Automating Astronomical Instrument Setup Eric J Dela Rosa

Automating Astronomical Instrument Setup Eric J. Dela Rosa Hawaii Island Akamai Internship Canada France Hawaii Telescope Mentor : Gregory Barrick Advisor: Sarah Gajadhar Home Institution: Hawaii Community College Funding provided through the Center for Adaptive Optics, a National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center (STC), AST-987683

Overview ESPa. DOn. S l Setup Process l Problem l Solution l Conclusion l © Photo Credit: Sarah Anderson

ESPa. DOn. S – Eschelle Spectro. Polarimetric Device for the Observation of Stars Spectropolarimeter: Measures the magnetic polarization of stars through a full spectrum. Two Different Components • The Cassegrain Unit – The Polarimeter • The Spectrograph

The Cassegrain Unit

The Spectrograph

Setup Process l Physical Setup – Takes 1 to 1. 5 hrs to complete l Computer – Based Setup through the Unix Command Line – takes 3 to 4 hrs of user interaction to complete.

Physical Setup Computer-Based Setup Data Record Mechanical Checks for Cass & Spectro Environmental Checks for Cass & Spectro Guider Alignment Detector Noise Test Focus and Alignment of CCD Calibration Data Entry Data Record And Entry Calibrate Geometry And Wavelength

Problem with the Computer-Based setup process Has to be done manually l Not time efficient l Operator error likely to occur l Data must be recorded by hand l Data must be logged in and formatted on CFHT website l

The Solution l Automating the instrument setup l Cuts down time l Error free – Operator less likely to make errors l Organized l Easy to Use

User Interface l Tcl/Tk – scripting language l Tcl – Tool Command Line l Code l Tk /syntax of the program – Tool Kit l GUI – Graphical User Interface l Also uses code to create the interfaces.

Tcl/Tk – ESPa. DOn. S Code

Old ESPa. DOn. S Setup

ESPa. DOn. S User Interface

Results/Conclusion l Reduced time for instrument setup l 10 – 15 minutes user interaction Easy to use interface l Prints and saves a report l Logs data into CFHT website l

Much Thanks to

Hilary O’Bryan Scott Seagroves Sarah Anderson © Photo Credit: Sarah Anderson

Gregory Barrick Sarah Gajadhar

Grant Matsushige Tom Benedict William Cruise Kevin Ho

The Entire CFHT Ohana