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CTIO Home > Astronomers > Observing > Your Observing Run

Planning, Executing, Wrapping up your run at CTIO

                               Before the run During the run After the run


Before the run:

For YOUR Information:

 

For OUR Information:

Once you have arranged your trip, please let us know your Travel Plans [8].

Please tell us the instrument setup [9] you need.

Please consider giving a talk [10] -- CTIO staff are always interested to hear what others are doing in the astronomical community.

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During the run:

Support:

Our mountain observing support staff provides most of the support for observers on Cerro Tololo itself. For the V. M. Blanco 4-m Telescope, each instrument has a scientific staff contact [11] for additional help. The smaller telescopes are operated by the SMARTS Consortium [12], and queries should be directed to SMARTS personnel.

 

At the end of every night at every telescope, a report form must be filled out. At all telescopes this is now the responsibility of the observer. The observing assistant (Blanco, SOAR) will remind the observer to fill out the form as necessary.

NOTE: Night Report forms are for internal use only and are not accessible from non-CTIO computers. 

 

Ephemeris for Cerro Tololo. [17]

Target-of-Opportunity Policy [18]. Your observing run may be interrupted!

CDs and Videos [19] available on the mountain for your enjoyment. Donations always welcome!

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After the run:

In order to make sure that we stay competitive as a front-line observatory, we need to know how successful your run was.

PLEASE fill in one of these forms before you leave CTIO!:

End-of-run report form for all CTIO telescopes [20]

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ToO Policy

CTIO Blanco 4-m Telescope
Target-of-Opportunity Observing Program Policies

For the attention of: CTIO staff, Blanco 4-m telescope observers, CTIO Blanco 4-m telescope ToO program principal investigators.

Updated on: 6 Oct 2010

CTIO follows the NOAO Target of Opportunity observing program policy [21] with the addenda given below for the V. M. Blanco 4-m telescope. We thank observers for their forbearance and co-operation with these policies.

Call-up Procedure

      The regular observer should hear about a ToO as soon as possible, preferably no later than the afternoon of the observing night. That allows the observer to email back and forth with the PI of the ToO program.

      To initiate the process of triggering an observation for their Target of Opportunity Program, the approved program PI or specified deputy must:

      (1) Contact the observer(s) using the telescope -- the Blanco console phone number is +56-51-205-400
      (2) Email mosaicToO_AT_ctio.noao.edu each time a request is made for observations

Data taking

      (1) The current observer will be asked to take the ToO data following the detailed recipe furnished by the calling team. The ToO PI or deputy must forward the instruction given to the observer to mosaicToO_AT_ctio.noao.edu as well.

      (2) Any images taken specifically for a ToO program should be identified with the NOAO proposal number (click here [22] for a list of current approved ToO projects) to make it easier to identify in the NOAO data archive. Use obspars or equivalent to put the information in the headers and be sure to restore the Proposal ID for the scheduled observer after the ToO observations have been completed.

      (3)The observer must include in their night report when a ToO observation is requested, and the amount of time the observer dedicates to the ToO.

Data Distribution

     The current protocol for ToO data distribution can be found at Target of Opportunity data files [23].

 

The following table lists those persons authorized to initiate a ToO observation:

Person Name Email Telephone
Approved program PI or specified deputy See web page [22]    
CTIO Support scientist for night in question See web page [24]    
Blanco telescope / instrument scientists Tim Abbott tabbott_AT_ctio.noao.edu Daytime: +56 51 205 216
Mobile: +56 9 874 8139
  Alistair Walker awalker_AT_ctio.noao.edu Daytime: +56 51 205 305
Home: +56 51 270 172
  Andrea Kunder akunder_AT_ctio.noao.edu Daytime: +56 51 205 330
Home: +56 51 292 779
Director, CTIO Chris Smith csmith_AT_ctio.noao.edu Daytime: +56 51 205 214

 

  • ToO interrupts should be issued only for observations that are time critical. Non-time-critical followup observations should be pursued through other means.
  • ToO PIs may not specify observing conditions under which the ToO observations are made; either the ToO observations are triggered or they are not. If a called ToO is clouded out then the time is charged, just as if the observations were made. The same is true of instrument/telescope failures.
  • ToO observations are authorized only for NOAO assigned telescope time. Observing runs assigned by the Chilean TAC may only be interrupted upon the consent of the scheduled observer.
     

 

ToO Data Files

Target of Opportunity (ToO) Data Files
Instructions for Observers
on the CTIO Blanco 4m

 

  • The observer or telescope operator will copy the data files to the computer samba1 in the CTIO building.

To copy the Target-of-Opportunity data from Tololo to the ftp server in La Serena:

  1. from ctioa8 terminal, copy the appropriate data to the directory /user/mosaic/ftp-ToO/ on the computer samba1.ctio.noao.edu
  • For example, if all the data you took for the ToO program is located in the directory /ua84/mosaic/20100804_ToO, you would execute this command:
                scp -pr /ua84/mosaic/20100804_ToO/ samba1.ctio.noao.edu:/user/mosaic/ftp-ToO/
  • Another example, if you wanted to transfer one image at a time:
                scp /ua84/mosaic/20100810_ToO/*.fits samba1.ctio.noao.edu:/user/mosaic/ftp-ToO/
  1. make sure all the data copied over
  • The Target-of-Opportunity Team will retrieve their ToO data:

To retrieve the Target-of-Opportunity data from the ftp server in La Serena:

  1. ftp ftp.ctio.noao.edu 8000
          account: mosaicToO
          passwd: ## same as the mosaic Blanco observing password ##
     
  2. you will see your data, which you can then retrieve

Back To ToO Observing Program Policies [18]

Staff Contacts:

Alistair Walker: awalker_AT_noao.edu
Tim Abbott: tabbott_AT_noao.edu
Andrea Kunder: akunder_AT_ctio.noao.edu

Source URL (retrieved on 02/08/2013 - 16:48): http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/Planning-Executing-Wrapping-your-run-CTIO

Links:
[1] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/visiting-astronomers-guide
[2] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/sites/default/files/intranet/noao-s-facilities-feb-10.pdf
[3] http://www.noao.edu/gateway/propinfo.html
[4] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/directors-discretionary-dd-time
[5] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/tourism-chile
[6] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/sites/default/files/tourism/sie.pdf
[7] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/sys/dhcpform.php
[8] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/Travel-Information-Questionnaire
[9] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/forms/supportforms/visitor_support.html
[10] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/talks-and-meetings
[11] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/ctio-staff-responsibilities
[12] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/smarts-consortium
[13] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/Create-night-report
[14] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/SOAR/Forms/EON/Form.php?telescope=SOAR
[15] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/SOAR/Forms/EON/EON_svc.php?telescope=SOAR
[16] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/new/Tools/Forms/EON/index.php
[17] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/obsaid/ctio_ephem_2012.html
[18] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/too-policy
[19] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/obssup/discos.html
[20] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/node/add/night-report
[21] http://www.noao.edu/noaoprop/help/too.html
[22] http://www.noao.edu/noaoprop/too/
[23] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/too-data-files
[24] http://www.ctio.noao.edu/noao/content/scientific-staff-telescopes-instruments-responsibilities