On-fiber guiding

FIES Fiber Guider --------- The FIES fiber guiding system has been released for general usage. While the general feedback has been positive, it is also clear that there are circumstances in which it is better not to use the fiber guiding facility, particularly on bright targets requiring short exposure times, due to the inertia of the system. The guiding system is being improved to handle this situation in an optimized way. On the other hand, using the fiber guider on long integrations has demonstrated a clear improvement in the positioning of the target into the fiber. In any case, the fiber guiding system has decreased the time required for the initial target acquisition significantly.

- PMS developed a new fiber-guiding system that puts and keeps the star on the fiber. The user still has to define the position of the fiber manually. Target acquisition onto the fiber is now much faster, and is typically achieved within 30 seconds after the first full-frame acquisition image is taken. After the target acquisition is done, the fiber-guider acts as a very slow correction guide loop on top of the normal guide system. The fiber guider cannot guide on its own, the fast regular guider is still required. The new fiber guider is now in action.

JC changed the telescope offsetting handset UIF (orange buttons), that is part of the instrument operation software, such that it is unavailable when fiber guiding is in use. This UIF is/was normally used to center the star on the fiber manually. This can still be done if the user selects to not use the fiber guiding.

ToDo:

- further streamlining the on-fiber guiding system.

The ``on-fiber'' guiding system is now in the final stages of testing. The system automatically does the whole process from the moment a star is imaged on the fiber head in movie mode, until it is properly centered on the fiber, and kept there. Various improvements were made to optimise the system. It was noted that new users still find the system complicated to use, and will have to be made more intuitive and easy to use before the full system is released for general use.

The offsets calculated by the automatic on-fiber guiding system is now also included in graphical form in the TCSDisplay of the observing system.

A new ``handset'' used to centered a star manually on the fiber has been developed for use with the system for on-fiber guiding. It now has the ability to turn the automatic on-fiber guiding system on or off, as well as having dynamic knowledge of the current state of this system.