Seti Observing

Observing

See the discussion on the IR camera for discussion on firing up the telescope. Here is a typical sequence to acquire the data.

tx dac dac0=100 dac1=100
spiral tries=5 thresh=20000 step=.02
center step=.005
adjust 
qseti

Where the first command sets the DACs that set the photometer threshold to the default range. The spiral command executes an ever widening spiral search that looks for a location in which the count rate exceeds 20kHz. The center command then offsets the Hour Angle and declination axes in search for maximum count rate. The adjust command then tweaks the Digital to analog converters so that the count rate on both channels is the same and near 10 kHz. Finally the qseti program. takes the data and writes a FITS file.

Remember the flip mirror should be set to the eyepiece position.

Zeroing

The telescope may not be pointing perfectly and have an offset between the true and observed position. The telescope pointing program uses a floating offset in ra and dec that can be set by the zero command. A typical value for seti is:

tx zero cra=-.041 cdec=-.119

You should determine the correct value by

First point telescope to very bright star
Use the spiral command to locate the star
Use the center command to peak the star
Type tx zero last to set the zero coefficients

[ Seti index ]

Last Revised December 12, 2000