CASPIR Trouble Shooting

Fill out a fault report for all technical failures (on the same page, search the archive of resolved fault reports - local access only)
For general telescope and console trouble shooting, check the 2.3m Double Beam Spectrograph pages as well.
  1. Rotator drops out of the right position-angle mode
    When observing at high airmass (about 2 or more), cables may wrap around and stop the dewar from rotating to keep the position angle fixed. Keep an eye on the status display in the console. If it happens, move away from these airmasses and reset the position-angle mode you had before, eg.
    rotator/reference position_angle
    rotator 179.4

  2. Focus control lost
    At times the focus control buttons on the console fail to move the focusser. Try switching Telescope Systems off (on console, roughly in the middle just above CD player), leaving the control software running. Switch on again after a few seconds. Another option may be to go to software control of the focusser by typing configure focus_control automatic and focus 500 to move the focusser to 500 mm (example). To return to push-button control, type configure focus_control manual . If even a total shutdown and restart do not change the situation, it is time to call out the on-call technician, provided it is no later than 10pm...

  3. Infrared software display crashes
    If on Mopra one of the figdisp windows (the idle or run display) disappears, the system will hang. Safest and simplest option is to type ir_shutdown in the Decterm where you normally type your caspir commands. (Do a casp/abort first, if you want to stop a running do-file.) When everything has properly shutdown, type ir_startup in the remaining Decterm. This will bring all the normal displays back. Wait for the message 'Relinquishing ownership' and
    type _caspir to set all the defaults. The system should be running as before. If you want to check things, see Getting Going Quickly .
    Note that (re)starting individual subprocesses (as explained in item 5 below) does not usually work - the run display may be up but not connected to the filewriter, which makes all of CASPIR hang (``still waiting for figdisp''). Complete shutdown and restart ensures proper cross talk between all subprocesses.

  4. Aperture definition
    If after some strange event, like a system crash, no stars can be found, one should not only look at the pointing coefficients, but also make sure a valid aperture is selected, with a reasonable position. The telescope will make stars appear in the current aperture which, with a rogue definition, could be way off the detector. Check this with aperture/show . To be on the safe side, select aperture 0 . Get back to the usual CASPIR setting with aperture a and calibrate/aperture or with aperture/define using the values from your original aperture calibration , if you recorded those.

  5. Infrared System Software
  6. SBRC ACE-2 Drive Electronics
  7. MOPRA System Software
  8. Lakeshore Temperature Controller
  9. Console Room Lights