CHAMP/MIRC Observing Run 2011May
UT2011May20
UT2011May21
Beams 6 (W2) - 1 (W1)
Observed HD 192985.
image on L1 (both B1, b6) was bad. 40-50% of the flux.
UT2011May22
CHAMP B3(W1)-B4(W2)
Observers: JDM, FB, CF.
Goals:
- Observe targets under varying SNR conditions to test cophasing and gdt.
- Test the 3 readout modes (Fast, Normal (12Hz Dither, 120Hz Fringes), Slow (6Hz Dither/60Hz fringes)
- First YSO observations for CHAMP !!!!
2:47am Aligning on HD 197950 (K=5.1), cal for MWC 361 (HD 200775)
B3 W1 B4 W2
Using Normal mode (500Hz) B3 L3: max 15 cts. Image quality ok, maybe out of focus B3 R4: max 20 cts. Image quality ok, maybe out of focus B4 L4: max 3 cts. VERY VERY FAINT. B4 R4: max 5 counts. also very faint.
3-3:45am Re-aligned CHAMP table using red laser. There seemed to be some issues and it will be interesting to see if we improve the throughput.
B3 L3: 10-15cts. [same as earlier] B3 R4: 20-30cts. [ maybe slightly better] B4 L4: 15-20cts. [much better] B4 R4: 20 cts.
Total cts. ~40 on each L4, R4.
Searching for fringe s. B34 offsets 0->8mm. searched 0 -> -8mm
no fringes. maybe we missed them. we searched pretty slow (10 micron/sec) found them. B3-4 FT Off: -0.308mm
files: ChAMP: champ00013-15.. tried to do GDT tracking. but did not seem to work too well.
maybe too bad seeing? Seeing: W1 9cm/W2 3cm
end of night. not so good.
UT2011May23
We were ready to do 6 telescope MIRC+ CHAMP. CHAMP table freshly fully aligned with red laser.
but high humidity kept us closed all night.
UT2011May24
Another attempt at MIRC6t + champ6t.
E1 telescope covers stopped working (M1 and M2). ugh.
trying Mirc-5t.
closed 2:30am due to high humidity.
opened at ~3:15am. some strong gusts and horrible seeing: r0~1cm. images on champ >3" fwhm.
Nu cyg (K=3.8, 0.6mas). We search for fringes on S1S2 (B1B2) and found fringes at delay +8.1mm but moving too fast 12Hz to gdt lock.
Xiao could not find any light on MIRC under these conditions.
moving to Deneb to test fiber explorer. also will run champ in faster mode.
We are finding champ fringes on S1 S2. but no luck in tracking them for long. maybe they are dropping out. champ00010 -> basically continuous data saving while we are trying various gdt gains, etc.
discovered bug where the counter does not seem to work that keeps state in semilock even when no fringe.. fixing.
around #259 we tried gdt gain 0.7, which seems to be more stable. gdt accum 1. semi-lock -> search 2. search->semi-lock threshold 5.
UT2011May25
clear weather. seeing is bad. r0=~5-6cm
MIRC Goals: a) 6T Fringes !!! (15 of them) on Gam Lyr, then maybe beta lyr. SAVE SOME DATA!! maybe do science with it. GRISM 150. b) Get GDT tracking working using GUI. Test bootstrap6. c) phase upw ith champ and take data on YSO simultaneously.
CHAMP GOALS:
a) Test new SWEEP mode.
b) Take data on YSO.
11:30a Target: Gam Lyr MIRC found light from all telescopes (beam 5 really weak though). as usual.
CHAMP: fast mode. 1200Hz sampling. (30hz dithers) aligning for B12. S1B1: L1: 20-30. L1: 1-20 (weak) R2:30. S2B2: L2: 30 R2: 30
B1B2: champ fringes +7.9mm
MIRC: trying to see all fringes. gam lyr. W1:0 W2:-1.27mm E1:3.72mm E2: RAN OUT OF DELAY
1:00am
126columns: GRISM150. 1.65, 0.3 peak #s: B3B5: column 38,88 B4B5: 76,50 B3B4: 24,102
going to DELTA CYG now. UD ~0.9. H=2.95 MIRC: S1 -3.81 S2 +3.98 W1 REF (0.00) W2 -1.57 E2 +1.11 E1 +3.01
1:10am TAKing DATA 6T FRINGES!!!! oh no. spooler crashed after 1 file!! not sure why. file 21.
1:27a spooler working better (no fix.. just luck) BG: 25-31 .. crashed at 32. crash maybe related to taking background frames while saving data.
MIRC 6T test data!! for history. BG: 33-37
keep having problems with mirkwood saving.
Seeing update: 3-5cm. BAD!
CHAMP update: working on 'SWEEP' mode seems to work now.. will try on sky
3am. seeing update. 3-5cm. 7 And: H=3.76, UD 0.7mas ish.
using this star to find fringes and check our sweep code. we have only about 30 TOTAL counts in L2R2.. (on fast mode though).
HEY our SWEEP mode works pretty well! even under bad seeing we are sweeping and keeping the fringe in S1S2.
