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Previous: Data acquisition with the CCD
Up: Data acquisition with the CCD
Next: Quick-look and setup
Previous Page: Data acquisition with the CCD
Next Page: Quick-look and setup
The data acquisition system is described in detail in the Data Acquisition System (DAS/CCD) users manual, and hence a full description will not be repeated here.
To make the system ready to take data, the correct CCD format must be set
up. Type SETUP UES at the ICL prompt.
You will be prompted for the size in 
and 
of the image, the system
will suggest default values.
(N.B. The default sizes are also listed on the Whiteboard in the
WHT Control Room. At present (Jan 1994) the
two main CCD's have sizes: EEV3, EEV6: 
; TEK1,
TEK2: 
.)
Unless you have been briefed to use an unusual CCD format, you should accept the default values; remember that you can later cut down the size of the images by windowing and binning.
Select the readout mode of the CCD using the TURBO, SPEEDY, SLOUCH or SLOW commands, for example:
ICL> SPEEDY UES(N.B. In addition to the above mentioned readout modes there is a further mode giving the fastest readout. This mode is called NONASTRO and is meant for setup purposes only due to the high readout noise. A full description of the CCD readout modes can be found in the CCD quality control folder kept in the WHT Control Room.)
To make an observation use the RUN command, for example:
ICL> RUN UES 100 "NGC1068"This requests an observation of 100 seconds, with the observation title NGC1068. The system will prepare the detector, expose the detector for the requested time, collect the image data in the DMS, collect header information describing the observation, and write the image and headers to a disk file on the system computer. The system will have allocated a run number to the run and will have sent you a message stating the number. The run number is also to be seen on the MIMIC display.
The datafile will have been created in the directory pointed to by the logical name RUN_FILES. All the datafiles from a given night's observing appear in the same directory on disk. Type the command DIR at the ICL prompt if you want to check the contents of this directory. The naming convention for files is such that run number 94151 would be written to a file named R0094151.SDF. (Hence in the near future: run number 10010 will be written as R010010.SDF).