Camera Control
| Interaction with the camera is managed through the Camera Control Window. By default the Camera Control will start in Observer Mode. The File menu contains options for switching to Tech and Engineering modes. Items in the Tech and Engineering level should not be changed by observers, and are not covered in this manual. |
| HEADER |
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| The header portion, illustrated above, displays the exposure time elapsed and remaining. The box in the lower left displays the current camera status. The observation number is displayed in the lower right (note that this number loops in guider mode and is only really useful in Camera mode). |
| FILE MENU | |
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| The File menu contains the options to switch to other GUI modes, and also has 'Shutdown Guide System' and 'Quit' options. | |
| Shutdown Guide System | This option will set the guider to 'Stow' mode (see ObsMode below), and exit all of the guider GUIs. This is a convenient way to shut the guider system down when finished with operations (e.g. at the end of the night).
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| Quit | Closes the Camera Control GUI. Does not stop exposures, set 'Stow' mode or exit other GUIs. If you need to restart the Camera Control GUI you can run 'nickgcam_gui' in an xterm window on noir. |
| BUTTONS | |
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| Start | This button must be clicked in order to start the continuous exposures (or take a single exposure in non-guider mode)
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| Stop | Stops the continuous exposures. Useful if you want to make changes to the Obsmode |
| Abort | Not applicable to Guider mode. Used only if the camera is in non-guider mode or when troubleshooting problems. |
| EXPOSURE | |
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| The exposure time can be adjusted by clicking and dragging the slider, or entering a new value (in seconds) in the exposure time box. New exposure times take effect
automatically on the next image. The minimum exposure time that can be entered is 0.01s.
When operating in the default mode, non-exposure overheads will be ~0.13s, so this is the functional minimum time between frames no matter what exposure time you choose. | |
| WINDOWING | |
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| These options control the CCD windowing (i.e., the portion of the detector actually read out). Note that when changing window size or restoring to full readout, one or two corrupted frames may be read out before the new window takes effect. | |
| Full | Restores the windowed CCD to the full image pixel readout. |
| Std |
Sets the windowing to the standard window. Note that the field of view of the Nickel Andor guide camera is well matched to the CCD, so the standard window is basically the entire CCD. This may not be the case for all guiders.
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| XVideo | Tells the camera to read out only that portion of the chip that has been graphically defined in the Image Display Window using the "box" function. |
| Direct Entry | Alternatively, you can enter the desired window directly in the text box. The variables are starting row, end row, starting column, and end column. Hit Enter/Return to apply the change. |
| READMODE, & OBSMODE | |
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| Readmode: |
Sets the readout parameters (gain, binning, EM mode etc.).
Should be set to 'Standard'. If it isn't, click the dropdown menu and select the standard mode.
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| Obsmode: |
Determines whether the camera operates in guider mode, camera mode, or stow mode.
Guider: Exposures are set to contiuously read out. Images are not recorded. This is the mode that should be used during the night. Camera: Exposures are started manually and only a single exposure is taken each time. Images are recorded, and are saved on nickeye in the /data/ directory. Stow: Exposures are stopped, and the shutter is closed. This protects the CCD during e.g. daytime and should be selected when ceasing operations (e.g. at the end of the night.) |