Dipol-UF at the NOT

Dipol-UF used at the NOT. Instructions for visiting observers.

Dipol PC in Control Room
TCS settings for Dipol-UF
Observing instructions

Dipol PC in the Control Room

The Dipol-UF PC is reachable from the Control Room through VNC working over a VPN connection to the instrument router. You only need two different passwords which will be supplied by the Dipol team.

Left click on the connections icon at the right of the Panel located at the bottom of florence main screen.
Switch on the VPN connection called dipol and provide the VPN password.
Once connected to the VPN, left click on the Menu button located at the left of the Panel (the one with the Linux Mint logo) > Internet > Remmina.
Double click on Dipol-UF PC connection and provide the VNC password when prompted.

Default TCS settings for Dipol-UF

When DIPOL-UF has been mounted on the telescope, the counter-weights should have been set to 0.15 with the TCS UIF command:

count-w-hei 0.15.

In order to have the telescope properly set up for DIPol-UF, these commands should be typed in on the TCS UIF at the start of each night, or in the case of having changed instrument during the night:

instrument-name Other
c-p-p
field-r 0
foc-pos 27600

If you have a sequencer window open, having started the observing system for FIES, you can alternatively type in the sequencer command instead of the above:

tcs.setup-tel-dipol (to be tested)

Observing instructions

For details about the telescope operation, please check out one of the NOT instrument Cookbooks. Below is a short summary intended as a reminder about the most used steps and commands. The commands below are given directly on the TCS UIF (indication of actions are indented):

At sunset, reset the safety system keys and power-on the telescope by typing:
power-on
Make sure field-rotation and focus is set, go to a blank field, and when tracking, you can open the hatches. The following commands can be used:
```
field-r 0
foc-pos 27600
find Blank------
     preset-to-selected (num key [4])
o-u-h
     go up and open side-ports
o-l-h
o-m-c
```
Now you are ready to take the DIPol-UF flats.
When it is dark enough, switch on the TV, (typically when the Sun is at -8 or -9 degrees):
```
tv-on
auto-pos-full
guide-star-auto
```

For every new target do:

ag-off
     preset-to-selected (num key [4])

Centering of the target on the DIPol-UF detectors is done with the move mode set to Telescope/GP (then you do not need to stop and restart guiding).
Change the move mode with num key [ 5 ] , and set the step size with the command offset-size (of-s) RA DEC, where the RA and DEC step sizes are given in arc seconds.
```
of-s 2 2
     alt + arrow keys
```

To close down the telescope in the morning do the following:

tv-off
zenith
c-m-c
c-l-h
c-u-h 
park-building 
     go up and close the side-ports
power-off
     turn off guide-tv monitors, turn down brightness on TCS UIF monitor

Remember to fill the EON report.

Short about Dipol-UF

Dipol-UF is a dual-beam polarimeter, using a calcite and a lambda/2 plate (can be exchanged with a lambda/4 just like in FAPOL), taking simultaneous images in BVR, recorded in 3 Andor CCD cameras that use Peltier coolers. Cooling to operating temperature is done in a few minutes. The FOV is ~ 1' for the B-channel and a bit smaller for V and R.

The current version of the Dipol manual (PDF).

Taken from the manual, this shows the same field in the three channels, and the two orthogonally polarized components are marked with green and red circles. Note that in V-band the image is flipped in X. The distance between the split components is about 15''. B and R-band shows N up and E left.

Last modified: May 31 2023