next up previous contents
Next: Control of the rising Up: The dome and rising Previous: The dome and rising

Control of the dome, shutters and wind screen

Access to the roof and the outside of the dome is via the aluminium door at the top of the stairs near the control room. At present there is no easy way of closing this door from outside (the only way is to take the key with you and lock it).

In winter inspect the outside of the dome during daylight for icing on the shutters before attempting to open them. It is a good plan to rotate the dome during the day so that the Sun melts as much ice as possible. Wear a hard hat (provided near roof exit door) and a safety harness when climbing the dome. It is strictly forbidden for any ice to be cleared from the dome unless supervised by a person without astronomical interests.

If there is no power to the building call the Duty Engineer, otherwise you can rotate the dome and raise/lower the wind screen from either the grey control panel mounted on the inside wall of observing floor or (if the local/remote switch thereon is set to remote) via buttons on the upper left of the telescope control console in the control room. At both stations the buttons must be kept depressed for the mechanism to work.

Even though it may not appear so, the shutters do open to a full 2 metres.

The dome rotation is normally set to maximum speed (one 360$^\circ$ rotation takes 3.5 minutes). Please leave the speed control (lower right of control panel in dome) set at maximum.

Remember, during hours of darkness, to switch the dome lights off before opening for fear of feeding unwanted light into the INT and WHT.


next up previous contents
Next: Control of the rising Up: The dome and rising Previous: The dome and rising

1999-11-12