Observing at CARMA

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Responsibilities of a CARMA ObserverResponsibilities of a CARMA Observer

•Respond to alarms•Diagnose (solve?) problems•Report bugs•Monitor weather (1mm or 3mm project?)•Check/edit observing scripts•Run science projects•Run “array health” projects

•Flux calibration•Baseline measurement•Optical & Radio pointing•Beam mapping, aperture efficiency, and much more!

•Evaluate data quality; assign grades•Check generator•Check computing system health•Write Nightly Reports•Report on array performance during Obs meetings•Perform special tasks during configuration changes•And be a good “babysitter” after you leave …

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

The Real Time Display (RTD)The Real Time Display (RTD)

Pardo et al. 2005, Wiedner et al. 2004, Pardo et al. 2004

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Monitoring a ProjectMonitoring a Project

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

When you notice a problem:When you notice a problem:

Is it an emergency?•Catastrophic antenna failure (e.g. self-immolation, strangulation)?•Power failure or A/C failure in correlator room•Array idle

Can you solve the problem yourself? (Most problems are routine.)•Check the RTD pages•Check the Observer’s webpage (“Frequent Tasks” and other links)

If you need help:•Talk to the other observer!•Call the “babysitter”•Call/email/IM Nikolaus•Call/email/IM the relevant CARMA person (if you know who it is, and

if it’s during “working hours”)•Email rts@mmarray.org (for software/computer problems) or

hardware@mmarray.org (for hardware problems)

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Filing a Bug ReportFiling a Bug Report

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Monitoring the WeatherMonitoring the Weather

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Criteria for 1mm ObservingCriteria for 1mm Observing

Check the phase monitor (measure of atmospheric turbulence)Check the tipper (measure of opacity at 225 GHz)Check the weather report

Current 1mm criteria:•E array: (225 GHz) < 0.3 , RMSpath < 350μm •D array: (225 GHz) < 0.3 , RMSpath < 200μm•C array: (225 GHz) < 0.3 , RMSpath < 150μm•B array: (225 GHz) < 0.4 , RMSpath < 100μm

import watch1mmwatch1mm.watch1mm(350,0.3,npts=5,nmin=4)

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Criteria for 1mm Observing: phase monitorCriteria for 1mm Observing: phase monitor

Check the phase monitor (measure of atmospheric turbulence)Check the tipper (measure of opacity at 225 GHz)Check the weather report

Current 1mm criteria:•D array: (225 GHz) < 0.3 , RMSpath < 200μm•C array: (225 GHz) < 0.3 , RMSpath < 150μm•B array: (225 GHz) < 0.4 , RMSpath < 100μm

import watch1mmwatch1mm.watch1mm(200,0.3,npts=5,nmin=4)

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Criteria for 1mm Observing: tipperCriteria for 1mm Observing: tipper

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Criteria for 1mm ObservingCriteria for 1mm Observing

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

projectsWithinRange•keywords: lstStart, lstStop, band, arrayConfig, maxProj

projectsStartingAt•keywords: lstStart, haLimit, band, arrayConfig, maxProj

schedule (variations: schedule3mm, schedule1mm, scheduleAll)•keywords: arrayConfig, band, days, fixed, mode, pivot, startLST

Selecting a ProjectSelecting a Project

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

CARMA Project Database InterfaceCARMA Project Database Interface

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Starting a ProjectStarting a Project

To begin running an observing script:•run(‘cs0011_1D_115FlyingSaucer’)

Restarting after a script crash:•restartScript(‘cs0011_1D_115FlyingSaucer’)•run(‘cs0011_1D_115FlyingSaucer restart=True’)(skips calibration observations already made)

•Command line options:alarm=Trueemail=flux, fluxstart=Truepb, pbstart=Truepnt, pntstart=Trueopnt=Truetune=True

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Stopping a ProjectStopping a Project

•run(‘cs0011_1D_115FlyingSaucer endtrack=13:30’)

•Command-line options:tmax=6.0

•Ending a track:endtrack(‘13:30’)endtrack(ut=‘20:00’)setTmax(‘6.0’)cancel last resort only!

•If the script crashes:scriptClear

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

cd /opt/sdp/sciencedata

quality proj=cs0011.1D_115FlyingSaucer.1.mir prn=y see=y

Quality will TRY to identify sources, gaincals, passcals, and fluxcals based on the information in the observing script, but you must verify these selections!

The Quality ReportThe Quality Report

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

The Quality ReportThe Quality Report

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Grading a ProjectGrading a Project

•gradeProject(‘cs0011_1D_115FlyingSaucer’,1,’A-’,’I.M.Observer’,‘C3 & C6 out of array; lost lock on C11 at UT=23:35; high opacity(tau>0.5) for last 2hrs’,5.0)

•If grade ≥ B-, the time will be deducted from the allocation in the PDB.•If grade ≤ C+, no time will be deducted.

•Grades, times charged, and comments can be seen in the “summary” file.

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

“Array Health” Projects“Array Health” Projects

•Observe flux calibrators

•Determine optical pointing coefficients

•Determine radio pointing coefficients

•Determine antenna positions (i.e. baseline solution)

•Other (less common) “array health” tests: beam pattern mapping;measure aperture efficiency, etc.

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

Other Observer ResponsibilitiesOther Observer Responsibilities

•Check generator

•Check computing system health

•Write the Nightly Report

•Report on the status of the array at meetings (daily meetings with CARMA staff;weekly all-CARMA telecon)

•Be a “babysitter” after you leave.

•During configuration changes: level antennas, determine initial pointing offsets,adjust delays, determine initial baseline solution, etc. (Talk by Jin!)

•Mitigate damage to the array from “Acts of God”:wind, snow, hail, forest fires, errant hikers, UFO seekers, Deep Springsstudents, etc.

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009

The Observers’ WebpageThe Observers’ Webpage

CARMA Summer School: July 13-17, 2009