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Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes

William Herschel Telescope

ISIS DOUBLE BEAM SPECTROGRAPH

Version 1.0

January 1994

D. Carter, C.R. Benn, R.G.M. Rutten, J.M. Breare, P.J. Rudd, D.L. King, R.E.S. Clegg, V.S. Dhillon, S. Arribas, J.-L. Rasilla, A. Garcia, C.R. Jenkins, P.A. Charles

• Contents
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Description of the Instruments
  • The Cassegrain A&G Box
    • Design of the A&G unit
    • Object acquisition
    • Slit viewing
    • Autoguider
      • Autoguider Geometry
    • Comparison lamps
    • Filters
    • Polarisation calibration
    • Auxiliary focus
  • ISIS and FOS-II Spectrographs
    • Overall layout
    • Polarisation optics
    • The slit area
    • Folds and Dichroics
    • Below Slit filters
    • Collimators
    • The ISIS gratings
    • Cameras
    • Cross-Dispersers
    • The Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS-II)
    • Multi-Slit Unit
    • Then ISIS Fibre System
      • Auxiliary focus mounting
      • Fibre Bundle
      • Guiding system.
      • Aperture plates
      • Observing coordinate determination.
      • Overall Performance
  • Performance
    • Throughput
    • Stability and radial velocities
    • Scattered Light
    • Wood's Anomalies in the ISIS gratings
• Detectors
  • CCD Detectors
    • Schematic view of the CCD systems
    • CCD chips in current use at the WHT
  • The CCD--IPCS Detector
    • Scientific Description
    • CCD--IPCS granularity and Dithering
  • Overall performance of the system
• Computers and Operations
  • Control System
    • Control system overview
    • The Detector Memory System
    • The SPARCstation
    • The Utility Network
    • The System Computer and User Interface
    • The MIMIC display
    • Generating Data Tapes
    • Engineering terminals
      • The Engineering MIMIC
      • Direct control of the Cassegrain Instruments
      • The Detector engineering control terminal
• SETUP AND OBSERVING PROCEDURES
  • Setup Procedures
    • Starting the computer systems
    • Configuration of the A&G Box and Spectrograph
      • Changing Gratings
      • Changing Filters in the Main (A&G box) slides
      • Changing components in the slit area
      • Directing light to the right cameras
      • Setting Grating Angles
      • The Slit Area
      • Configuring the Spectrograph for Spectropolarimetry
    • Setting up the CCD Detectors
      • Rotation
      • Tilt and coarse Focus
      • Collimator Focus
      • Hartmann test using the DMS
      • Hartmann test using the Vax
      • Minimum-FWHM using the VAX
    • Setting up the IPCS
      • Camera Head Rotation
      • S--Distortion Correction
      • Collimator Focus
      • Hartmann test using the DMS
      • Hartmann test using the Vax 4000
      • Minimum-FWHM using the VAX
    • Installation and Setup for Fibre observing
      • Fibre slit mounting
      • Fibre slit alignment
      • Guide fibre bundle focussing
      • Spectrograph set up
    • Setting up FOS
  • Observing Procedures
    • Observing with one or two CCDs
      • TV Focus
      • Instrument Calibration Data
      • Acquiring data on the sky
      • Acquiring faint objects
      • Acquiring guide stars
      • Wavelength Calibration
    • Observing with IPCS only or with CCD and IPCS
      • TV Focus
      • Switching on the IPCS EHT voltage
      • Instrument Calibration Data
      • Acquiring data on the sky
    • Time-resolved observations with ISIS
      • Sources of dead-time
      • Reducing dead-time
      • Future developments
      • A note on accurate time and ISIS
    • Observing with FOS
      • Data reduction
    • Spectropolarimetry
      • How to derive the Stokes parameters
      • Imaging Polarimetry
    • Observing with Fibres
      • Telescope focusing on the aperture plate.
      • Adjustment of the rotator axis and orientation.
      • Field acquisition
      • Calibration
      • Data reduction
• QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE
• COMMAND LISTS
  • Commands entered at the ICL interface
    • A&G Box Commands
      • AGACCESS
      • AGBARCODES
      • AGINIT
      • AGMIRROR
      • AGUPDATE
      • ARCOFF
      • AUTOFILT
      • AUTOFOCUS
      • AUTORADIAL
      • AUTOTHETA
      • AUXFILTER
      • COMPFILTA
      • COMPFILTB
      • COMPLAMPS
      • COMPND
      • CUARON
      • CUNEON
      • MAINFILTC
      • MAINFILTND
      • TV_DIRECT_12
      • TV_DIRECT_5
      • TV_SLIT_12
      • TV_SLIT_5
      • TVFILT
      • TVFOCUS
      • TVSCALE
    • Autoguider Commands
      • ACQINT
      • FIELD
      • FOLLOW
      • GUIINT
    • ISIS Commands
      • ANAMORPHOTIC
      • BCOLL
      • BLUEGRAT
      • BLUEXDISP
      • BFILTA
      • BFILTB
      • BFOLD
      • BHART
      • CENWAVE
      • CHANGE
      • DEKKER
      • FCP
      • GRATING_DOOR
      • HW_POLAR
      • ISIS_CONFIG
      • ISIS_INIT
      • ISIS_MOVE
      • ISIS_UPDATE
      • LID
      • QW_POLAR
      • RCOLL
      • REDGRAT
      • REDXDISP
      • RFILTA
      • RFILTB
      • RFOLD
      • RHART
      • SLIT
      • SLIT_DOOR
      • SLIT_UNIT
    • FOS Commands
      • FIFOCUS
      • FIGLOBAL
      • FIHARTMANN
      • FIHTILT
      • FIVTILT
      • FMFOCUS
      • FMHARTMANN
      • FMHTILT
      • FMMONITOR
      • FMRESET
      • FMVTILT
      • FSGLOBAL
    • Data Taking Commands - CCD Detectors
      • ABORT
      • ARC
      • BIAS
      • BIN
      • CCDINIT
      • CONTINUE
      • DARK
      • DIR
      • DISABLE_WINDOWS
      • DISKSPACE
      • ENABLE_WINDOWS
      • FINISH
      • FLAT
      • GLANCE
      • KEEP
      • KILLMULT
      • MULTRUN
      • NEWTIME
      • PAUSE
      • PROMOTE
      • RAT_WAIT
      • RUN
      • SCRATCH
      • SETUP
      • SKY
      • SLOUCH
      • SPEEDY
      • WINDOW
      • WINK
    • Data Taking Commands - IPCS detector
      • EXPOSE
      • EXPOSENP
      • IPCONT
      • IPCSCLOSE
      • IPCSFORMAT
      • IPCSOPEN
      • IPCSSDC
      • IPNEWT
      • IPPAUSE
      • IPSTOP
      • IPUPDATE
      • KEEP
      • CLEAR_OVERILLUM
      • OVERSCAN
      • STANDBY
    • Other DMS Commands
      • DMS_ABORT_READ
      • DMS_ABORT_TRANS
      • DMS_CLEAR_BUFF
      • DMS_CLOSE_BUFF
      • DMS_MONITOR
      • DMS_RESET
      • DMS_START
    • MIMIC Commands
      • MIMIC PAGES
      • MIMIC UPDATE
      • MIMIC_START
      • MIMIC_STOP
      • SCREEN
  • DCL Level Commands for the Vax 4000
    • Tape Writing Commands
      • FITSINIT
      • WRITE_FITS
  • Local Subsystem Commands
    • Autoguider Commands
      • ?NET
      • ACQINT
      • ACQWIND
      • CASS
      • FIELD
      • GUIDE
      • GUIINT
      • GUILOOPS
      • GUISIZE
      • GUIWIND
      • SHUT--DOWN
      • START--UP
      • STATS
      • STEMP
      • TEMP
    • DMS commands
      • ?IMAGES
      • ?NET
      • ?REGS
      • .IS
      • CALC--SDC
      • CLO
      • CRECALL
      • DEV?
      • DEV>STK
      • E--STK
      • ERUN
      • ESD
      • FOCUS
      • FOCUS--LEFT
      • FOCUS--RIGHT
      • FOCUS--SET
      • FRECALL
      • GET--FILE
      • GET--SDC--ARRAY
      • GRUN
      • IRECALL
      • IRUN
      • LOAD--SDC
      • PUT--FILE
      • PUT--SDC--ARRAY
      • RECOVER
      • RECOVER--DATA
      • SEX
      • TIM
      • TIMES
      • X--FIND
      • Y--FIND
      • ZM
    • CCD controller commands
      • ?OPEN .
      • 1P
      • 2P
      • 1V
      • 2V
      • CLOSE
      • CLR
      • NETWORK
      • OPEN
      • PIC
      • QUICK SPEED
      • REBOOT
      • RED
      • SET-TIME
      • SET-DATE
      • SEX
      • STANDARD SPEED
      • T--STAT
      • T--SHOW
      • TELE
      • UNJAM
      • VHT CONFIG
    • The Engineering MIMIC
  • The DMS User Interface
    • Use of the Mouse
    • The Menu Structure
      • The Main Menu
      • The Display Menu
      • The Statistics Menu
      • The Screens Menu
• APPENDICES
• Properties of the ISIS Gratings
• Grating and Detector Efficiencies
• Efficiency of Dichroics and Polarisation optics
• Details of Neutral Density Filters
• Details of the La Palma Sky
  • Sky Brightness and Spectrum
  • Extinction at La Palma
• The LAPLATE program.