General Information for all Observers

Observer contract, weather closure rules, computing resources, IRAF setup for new users, Cosmo (telescope pointing), ICE, airmass, filters, CCD characteristics, weather system, lamp emission spectra.

 Observer Contract We must have a signed and dated contract for the time between 1 September and 31 August before you can observe. This applies to observing assistants, students, and anyone who moves the telescope. POINT web service This new point program, written from scratch in Ada, finds stars with high accuracy using SLA by P.T. Wallace, and provides good finding for Sun, Moon, and planets.

 Dome Closure Rules When to close the dome due to weather

 Daily / Night Report Instructions A manual for using the Daily Report (i.e. Night Report, xreport, dr)

Mt. Locke computing resources Computer Systems; Data Archival; Computer Access; Available Printers.

 First time IRAF at McDonald Observatory Changes you need to make to login.cl depending on instrument and environment.

 Cosmo (Telescope Pointing) Cosmo/point converts astronomical coordinates for precession, refraction, and mount flexure, producing the actual mechanical coordinates and track rates needed to find your object. It also zeros the telescope coordinates, knows about various bright star catalogs like FK5 and Yale, and can process a worklist.

 ICE Link to the Kitt Peak Instrument Control Environment document. ICE, through the IRAF task icex, is used to control most of our instruments.

 McDonald Observatory airmass If you are using the 2.1m telescope, the Safety and Efficiency Chart in the 2.1m section provides airmass/zenith distance and safety information in one graph.

 Filters White Guider, Black Guider, Johnson UBV Set #3, Stromgren Set C, UBVRI Set #4, 30" PFC Bessel, Washington/DDO, CuSo4, Schott, Interference.

 CCD Characteristics General data and ICE parameters for each CCD.

 Weather System A description of the Mt. Locke weather system

 Pen-Ray lamp emission spectra Scanned spectral plots.

 FIES ThAr atlas orders 157-79 wavelength 3620-7260 Angstrom Dec 2007 medium resolution by John Telting

 Beginner's Guide To IRAF Highly useful reference for IRAF, including scripting

 Scripting with IRAF Basic IRAF Scripting Guide