3. When you enter the dome the telescope should be in its parked position.

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1 Chow Telescope Operation (JLW ) 1. The green key is located in the large cabinet in the NE area of dome one (16-inch dome). It should be sitting on top of a black pelican case on the third shelf. 2. Open the dome doors by inserting the key in the bottom slot. Turn the green key to the right and red key to the left to open the door. When closing, turn the red key to the right and green key to the left. The smaller door on the left should also be opened by releasing the upper and lower latches. There are built in metal devices on the doors that allow you to hold them both open. 3. When you enter the dome the telescope should be in its parked position.

2 3. Open the dome by pressing the Upper Open and Lower Open buttons. Closing the dome is done by pressing the Upper Close and Lower Close buttons. 4. Next, the mirror cover needs to be opened. Before you do this, you will need to log into the computer. You should log in under operator and the password is fnbvc2015. This will open up one of the two GUI's. Either I/O GUI or the TCS GUI. The drive motors should automatically start but if they do not click the track on button. I/O GUI TCS GUI

3 5. Before we open the cover we need to HOME the telescope. This should be done from the I/O GUI. Click HOME and the telescope will move a little bit to the home position. Also a countdown will appear on the screen. DO NOT press anything else or move anything until the countdown is complete. This only takes about a minute. 6. Now we are ready to open up the mirror cover. You will need to use the hand paddle to move the telescope into a safe position to do this. The lower left knob controls the speed 1 is the slowest and 8 is the fastest. Pressing the upper left button (Fast) while using the joystick will increase the speed. 7. Open the top and bottom covers first, followed by the side covers. You may have to push up some on the top cover so that it opens all the way. Mirror Cover Closed Mirror Cover Opened

4 7. You are now ready to point the telescope to an object. The eyepieces are in the black pelican case to the left of the computer desk. It might be best to start with a lower power eyepiece first to find your object. GOTO is available for Messier, NGC objects, and bright stars, however, pointing is currently about one deg. off. So you will probably need to use the finderscope to center the object in the telescope, but it will get you in the ballpark. If you are going to observe other objects (solar system, etc.) You will to use the joystick to move the telescope to find the object with the finderscope and/or telrad. (If the pointing is very far off you may need to HOME the telescope again as described in step 5) 8. To goto an object on the TCS first you need to click what type of objects you want to observe. For example, click Messier and a list will come up that will show you what objects are available to view. If you right click on the object you want to view, M 42 for example, the telescope will slew to within one degree of the object. You can also left click on the object then click Go To Object on the GUI. Don't forget to lower the slewing speed on the hand paddle with the lower left knob before you center the object in the telescope. 4 or 5 is a pretty good speed to center the object but it may vary. Experimentation will give you a good feel for the appropriate speed for fine tuning.

5 9. The dome rotation controls are located to the right of the computer desk. They are white buttons on the large panel, (counter-clockwise and clockwise) 10.When you are done observing remember to remove the eyepiece and put the plug back in the diagonal. Also don't forget to put the cover back on the finderscope and turn off the telrad. Move the telescope to a safe position to close the mirror covers. To park the telescope click Park on either GUI and when it has parked you should log off the computer. The dome should be parked so that the shutters are above the main entrance doors. This will also put shutter control box over the large gray ladder for easy access to close the dome shutters. The white and red light switches are located on the right as you enter the dome. After closing the doors don't forget to remove the green key and put it back in its proper place in dome one.

6 Misc. Info and Troubleshooting Some other features that may be useful on the I/O GUI are the FLIP, East/West Zenith, and East/West Equator buttons. FLIP is useful if while observing an object it approaches the meridian. When you press FLIP it will automatically move the telescope to the other side of the pier and you can now re-acquire your object. If you loose tracking or have other issues with the motors you can click Roll Reset (RA ) or Pitch Reset (Dec) on the I/O GUI for the appropriate direction. If that does not work try the CLEAN KILL and EXIT button. When a malfunction occurs (or if the E-Stop button is pressed) You may see a blue fault light blinking to the right of the dome motion controls. If this happens you should turn the red E-Stop button to the left (counterclockwise) and pull it out. Next, press and hold the blue button until the light goes off. You should now be able to click Track On with the GUI and resume normal operations. If none of these steps work as last resort you should be able to clear the fault by restarting the computer. Also there is a red screen on the monitor to preserve your night vision. It is attached with velcro, and can be removed if needed. If any other issues occur, notify Bill Wren. I/O GUI Closeup

7 J.L.W Fault indicator/e-stop location