters.
- 2017-12-28:
-
-
For LGS operations slinelamp_fe Spare2 power supply
outlet has been repaired and
laser TT mirror has been re-connected to the Spare2 power
supply. Spare2 should again be used routinely from now on
(following 2017-11-29 fall-back to Spare1).
Laser startup checklist in SAO_ops.html and the shutdown
checklist in SAO_shutdown (as root on mtham) have been
updated to reflect this change.
- 2017-12-03:
-
Low ambient temperature (circa 37 °F / 2.7 °C):
-
WFS lenslet array fails to move from 16x to 8x mode.
Trouble: 10159.
-
Woofer heater rendered insufficient.
Trouble: 10160.
- 2017-12-02:
-
-
Fiber source stage loose wire at Galil controller.
Trouble: 11187.
- 2017-11-29:
-
-
2-inch, wider passband Sodium TT filter installed (replaces
1-inch filter, which appeared to introduce severe focus
aberration).
-
For LGS operations, in slinelamp_fe GUI activate
Spare1 outlet (formerly Spare2 was used, but was found
to be unserviceable during the Puetter / AeroSpOpIR visitor
instrument run 2017-10-06--2017-10-11).
- 2017-10-30:
-
-
Hybrid acquisition procedure and scripts for Hennawi program
introduced.
- 2017-09-28:
-
-
/local/u/user/observers/lgs/scripts/on-axis script
introduced.
- 2017-08-04:
-
-
LGS power of 2.3 W compromises observations.
- 2017-07-10:
-
-
Limit switched on various ShaneAO motor stages lubricated.
- 2017-06-30--2017-07-03:
-
-
ShARCS visits UCSC campus for ion pump replacement.
- 2017-05-26:
-
-
Time-critical AO system safety software (e.g. laser shutdown
monitor, LSM) is now running on the virtual machine
shimmy.
Previous concerns about running time-critical software on virtual
machines have been circumvented by:
-
Installation of new/replacement 100 GB switch.
-
Debugging of some of A. Rudy's code to resolve the former
hogging by some of those processes.
-
- 2017-05-12:
-
-
The machine formerly known as shard was re-tasked as a
replacement for the then-flaky old kaready.
Trouble: 10919.
-
- 2017-03-14--2017-03-15:
-
-
- 2017-03-13:
-
-
Temporarily run LSM.tcl on shard.ucolick.org
instead of virtual machine shred.ucolick.org to
circumvent sluggishness issues.
Trouble: 10812.
-
- 2017-03-12:
-
-
Low return from Sodium layer?
-
Shane line lamp controller toggle switch OFF:
Trouble: 10810.
-
shred sluggish:
Trouble: 10811;
Trouble: 10812.
-
- 2017-03-10:
-
-
ShARCS USB cable replaced:
Trouble: 10804.
-
- 2017-01-16: User turk consuming CPU:
-
-
Legitimate user turk has runaway python
process: sharcstherm, consuming (100 per cent CPU)
resources on shred.ucolick.org, causing safety
systems (e.g. Laser Shutdown Monitor, LSM.tcl)
to run sluggishly.
Proposed: Additional host shredly.ucolick.org
for dedicated time-critical software.
-
- 2017-01-14: Sodium (Na) Filter replaced:
-
-
When the Na filter is inserted, set cx=-0.03 and
cy=-0.03
in the fieldsteer.tcl GUI to ensure centering is correct.
Remember to go Back On-Axis after removing the Na filter.
-
- 2016-12-18: ShARCS FITS header dates/times:
-
-
Use the DATE-BEG FITS header keyword in preference
to unreliable DATE-OBS, TIME-OBS,
TIME-END keywords, as documented in the FITS Header
Keyword of
ShARCS user manual
Trouble: 10682
- 2016-11-30: Miscellaneous updates:
-
-
Woofer heater thermostat installed:
Whenever the temperature in the AO system is less than 55 F,
it will turn on the heater.
-
1-inch Sodium filter replaced 2-inch Sodium filter.
On-sky tests pending.
-
Reconnected large number of loose connections on screw
terminals.
- 2016-11-17--2016-11-23: SideCar ASIC IDE Failure:
-
Cause: Teledyne Scientific Sidecar ASIC IDE software corrupted,
possibly resulting from inelegant reboots (via power-cycle)
of Windows XP host.
Solution: Back-up files. Uninstall Sidecar Server software.
Copy Sidecar Server installer from CVS repositories.
Re-install Sidecar software via installer.
Copy relevant files (e.g. Test.soln) from
back-up directory.
Trouble: 10629
- 2016-11-22: Spontaneous partial recovery of Tip-Tilt Camera Malfunction:
-
- 2016-11-19: VNC Display (1) VNC: AO Crash:
-
Cause: Interaction with ShaneAO loop control GUI (saocon_gui).
Solution: Re-start 1) shaneao real-time code,
2) ShaneAO loop control GUI (saocon_gui).
Trouble: 10628
- 2016-11-02: All ShaneAO services migrated to virtual host shred.ucolick.org:
-
ShaneAO services formerly running on shade.ucolick.org
have been moved to shred.ucolick.org. All Shane hosts,
including shade.ucolick.org, have had their services
files updated to refer to shred.ucolick.org instead of
shade.ucolick.org.
Only peeko and ttpeeko remain running on
shade.ucolick.org under the gavel account.
Those should NOT be moved to shred.ucolick.org at this
time.
shade.ucolick.org will no longer start any services at
boot time.
- 2016-10-27: Internet connectivity to ShaneAO system lost, resulting
in loss of connection of the sharcs server:
-
Caused shaneao software to crash.
Solution: Re-boot of real.ucolick.org and re-start of
shaneao software.
- 2016-10-26: Tip-Tilt Camera Malfunction at 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000 Hz:
-
Tip-tilt camera is not functioning at faster rates,
with not all quadrants working.
However, Tip-tilt to continue functioning at 40 Hz and 125 Hz.
Workaround: use 125 Hz for acquistion of targets and monitoring
in NGS.
Spontaneous partial recovery (of 250 and 500 Hz) 2016-11-22?
- 2016 Q3: Modified alignment parameters:
-
-
Alignment windowing: start x = 1061,
end x = 1160, start y = 710,
end y = 809
-
Alignment 16x parameters: WFSCam rate (Hz): 250;
Tweeter+Woofer gain: 0.2; Tweeter bleed: 0.900;
Woofer bleed: 0998
-
Alignment 8x parameters: WFSCam rate (Hz): 250;
Tweeter+Woofer gain: 0.1; Tweeter bleed: 0.950;
Woofer bleed: 0995
- 2016-07-XX/2016-08-XX: Intervention to replace motor(s):
-
WFS Steering Mirror 2 stage did not go back in to the same position.
Thus in NGS mode, when dithering by scales larger than 2.5 arcseconds
using the conventional scriptproc.tcl, bxy script,
waffle patterns are manifested in the tweeter display.
Workaround: The following temporary dithering script can be used:
user@shred.ucolick.org:/observers/lgs/scripts/saoBxy4tmpNGS
- 2016-01-21: PAM and PRM file naming convention modifications:
-
-
Laser Clearing House (LCH) has recently upgraded software to
generate PAMs. This upgrade contains several new features,
one requiring a simple change on the part of the laser
owner/operators.
As of January 2016, use the following naming convention for
all PRM files posted to space-track.org for laser
predictive avoidance.
This naming convention is required for import into the 14-2
system in this EXACT configuration:
PRM_LaserOwner_A_B_##Mon####_For_JDAY###_TargetType.txt
To clarify:
This naming convention is case sensitive and all fields
are required, including a total of 7 underscores.
No spaces are allowed, use only the 7 underscores.
The Laser Owner field is self-explanatory and unchanged from
current/previous guidance.
Fields A and B should be unique to the program, laser, mission,
etc. Whatever characters are in between the underscores for A
and B will be returned to the laser owner/operator in the PAM
file (as shown below).
The intent was to provide space for Laser Name and unique ID
in these spaces but there is no specific requirement.
Example: PRM_Lick_589nm_15W_1urad_13kHz_26Jan2016FORJDay_026_AZEL.txt
Example: PRM_Lick_589nm_15W_1urad_13kHz_26Jan2016FORJDay_026_RADEC.txt
Date (##Mon####) is date submitted and For_JDAY###
is date of activity.
The 14-2 system will then run the PAM files to be returned to the
laser owner/operators in the following naming convention:
PAM_LaserOwner_A_B_T+000_##Mon####_For_JDAY###_TargetType.txt
Date (##Mon####) is date run by DECON, T-### is
how many days from JDAY window requested by laser
owner/operator.
Example: PAM_Lick_589nm_15W_T-001_25JAN2016_For_JDAY026_AZEL-1.txt
Example: PAM_Lick_589nm_15W_T-001_25JAN2016_For_JDAY026_RADEC-1.txt
- 2016-01-04: sharcs_fe modifications:
-
-
In Window GUI, Center Zoom sets windowing to
zoom region for alignment.
-
Config and Scripts elimiated from menus.
- 2015-12-21: sharcsdisplay modifications:
-
fwhm tool modified from former Lick AO system to:
-
Make improved (but still not true) Strehl ratio estimates
for each wavelength. Strehl ratio ≤ 0.65
(initially 0.65) is the
threshold for attemting image sharpening.
-
Determine filter from image header.
If filter is missing from header (sometimes happens with
sub-images), FeII is assumed.
- 2015Q4: Low temperature (≤ 44°F) lenslet array issue.
-
- 2015-12-07 (Notification 2015-11-24): space-track.org modification:
-
On 7 December 2015, Space-Track will change how long files are retained
on the FILES Panel.
Each folder will have a setting that determines how many days its files
are retained before they are deleted.
To see files you have access to and their scheduled deletion dates
please go to the following URL:
Space-Track: File Deletions
Any file with a deletion date prior to 7 December 2015 will actually be
deleted on 7 December 2015.
- 2015-11-23: space-track.org modification:
-
Support added for uploading multiple files via a single API
command. Visit the Beta site's How To section using the following URL to
see examples of uploading/downloading files through the API.
Space-Track: How To Upload Multiple Files
- 2015-02-17: Laser Shutdown Monitor modification:
-
Enhancing laser safety.
PAM files are processed in the same way (using
lsmParse, lsmCheck, and lsmNames) and the
new monitor software is:
user@shard:/usr/local/lick/bin/LSM.tcl
The new monitor checks the position listed in the .lsm file
(and type, AZEL or RADEC) with the telescope state
(position and tracking) in addition to the satellite shutdowns.
If there are problems, use the old software:
user@shard:/usr/local/lick/bin/lsm.tcl
and edit the target .lsm file to remove the first two lines
(starting with Type: and Target:, respectively).
The required format for LGS target lists submitted by observers has also
been modified. The modified format is described at the following URL:
http://mtham.ucolick.org/techdocs/instruments/ShaneAO/prep/
Observers can use either the slightly revised Lick format or Keck format
target lists.
Instructions for how to deal with target lists using
targetListParse.tcl are available at the following URL:
http://mtham.ucolick.org/techdocs/techref/ShaneAO/LGStargetLists.html
- 2015-01-01--2015-01-02: Woofer low temperature (≤ 50°F) issue
-
Woofer heater fabricated.
- 2014-09-05--2014-09-09: Detector Controller, stealthie trouble.
-
- 2014-05-15--2014-05-18: First science run.
-
- 2014-05-09: Draft Operations HTML document structure created (P. Lynam).
-
- 2014-05-06--2014-05-11: Second commissioning run
-
- 2014-04-09--2014-04-15: First commissioning run
-
Including first light image of Phi Geminorum.
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