Observing with AAO Telescopes
Before observing at the AAO
The programmes awarded time by AATAC will be included in the
AAT Schedule or the
UKST Schedule for the
appropriate
semester, and it is the responsibility of the named PI on the proposal
to
inform collaborators of the allocation. With the exception of UK
2dF+AAOmega
allocations, observers are generally expected to travel to the
telescopes
to perform their own observations and should read the
guidelines for AAO observers.
Information on travel to the site and accommodation in both Sydney and
Siding Spring Observatory is given in the
Travel and
Accommodation
pages. Visting observers are required to make their own travel and
accommodation bookings. Please advise the AAO of your travel and
contact details via the
Observer
Travel Notification Form . Details submitted using this form will
go to the AAO Support Astronomer group, the AAT Admin and the
colloquium organiser.
Your designated support astronomer should normally contact you a
month
or so in advance of the run to confirm your travel plans are in place,
and discuss any issues concerning your observing strategy. All
2dF+AAOmega
PIs are required to supply their configuration (.fld) files at this
time, or
risk forfeiting their allocated time. If you have not been
contacted by
your support astronomer (as given
in the schedules) 2-3 weeks before
your run,
then please get in touch with them directly. You will be given a full
indoctrination by your support astronomer during the first afternoon,
but
it can save a lot of time if you have already familiarised yourself
with
the on-line instrument manuals. First-time
observers will also be given a safety briefing, concentrating
on dome safety at the AAT.
During your observing at the AAO
Unless indicated on the schedule, your AAO support astronomer is only
expected to provide on-site support for the first night of your
observing run. Depending on whether they are rostered to support the
following run, they may elect to remain at SSO for the duration of
your run, or return to Sydney. They will however arrange to make
themselves available by phone at any time during your run. In the
absence of your support astronomer, your first point of call for any
technical concerns should be the night assistant, or between 2pm and
sunset, the afternoon shift technician whose name appears on the board
to the right of the weather system display above the telescope console.
The easiest way to summon help is to depress the green "Technician
Call"
button on the rack to the right of the main switchboard. To disable the
buzzer locally, press the "Buzz Off" button.
After observing at the AAO
When you have finished observing you will want to copy your data to
a laptop, or alternatively CD-ROM or DVD. Instructions on using the DVD/CD writer on the Linux
workstation
aatlxa can be found on a sheet adjacent to this
machine in the control room. Blank CDs (up to 700 Mb) and DVDs (up to
4.7 Gb) are available from your support astronomer or night assistant,
but please note that due to the high current costs of writable DVDs,
you will be charged for them. If you wish to copy the
raw data onto your laptop, use
sftp or (for large datasets)
by cross-mounting one of the data disks onto your machine. With the
recent implementation of a new high-speed Internet link to the outside
world, it is possible to
sftp the data to your home
institution, but we request that this only be used as a last resort.
If you wish, an
electronic
observing log can be e-mailed to you by the night assistant.
Most AAT data is now written as standard FITS although some reduced
output can be in Starlink .sdf format, (convertable to
FITS or IRAF formats using the Starlink
convert
package). The keywords that the AAO Observer system adds to the FITS
header file are described here.
After settling their Lodge bill with the ANU, Australian-based
observers may
now claim Travel and Accommodation
support
from the AAO. UK-based observers can claim
T&S
payments from PPARC if eligible under the circumstances of the run.
Non-UK European observers may be eligible for travel and accommodation
funding under the
OPTICON Trans-National access program.
Finally we ask all observers to fill in the
Observer's Report Form at the end
of
their observing run. This information provides important feedback to
the AAO
and is used to make improvements where necessary.
Heath Jones, aatac -@- aao.gov.au
