Troubleshooting guide

It should print out some statements such as
Moving guide box to lock position 2.
Executing /home/raines/gdrrpc/gdrrpc guide pos2
gdrrpc reply =
Executing /home/raines/gdrrpc/gdrrpc guide on
At this point three guide lock positions have been defined, and the telescope is locked and guiding in
beam A, which is 4" away (South, I think) from the initial alignment position for the long slit.
4. Insert filter and grism combination with config.rel.mv.filter.grism.decker.wheels.pl [Move Wheels].
5. Verify bias is set to 0.75 V for spectroscopy when prompted after moving the Grism wheel.
6. Configure filename and exposure time with config.exposure.pl
7. Start spectral dither sequence, dither.mos.nonudge.kp2m.pl. Repeat as necessary.
8. Take one or more sets of dome flats at end of dither sequence (cf. §. V. E. Taking Spectra with
FLAMINGOS: Taking Flats and Wavelength Calibrations).
9. Take a long slit spectrum of a telluric absorption star at a similar airmass to that at the middle of the
dither sequence. Use a bright star with spectral type G5-6 V.
10.Some observers also take a long slit spectrum of an A0 V star.
E. Taking Flats & Wavelength Calibrations
There are two types of calibrations required for long slit and MOS spectra: wavelength calibration and flat
fields. Because the 2.1-m guider is removed to install FLAMINGOS, there is no built-in set of arc lamps or
quartz lamps for these calibrations. Since there are no arc lamps, wavelength calibration must be done using the
OH sky lines present in the target spectra. These lines are generally not saturated even for integration times as
long as 600 seconds.
Flatfields must be obtained using the imaging flatfield lamps and a blank section of dome (not necessarily the
white spot). These data should be taken contemporaneously with your target: there may be flexure between the
slit and the detector which is dependent on telescope hour angle (HA) and zenith distance (ZD). Additionally, if
one tries to take them at a later time, it may not be possible to precisely insert the slit and grism in exactly the
same way as they were when set up on the target. More than one flat field data set may be required if the
observation spans a large enough range of hour angles ( 1 hour, possibly).
We recommend the following:
• If the target is a bright standard star, then the observation time probably is short and a single set of
calibrations, taken after the target, should suffice.
• If the target is faint, and the time on source is long, take more than one set of flats at several different
hour angles that lie within the same range of hour angles as covered by the science target, but take
them all after finishing the target observations. For example, if the science target is taken over the
hour angle range from -2:30 to +1:00, take a set of flats at the final hour angle, then move the
telescope back to an hour angle similar to the initial hour angle to take another set of flats (the
telescope does not need to be tracking). Or, if you only have time for one set of flats, consider moving
the telescope to the midpoint of the track in hour angle.
The following procedure is used for taking flats after taking science target spectra. The alignment of the slit,
filter and grism should not have been changed from that used for the science target. This procedure can easily
take 15 or more minutes, as the dome has to be properly positioned.
FLAMINGOS@2.1-m, Ver. 2.39, 2011 May 13 Page 31 of 46