ARIES COLD OPERATION:

December 6 to 31, 2001

Changes to ARIES since the July cold run when we could not focus the science detector:

I carefully aligned the Offner over a period of several weeks. The main adjustment inserted a 1mm thick shim of copper underneath the Offner primary mirror. We also repositioned the slit plane mirror to its orignal location. [Koby had moved it about 0.5 inch outward.] I translated the science detector platform about 0.5 inch forward on its translation stage to accomodate the apparent offset in focus position that we saw in the July. This shift necessitated removing the telescoping baffle attached to the front of the detector assembly within the main box baffle. The optical alignment is excellent and survived the transport from IR Labs to Steward on Nov. 11 in Mitch's pickup truck.

I installed the original PISCES science detector at the science focus and the new engineering array (#192) at the tip/tilt focus.

Koby aligned probe mirror assembly on optical bench using a laser to get the 45 degree mirror oriented properly

Melissa Pesch-Rollins and I used 5 mil wire to make an "X"-pattern of crosshairs a few millimeters in front of the slit-plane mirror. We also vacuumed the inside of the dewar.

December 6: COOL DOWN

dewar had been on vacuum pump for one week

24 hours with exterior heaters on for bake-out

reached 1 x 10-7 torr

leak checked with new LBTI system but no leaks were found.

11:30 start LN2 transfer into both tanks simultaneously

cooling stopped from 4-9 PM due to NATS class duties

LN2 tanks full by 11 PM

91 K at science array

outer tank filled first by ~1 hour

remove from vacuum pump at 11 PM

Should I have removed it earlier? Vacuum gauge went off lower scale at the very beginning of the LN2 transfer but charcoal could not have been cold.

Retrospect: Had a leak in upper tip/tilt probe ferrofluidic.

With exception of ADC "back" switch, all switches are working. The tip/tilt CW and CCW switches seem reversed in both x,y axes.

All thermometers are working and wired according to IR Labs diagram.

December 20: PUMP WHILE COLD

Shield Temperature = 106 K and Inner Boiloff = 38 (glass)

These have been rising day by day. Also dewar case has been getting colder and

outer boiloff has been increasing.

Once I fill the outer LN2 can, the shield temp. drops a degree or so. Why?; clearly there was still LN2 in the can.

Pump on dewar case with turbo pump:

within 10-15 minutes inner boiloff decreased, shield temp fell, and case warmed.

eventually reached:

Inner Boiloff = 8 with Shield Temp. = 94 K

Do we need more charcoal inside?

Clearly the upper ferrofluidic still leaks. I smeared vacuum grease around the joint nearest the dewar case and the earlier rate of increase in shield temp and inner boiloff was clearly reduced over the next 11 days compared to the first two weeks.

SCIENCE DETECTOR

Used first PISCES HAWAII detector. Required higher Voffset setting (3900) than with current PISCES detector.

Koby rigged up a pinhole light source using a halogen bulb and a 15 micron diameter pinhole. Can vary brightness of source by varying voltage and current.

Koby and Roland recorded images before and after nominal focus for later curvature analysis. First analysis indicates 190nm rms wavefront error (primarily spherical aberration) in the K-band (lambda/12). Some or all of this aberration could be in the light source projector.

Source voltage of 0.5v (0.05 amps) was sufficient in 0.1 sec exposure.

TIP/TILT DETECTOR

Used new HAWAII engineering array (#192). No filter in light path. Alignment was simple: while watching science array movie sequence, just move probe shadow over the light source. Then switch to tip/tilt detector imaging.

Hard to get this array on scale. Eventually could only get PC quadrant #2 working and that had problems:

Vreset had to be 0.5v; otherwise sources looked 'negative' brightness

DAC #6 (Voffset) = 3750

DAC #2 = 0

DAC #5 (ICTL) = 2870

ICTL calibration: 1.26 x 10-3 volts/ADU

Quad #2 corresponds to third OP AMP down from top in preamplifier.

CDS value didn't increase much with exposure time or light source brightness. Signal was also very weak despite exposure times as long as 5 minutes with source voltage at 2.0 volts (0.12 amp).

The other three quads never came on scale despite full range variations in DAC and Voffset values.

Images from December 28:

Source height measured with the vertical micrometer on the source mount. Units are probably in inches.

file name	exposure	conditions	source height

Vreset=0.9v

off000 - 005	20 sec	source off

on000 - 004	20	source on (1.1v, 0.08 amp)	0.3155

on005	0.3105

on006	0.3000

on007	0.2900

on008	0.2500

on009	0.2000

on010	0.1500

on011	0.1000

on012	0.0500

on013	0.0000

on014	0.3500

on015	0.4000

on016	0.4500

on017	0.5000

Vreset=0.5v; source:1.5v, 0.09 amp

on018	30	0.5000

on019	0.4500

on020	0.4000

on021	0.3500

on022	0.3000

on023	0.2500

on024	0.2000

on025	0.1500

on026	0.1000

on027	0.0500

on028	0.0000

off005	- 009	30	source off; opening covered

ADC IMAGES from December 30

K-band filter at f/30

Source lamp: 0.6v at 0.06 amp

Exposures = 0.1sec

Was the source focused?

file name	exposure	conditions	source height

ADC "in" but at unknown orientation

adc000	- 001	0.1	lamp on

adc002 - 003	lamp off & hole covered

adc004 - 005	ADC "out"; images saturated

adc006 - 007	source: 0.4v, 0.05 amp

adc008 - 009	source: 0.5v, 0.05 amp

front ADC at "home"; "back" switch not working

adc010	start ("Turn #0") of back ADC

adc011	CCW by 1 turn

adc012	CCW by 1 turn

adc013	CCW by 1 turn

adc014	CCW by 1 turn

adc015	CCW by 1 turn

adc016	CCW by 1 turn

adc017	CCW by 1 turn

adc018	CCW by 1 turn

adc019	CCW by 1 turn

ACTION ITEMS

1. Make a thermometer cable

2. Make a heater/servo cable

3. Why ADC "back" switch not working?

4. Why do tip/tilt CW and CCW switches seem reversed in both x,y axes?

5. Query Rockwell about poor performance of array #192. What voltages did they use for

each quadrant?

6. Measure/record physical motion of detector translation stage per shaft turn.

7. Perform curvature sensing analysis of pinhole projector.

8. Leak check dewar before opening. Measure leak rate of upper ferrofluidic and infer the

gas capacity of the charcoal.

9. Have Mitch repair the ferrofluidic.

10. Make LN2 transfer lines and funnels.

11. Detectors:

switch science array into Hege's CTIS dewar.

switch PISCES science array into tip/tilt position and do more cold testing.

install a filter into tip/tilt channel?

12. Software:

motors

subarray readout

coaddition for Marcia

13. Install????

real dewar window

polarizing gadgets

more filters

January 16, 2002

Leak checked ARIES and found the expected leak in the topmost probe motor assembly. It took about 5 minutes for the helium to register after squirting directly onto the area so I guess it was "minor". Leak rate was just over the set limit of 1 x 10-7 torr l/s (not sure I understand that unit).

Opened ARIES to swap detectors with Hege's CTIS instrument and to install the PISCES array in the tip/tilt/focus channel.

The "front" ADC home position was connected and does work warm.

The tip/tilt detector looked AOK: It seemed to be making good contact in its socket. The socket already had indium seals front and back. Not sure why that detector was so hard to get going while cold.

February 18, 2002

New cold run to test tip/tilt guide probe assembly.

Have switched detectors. A MUX is now installed at the science station. The original science-grade detector was moved from science station to guide probe. Hege's CTIS now has the E-grade chip. Mitch at IR Labs repaired vacuum leak in the motor mount of the ferrofluidic seal for the "prober x-axis" motor.

Leak checked Sunday, Feb. 17. No leaks below 2E-7. However, the leak checker was drifting and did give some brief positive responses over a period of ~2 hours.

Now have two temperature readout cables. One reads all five sensors. The other reads two and has provision for the heaters, too.

Dewar has been on pump for four days. The vacuum gauge died so I don't know the pressure level in the dewar.

Start cooling at 8:50 AM with dewar on turbo pump.

Time	Sensor #5	Sensor #6	Sensor #7	Sensor #8	Sensor #1

8:50	297 or 298

9:30	291.2	291.6	291.7	292.3	291.1

9:58	274.3	274.2	274.4	274.6	273.6

11:00	221.3	219.6	219.2	219.9	213.2

12:00	180.0	180.1	180.5	181.1	162.2

1:00	154.0	154.1	154.1	154.3	122.3	outer tank full

1:55	129.4	129.8	129.8	130.2	90.52	inner tank full

3:00	113.6	113.9	113.9	114.4	81.25

4:00	104.1	104.3	104.2	105.1	78.9

6:00	95.4	95.6	95.6	95.9	77.6

7:30	93.6	94.2	97.4	97.8	77.4	inner boil=40

Temperature cable was faulty so sensors 5,6,7,8 are identical and should be wrong, too.

Tip/tilt/focus detector (original HAWAII #1). No filter over array. Upper left quadrant on PC screen. In the lower left corner is the focus channel. Upper right corner has image from the tip/tilt channel and is much fainter.

Voffset 3150	Victl	2890

Light source: 0.06 amp, 0.6 volts. Signal in the fainter (tip/tilt) channel: CDS=3790 in 0.5 sec. "ped" outside region of interest = 6100 ADU.

To move probe mirror. Facing the slit plane mirror with ARIES's motors to my left, the "prober x-axis" (CW) moves mirror away. The "prober y-axis" (CW) moves mirror to right.

Action items:

get a pressure sensor for ARIES.

February 19, 2002

Installed point source projector with 1.7 micron filter over end of the source. Hard to get an ideal exposure time since the source seems to heat up causing change in amp/voltage settings.

The focus channel is much brighter than the tip/tilt channel as expected since there is no beamsplitter coating in the optical train. The focus image lies at lower left corner of quadrant 2 (upper left) in PC screen. The tip/tilt image is at upper right corner.

Try a focus series on the tip/tilt channel while moving projector vertically with micrometer readout.

Larger micrometer numbers are closer to dewar window.

ttf1000	roughly in focus

ttf1001	0.5 sec	0.06 amp	0.7 volts

ttf1002

ttf1003	unknown

ttf1004	1 mm up

ttf1005	1 more mm up

ttf1006	down 2 mm

ttf1007	down 1mm

ttf1008	1 more mm down

BREAK

ttf2000	0.5 sec 0.06 amp 0.7v

ttf2001	junk

ttf2002	roughly in focus

ttf2003	0.25 mm up

ttf2004	0.125 mm down

ttf2005	another 0.125 mm down

ttf2006	another 0.25 mm down	micrometer = 3.00

ttf2007	another 0.25 mm down	fwhm = 2.34

ttf2008	another 0.25 mm down	fwhm = 1.68

ttf2009	another 0.25 mm down	micrometer = 3.75	fwhm = 1.58

ttf2010	micrometer = 4.00	fwhm = 1.52

ttf2011	micrometer = 4.25	fwhm = 1.46

ttf2012	bad ???	micrometer = 4.50	fwhm = ??

ttf2013	micrometer = 4.75	fwhm = 1.42

ttf2014	micrometer = 5.00	fwhm = 1.39

ttf2015	micrometer = 5.25	fwhm = 1.45

ttf2016	micrometer = 5.50	fwhm = 1.58

ttf2017	micrometer = 5.75	fwhm = 1.81

ttf2018	micrometer = 6.00	fwhm = 1.93

ttf2019	micrometer = 6.25	fwhm = INDEF

ttf2020	micrometer = 6.50

ttf2021	micrometer = 6.75

ttf2022	micrometer = 7.00

do a series around best focus for tip/tilt channel

ttf2023	micrometer = 5.00	fwhm = 1.45	5 sec

ttf2024	micrometer = 2.50	fwhm = 3.37	focus1

ttf2025	too faint ??	micrometer = 0.00	focus2

ttf2026	micrometer = 7.50	fwhm = 2.38	focus3

ttf2027	too faint ??	micrometer = 10.00	focus4

very close to dewar window

ttf2028	bulb off = dark frame

the next two frames have bulb back on and brighter

ttf2029	micrometer = 0.00	focus5

ttf2030	micrometer = 10.00	focus6

focus channel seems to flip in astigmatism between 7.50 and 10.00 on micrometer

ttf2031	0.5 sec	micrometer = 7.75

ttf2032	micrometer = 8.00	focus7

ttf2033	micrometer = 8.25	focus8

ttf2034	micrometer = 8.50	focus9

ttf2035	micrometer = 8.75	focus10

ttf2036	micrometer = 9.00	focus11

ttf2037	micrometer = 9.25	focus12

ttf2038	micrometer = 9.50	focus13

ttf2039	micrometer = 9.75	focus14

ttf2040	micrometer = 10.00	focus15

larger micrometer numbers ==> light source moves down

astigmatism spot size increases as projector is moved upwards from dewar window

astigmatism spot size decreases as projector is moved downwards towards dewar window

Results imply that the focus and tip/tilt channels are not co-focal by 3.75 mm.

Detector operation:

increasing Voffset increases ADU

increasing ICTL decreases ADU

increasing individual DACs decreases ADU

MUX operation on 1/25/02:

Vreset = 0.9	Voffset = 4095 (4.88v)	Victl = 2870 (3.50v)

I have had to drive Victl as high as about 3.9v to get some of these detectors working.

February 22, 2002

outer LN2 can of dewar had been warm for about one day

inner can temperature at 77.5 K

sensors at 5-8 = 165 K

boiloffs = 21/63	(steel/glass)

began using heaters with second temperature cable to warm up dewar

this worked AOK and I saw the internal thermostat kick in about 60 F

February 27, 2002

fixed wiring of the temperature cable with 5 sensors

started to control motors using Hyper Terminal program under Windows ME:

9600 baud, no "hardware", no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit

need "caps lock" on

we were unable to get XWare to connect to the motor control box but that may be because we did not energize the solid-state relay using he external battery connection

I'm not sure of the purpose of the solid-state relay. We can turn off the motors using software commands anyway.

The motor controller seems to assume that "limits" are enabled even if they don't exist or aren't connected. For example, motors 1 and 2 (ADC front and back) would not work until we disabled limits.

It's OK not to connect all motors if you want to test only certain ones independently.

March 1, 2002

(continued by Don on 3/4/02)

Laird Close and Melanie Freed install filters for their Differential Spectral Imager

in CW order (staring from detector side) back filter wheel contains:

polarizer #2

empty (because the diameter of their units are too large and interfere

with adjacent filter locations)

polarizer #1

empty

their DSI unit

7 empty positions

in CW order (staring from detector side) the front wheel contains:

1-2 micron low-pass filter

2.122 micron filter

1.644 micron filter (bandwidth = 45 nm; these are probably warm values)

(Freed/Close filter)

blank

K-band (is it really a K filter or possibly a "continuum K"?)

blank

6 empty positions

March 6, 2002

(Alix & Don test motors and switches)

CW motion of motors appears CW when looking down from above motor plate

motor number	function	limit switches	home switches

1	ADC back (last on light path)	yes

2	ADC front (first in light path)	yes

3	yes

4	yes

5	optics slide	yes

6	science array z-axis	yes

7	probe x-axis	yes

8	probe y-axis	yes

9 revolutions of ADC motors between home positions

probe motors:

#7 CW moves backward along work surface away from light path

#8 CW moves upward away from work surface

science array motion:

#6 CW moves back away from incoming light path

CCW (front limit) switch doesn't engage soon enough since I had to move the

array forward on the stage

March 9, 2002

Removed Brackett-gamma filter from PISCES and installed in ARIES for Melanie Freed's testing of the Differential Spectral Imager. New filter order is:

in CW order (staring from detector side) the front wheel contains:

Brackett-gamma (2.1702 micron, bandwidth = 0.0212 micron; at 77K?)

1-2 micron low-pass filter

2.122 micron filter

1.6433 micron filter (bandwidth = 45.1 nm; these are probably warm values)

(Freed/Close filter)

HOME POSITION = blank

K-band (is it really a K filter or possibly a "continuum K"?)

blank

5 empty positions

back filter wheel contains:

Freed gadget

HOME POSITION = open

Freed gadget

open

Freed gadget

7 open positions

Switched the first science HAWAII detector from the tip/tilt channel to the science channel.

Need a vacuum suction device to clean ARIES.

March 16, 2002

Melissa Pesche-Rollins and I reassembled ARIES on Tuesday (3/12) with freshly baked charcoal.

The science detector #1 is now installed in science position.

Pumped for one day before MIRAC needed it.

Resumed pumping 10 AM today. Initial pressure was 1.8 milliTorr but decreased quickly.

Wired ARIES entirely: motors, thermometers, detector.

Checked detector operation while warm:

all bias voltages OK

with grounded preamp channels, get 1.3 ADU noise (indiv. DACs = Voffset = 0)

can read out detector except for upper right quad:

Voffset = 3500

Victl = 2900

DACs = 0

typical ped value in 0.5 sec exposure = 44000 adu with 2.8 sigma

8 PM vacuum pressure = 1.6-3.5 x 10-5 Torr (fluctuations are real)

March 17, 2002

continue to pump on ARIES all day. Pressure varies from 8 x10-7 torr to 2.5 x 10-6 torr

turn on water bed heater around LN2 vessels to bake out dewar

turn off overnight after about 4 hours

March 18, 2002

continue pumping all day with heaters on both the LN2 vessels and on the top surface.

temp setting of LN2 heater = 85-90F

temp setting of top heater is 60-70 on the red Variac I borrowed from IR group

pressure is a few x10-6 torr all day

turn off heaters overnight

March 19, 2002

LN2 delivered at noon.

Start cooling at noon with dewar on turbo pump. Starting pressure fluctuates between 7x10-7 to 1.3x10-6 Torr.

Never leak checked the dewar!

Looks like I forgot to connect the outer shield's thermometer.

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5

12:00	301.8	499.99 inoperative

1:00	280.6	241.5	287.4	284.0	9x10-9 Torr

2:00	229.6	187.2	243.9	243.9	ditto

3:00	183.7	148.0	186.5	209.7	ditto

3:47	150.3	120.9	179.7	185.0	ditto; outer can full

5:00	104.2	89.4	92.8	152.9

6:00	85.5	82.5	85.7	136.6

6:10	84.0	82.1	84.3	134.4	inner can full

top off outer can

7:10	79.8	80.9	83.3	124.2

Detector works in all quads. Probably still cooling but require these voltages for now:

Victl	2890 (hot pixels look very streaky)

Voffset 4095

CDS value ~ 10 with ped value = 45300

Action items:

1. Get neutral density filter(s) [factor of 100x] for ARIES.

2. Move one blank-off disk into each filter wheel so we can cycle the wheels between filter positions without exposing detector to bright starlight in some open position.

March 20, 2002

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5

12:00	77.2	77.0	79.7	83.2

Top off LN2 in both cans.

Voffset = 3500

Victl	= 2875

Balance quadrants in a 1 sec VD1 exposure to give about 9000 adu dc level

1.2268 "voltage #s"/ADU on screen; increasing voltage #s lowers ADU level

quad 1	= 1144	(upper right on PC screen)

quad 2	= 1376	(upper left on PC screen)

quad 3	= 3028	(lower left on PC screen)

quad 4	= 3475	(lower right on PC screen)

It seems that the blankoff position is not a true blank. Need to investigate this aspect further.

March 21, 2002

Laird & Melanie spent most of the day measuring the performance of their polarizers and DSI.

They commented on the need to reboot the PC when turning their desk lamp on/off to make a flatfield illumination. I had experienced static problems before but am not sure the origin into the PC.

March 22, 2002

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5

17:30	76.9	76.8	76.7	77.3

inner boiloff = 9-10 on top ball = ~150 cc/min

Temp sensor #3 has shown a drift in its readout once selected. It can rise steadily and slowly to hundreds of degrees.

Temp sensors #3,4 took a much longer time to reach LN2 temps than the others.

March 24, 2002

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #	1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5

1:17	76.9	76.8	76.7	77.0

inner boiloff = 9 on top ball

outer boiloff = unable to measure; exceeds capacity of our boiloff meter

Action:	order another Linde boiloff meter

March 26, 2002

more cold tests

put ADC in home position

Melanie Freed's field stop remains installed at the slit plane position

light source:

Koby's source above tilted window

using 1-2 micron filter in dewar filter wheel

using polarizer at bottom of light source

0.5 sec exposures --> probably saturating

saving to f:\test on PC and strad/d0/mccarthy/MPR on strad

file name	conditions

mtn000	home position

mtn001	2D6350 and 1D 6350 both CCW; moved both together 5 degrees

mtn002	repeat for total of 10 degrees

mtn2003	go to 45 degrees net

mtn004	90 degrees net; image moved out of field

mtn005	135 degrees net; still no image

mtn006	180 degrees net; still no image

mtn007	225 degrees net; still no image

mtn 008	270 degrees net; still no image

mtn009	315 degrees net; image back in view

mtn010	360 degrees net; image back in center

mtn011	??

mtn012	1D-1411; 2D1411: move 10 deg/9

mtn013	repeat

go home and restart

mtn014	moved #1 45 deg CW and #2 45 deg CCW (+/-57150 steps)

no image in field

mtn015	moved net #1 180 deg CW and #2 180 deg CCW

still no image in field

March 28, 2002

still cold

ADC at home position

light source:	0.08 amp 1.3 volts

1 sec exposures in 1-2 micron filter

move ADC prisms together and look for image shift on "frosted" surface of Melanie's field stop

file name	conditions

box004	move 45 deg CCW; still see source in the clear area of stop

box005	90

box006	135

box007	180

box008	225

box009	270

box010	315

during this sequence the image has moved from left to right about 100 pixels

box011	at home position

box012	move #1 45 deg CCW and #2 45 deg CW

box013	+/-90 deg net

box014	+/-135 deg net

box015	repeat without light source

box016	repeat with light source

box017	+/-180 deg net

box018	+/-225 deg net

box019	+/-270 deg net

box020	+/-315 deg net

box021	+/-360 deg net

On the PC screen the image has moved CCW in a circle of diameter ~128 pixels.

When I translate the light source towards the motor-side of ARIES, the PC image moves to left.

box022	#1 90 deg CW; #2 90 deg CCW

box023	rotate each prism 45 deg more in its respective direction

box024	net rotation now 180 deg

box025	net rotation now 225 deg

box039	#1 at 0 deg; #2 at 180 deg

light source at 0.06 amps, 0.5 volts; 0.1 sec exposures, polarizer underneath light source, room lights off

box040	back at home position

6 hours later

box041	repeat

image is double peaked; focus =6.10 on micrometer

box042	refocus sequence

6.20	fwhm =	3.4 pixels

box043	6.25	4.27

box044	6.35	3.23

box045	6.45	3.10

box046	6.60	3.13

box047	6.75	3.32

box048	7.00	3.98

box049	6.50	3.27; has the best peak intensity

all this was at home for both ADC prisms

box050	#1 45 deg CW and #2 45 deg CCW	image still looks same

at 90 deg for each; can't locate image at first so

compensate for image motion by translating light source

box051	#1 45 deg CW and #2 45 deg CCW

box052	now at +/-90deg

both images show elongation horizontally

box051	eccentricity = 0.24	fwhm = 3.44

box052	eccentricity = 0.15	fwhm = 4.18

box053	select 2.112 micron filter

eccentricity = 0.19	fwhm = 2.70

box054	2.112 micron filter at ADC home

eccentricity = 0.17	fwhm = 3.0

April 9-15, 2002

On previous afternoon we filled both LN2 tanks and then tilted ARIES on its cart so the LN2 vessels were pointing down.

this caused about 12-15 liters of LN2 to flow out of both vessels

after 12 hours, the LN2 boiloff of inner can had doubled for some reason

boiloff meter showed 18 for glass ball

Installed ARIES at the shimulator on bottom of Top Box

Transported ARIES to Mirror Lab at 7:30 AM, Tuesday, April 9 in pickup truck

off-loaded with fork lift

raised in position under shimulator using two diagonally opposite guide pins

threaded into the mounting plate

shimulator peculiarities:

can't image the pupil since shimulator optics place the pupil not at infinity

optics have significant chromatic aberration

visible image is located about 2mm higher than IR image

IR image is located about 4 mm too far right on detector and thus outside our

field stop which is still installed from Laird's experiment

this misalignment is in the Top Box/shimulator optics; not ARIES

IR image falls on the sand-blasted surface of this field stop

images get very comatic even slightly off-axis and realignment requires a few

days work

I tilted and pistoned ARIES's tilted test window to illuminate the wavefront sensor

very easy!

tilting window so back side rises causes PC image to go up

tilting window so East side rises causes PC image to move right

on Wednesday, the AO folks spent the day aligning the Top Box wavefront sensor optics

On Thursday, the IR laser (1.55 microns) power supply died

On Friday, another power supply was jury-rigged and they took data in closed-loop mode

I kept ARIES cold over the weekend in case they wanted to do more tests on Monday and so I could measure temperatures and boiloffs during warmup

received new boiloff tube assembly:

boiloff of outer LN2 vessel:

120-121 (glass ball) ==> 2026-2300 ccm/min

boiloff of inner LN2 vessel:

11 (glass ball) ==> 0.384-0.485 liter/min

action items:

need better fill LN2 tubes for this constricted location under the Top Box

April 15, 2002

Removed ARIES from shimulator and left it overnight in casting lab in "down" orientation.

ARIES was last filled with LN2 around noon April 14.

April 16, 2002

Transported ARIES back to Steward Lab in pickup truck.

Warming dewar via Lakeshore heater control circuit:

sensors A and B are about 79 K

power up heaters at "high" setting with aim point of 190K

percentage power stabilized at 80%

April 24-28, 2002

on 4/24 afternoon, we went to atmospheric pressure and installed the Micro-ion vacuum gauge and began pumping again at 2 PM

on 4/26 at 11:30 AM, disconnected the pump:

pressure was 4.7 x 10-8 torr on the SensTorr gauage at pump

pressure was 4.1 x 10-4 torr on the Micro-Ion gauge in ARIES

11:35	6.7 x10-4 torr

12:00	1.1 x 10-3

6 PM	1.7 x 10-3

4/28 at noon	5.1 x 10-3 torr

April 29, 2002

installed CaF2 dichroic vacuum window:

- part #10446; slightly scratched surface; slightly scorched on bottom; coating scalloped at edge which could lead to delamination in future

removed Freed's field stop over slit plane mirror

restart vacuum pumping

May 2, 2002

vacuum at end of May 2:	5.4 x 10-4 torr

vacuum at end of May 3:	3.3 x 10-4 torr

NOTE from last cold run: Detector focused on slit-plane mirror at a position that takes

5.75 turns CCW to reach a physical stop to motor turning

May 14, 2002

Received silicon grism from Jian Ge

isoceles triangle:

70.5 degree angles at base

base is parallel to optical axis

54.7 degrees at apex

15 micron grooves

12 mm length at top??

15 mm length along grating surface at bottom??

should face grating surface towards detector

theoretical resolution = 10,000

probable realistic resolution = 4-5,000

may need to refocus light since beam deviates a lot through grism and gets off-axis

Grism doesn't fit in filter wheel: Too thick.

January 5, 2003

leak check of dewar on 1/3 couldn't identify specific leak areas but seemed to show a general tendency to leak. With the small helium gas bottle near ARIES, leak rate rose about 50x above ambient when the bottle's main valve was opened. There is a 5-10 minute time constant associated with spraying helium and helium detection.

Opened ARIES and installed the AO-rated H and Ks filters, the new dichroic window, and a 5 mil thick insulated wire across the slit-plane mirror. Also, re-greased all O-rings for all motors on top of dewar (not the filter box motors). Ditto for all actuators, vacuum valve, vacuum gauge, slit-plane port, dichroic window, and detector-related electronics.

Tightened all bolts to the interface mounting bracket.

in CW order (staring from detector side) the front wheel contains:

neutral density 2.5

neutral density 1.0 (annular deposition; could leak)

Brackett-gamma (2.1702 micron, bandwidth = 0.0212 micron; at 77K?)

1-2 micron low-pass filter

2.122 micron filter

1.6433 micron filter (bandwidth = 45.1 nm; these are probably warm values)

(Freed/Close filter)

HOME POSITION = blank

K-band (is it really a K filter or possibly a "continuum K"?)

blank

AO H filter

AO Ks filter

1 empty position

January 6, 2003

after 24 hours on turbo-pump, ARIES internal pressure is

10-5 torr on pump ion gauge

1.5x10-3 on ARIES internal ion gauge

2x10-2 on the thermocouple gauge at base of turbo pump

pressure is slowly decreasing; I'm not sure if there's a vacuum leak somewhere

I turned on the waterbed heaters to help back out the dewar but didn't notice a change in the internal pressure

January 7, 2003

Kept pumping with water bed heaters on during day only.

Leak checked but couldn't get a consistent location for the source of the signal. Occasionally, while spraying helium near motors 5,6, I'd get a brief leak signal at the level of 1-2 x10-7 Torr about 5-10 minutes after spraying that area. Couldn't get it to repeat.

January 8, 2003

Pressure on micro-ion internal gauge was 4.4x10-5 at 9:30 AM.

Disconnnected ARIES from pump while cooling PISCES. Afterwards, ARIES pressure had gone up to ~7x10-4.

Started cooling ARIES at 3:20 PM about 30 minutes after reconnecting the pump.

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5	press.

3:20	6x10-4

3:40	one LN2 hose broke yielding a 30 min delay in that side's cooldown

3:55	6x10-5

4:25	289	277	294	292	277	8x10-6

5:06	273	251	283	279	246	2x10-6

6:21	236	212	213	249	210	1x10-6

7:08	213	190	230	190	1x10-6

8:04	187	167	168	209	167	1x10-6

9:00	162	138	141	189	146	7x10-7

increase LN2 flow to both tanks; outer tank is full

9:10	inner tank is full

9:24	142	96	98	175	137	3x10-7

10:10	107	87	89	153	123	3x10-7

top off inner tank

filter wheel motors #3,4 work AOK under computer control with homing

January 9, 2003

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5	press.

9:00	77	78	77	88	94	1x10-6

16:30	77	77	74 noisy	83	93	1x10-6

inner can boiloff = 8 (stainless ball)

science detector works:

Voffset = 3500

Victl = 2875	(these voltages may still need adjusting; Vd too?)

need to short connector pin of preamp to dewar case for low noise

approximate focus as expected at 14 turns CCW from limit

can focus on the 5mil wire ~8 pixels

may have seen vacuum gauge change when retracting ADC prisms to 3x10-6 temporarily

filter wheel sequence: 3A0.5 3V0.5 3LD3 3GH0.5 3D-50800 3G for clockwise motion one revolution from home

January 11, 2003

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5	press.

9:30	77.0	76.9	73.7	77.8	94.5	1.3x10-6

January 12, 2003

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5	press.

1:00 PM	77.1	76.9	76.9	77.3	95.1	1.3x10-6

January 14, 2003

I shipped the old ARIES dichroic window to MMT for use in Top Box.

I have been writing simple motor macro (text files) to control filter, grism, optics motors

Matt Rademacher is modifying the AO secondary shipping box to transport ARIES

January 15, 2003

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5	press.

5:15 PM	77.0	76.9	76.9	77.0	93.8	1.2x10-6

new Leach controller for tip/tilt/focus channel:

moved original PISCES controller boards from its old style enclosure to new one

Ken at IR Labs replaced one 3.2 Kohm resistor on both ADC boards with 4.99 Kohm to get correct voltages

tip/tilt/focus detector functions:

Victl = 2875

Voffset = 3800

October 5, 2003

About one month ago I inspected ARIES for the first time since the MMT accident in January. Everything looked AOK, including all lenses and mirrors. The SDI and polarizing devices were removed from the back filter wheel for rebuilding so they would fit properly into the back filter wheel. About two weeks ago, Laird, Beth, Eric, and I installed the unchanged SDI unit but not the two polarizing units.

IR Labs made a replacement dewar window interface. This interface is an Al plate which fits into the ARIES holder in place of the old CaF2 window which was damaged in the last observing run. In the center of this plate the old FASTRACII IRFS dichroic can be mounted against an O-ring seal. I did not tighten the retaining screws to clamp the window against he O-ring. Instead, I let the atmospheric pressure differential do that job since this method produces less astigmatism of the window's surface. I was unable to use the Newton's rings test to examine the window surface under vacuum; probably the fringe visiblity is very low because of the high reflection from the dichrocic vs. the low reflection of the optical flat used in this test.

The turbo pump was damaged during the last week of September and was replaced on Friday, September 26. ARIES began pumping that day until Wednesday. Then it was was not pumped for two days because the pump was in use by BLINC/MIRAC. Have had ARIES on turbo pump for the last two days.

Heated dewar with the two external heaters for 24 hours. Internal ARIES pressure rose from 3.4 x 10-5 to 4.4 x 10-5 in that period. Disconnected heaters about 16 hours prior to today's cooling.

Just prior to cooling, internal pressure = 4 x 10-5

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5	press.

9:05	302	279	302	302	301	6x10-4

9:35	298	261	302	298	298	1.7x10-5

10:00	276	218	220	279	276	1.1x10-5

10:30	239	175	178	249	240	4.1x10-4

Outer tank is full! Why did internal pressure increase and now start to decrease

11:00	206	144	145	225	215	6.9x10-6

11:30	174	116	121	203	195	2.3x10-6

12:00	142	95	98	181	177	1.2x10-6

12:22	120	88	91	170	165	1.0x10-6

Inner tank is full.

1:15	91	84	85	148	141	1.0x10-6

1:40	86	83	86	142	133	8.5x10-7

2:30	81	82	84	131	120	8.4x10-7

Dewar window has condensation in center. Probably because it's IR fused silica with lower thermal conductivity than the old CaF2 dewar window (?).

3:10	79	81	83	124	122	9x10-7

4:45	78	80	83	113	100	9.6x10-7

5:30	77.8	79.6	82.5	109	97.4	8.3X10-7

6:45	77.6	79.2	82.1	103	95	8.4x10-7

October 6, 2003

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5	press.

10:06 PM	76.9	76.8	74.7	79.6	93.2	8.7x10-7

inner can boiloff = 8 (glass ball)

test noise with grounded inputs to preamp (Voffset=0; all quads = 0); noise =1.2 in all quads

all voltages check out AOK

science detector works:

Voffset = 3500

Victl = 2875	(these voltages may still need adjusting; Vd too?)

need to short connector pin of preamp to dewar case for low noise

best noise achieved when motor controller is turned off

approximate focus as expected at 14 turns CCW from limit

October 11, 2003

outer boiloff =	122

inner boiloff =	8

operating the ADC feedthrough increases the vacuum pressure momentarily

Science Detector voltages:	saved in file "mmt.cnf" 10/11/03

V_offset9	DC2 (3500 decimal)

V_biasgate	A3D (2825 decimal)

Quad #1	7D0 (2000 decimal)	upper right on PC screen

Quad #2	7D0	upper left on PC screen

Quad #3	9C4 (2500 decimal)	lower left on PC screen

Quad #4	FA0 (4000 decimal)	lower right on PC screen

in VD1 mode, "ped" is approximately 4000-4500 counts in all quads

Increase quad DAC's and "ped" decreases in VD1 mode (0.002930 V/ADU)

Increase V_offset and "ped" increases in VD1 mode

January 31, 2004

opened ARIES to:

1. transfer the two neutral density filters from the front wheel to the rear wheel so they can be used in conjunction with filters in the front wheel

2. remove the thin wire target that was strung across the slit plane mirror

start pump down

February 1, 2004

While moving ARIES & pump in the lab, the pumping line developed a small leak. One of the clamping rings loosened around the metal hose because the bolt was stripped. So ARIES pressure went up substantially.

February 2, 2004

Starts to bakeout dewar using the heater on the LN2 vessels at 85F.

February 3, 2004

cool while pumping

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield	ARIES

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5	pressure

11:10	300.2	297.6	300.5	300.6	300.7	7.1x10-4

11:30	296.6	264.5	264.8	296.9	298.2	2.5x10-5

12:00	273.0	205.0	unstable	274.7	279.8	8.0x10-6

12:30	226.0	154.7	unstable	237.7	245.3	5.1x10-6

1:30	157.5	98.9	unstable	193.2	204.0	1.0x10-6

stop to teach ASTR 201

3:55	82.24	82.41	unstable	136.3	135.7	5.8x10-7

on Varian turbo pump	TC1 = 2.4x10-2	TC2 = 1.0x10-3	IG = 9.8x10-9

inner can full at 4:15

4:25	80.35	81.36	unstable	130.4	126.3	6.0x10-7

4:36	79.88	81.22	unstable	128.5	123.2	5.7x10-6

outer can full

5:00	79.5	80.86	106.9	125.0	117.5	5.7x10-7

5:35	disconnect from vacuum pump

February 4, 2004

11:50	76.98	76.94	unstable	82.01	93.94	8.3x10-7

inner boiloff after filling = 8/12

outer boiloff after filling = 61/120

ARIES Bakeout

TC2 and TC1 are thermocouples gauges on the vacuum pump

Day	Time	TC2	TC1	Temp Sensor #5

1/13	12:30	10

12:35	3X100

12:49	1.8X10-1

1:00	1.0X	296

1:10	6.5X10-2

2:14	1.2

2:29	9.1X10-3	298.4

2:52	4.9	298.7

3:05	3.0	299.1

3:12	2.0	299.4

3:20	1.0	299.6	connect to turbo pump

3:47	5x10-2	2.1x10-1	300.4

3:56	2.5	1.8	300.6

4:29	7.8x10-3	1.5	301.3

4:45	3.8	1.5	301.6

5:50	1.0	1.0	302.5

7:15	8.0x10-2	303.3

8:21	7.1	303.9

1/14	2:16	4.3	305.6

3:00	4.2	305.8

10:01	2.9	306.8

12:15	2.5	307.1

3:15	2.2	307.4

6:21	2.0	307.6

1/15	12:00	1.7	308.4

4:30	1.5	308.7

4:15 PM	1.2	309.5

4:45	1.1	309.5

8:00	1.1	309.5

1/16	3:10	9.4x10-3	310.3

8:00 PM	6.9	311.0	heaters off

1/17	12:00	6.6	309.5

3:18	5.6	307.2

6:45	5.0	305.7

January 17, 2005

Have been preparing for next AO observing run at MMT.

ARIES was opened on Jan. 12 to change filters and sealed the next day. It has been on the pump since then ~4 days. Most of this time the two external heaters were used to “bake” the dewar. Heaters were turned off at 8 PM last night.

Filter changes: Installed an ND stack in order the observe alpha Ori, Mira, etc. Also installed two molecular hydrogen filters for Craig’s observations.

Not working:

ARIES vacuum sensor

Thermometer channels #2,3

Science Array	Offner	Tip/tilt Array	ADC	Outer Shield

Time	Sensor #1	Sensor #2	Sensor #3	Sensor #4	Sensor #5	pressure

0710	310.1	xxxxxxx	xxxxxxx	310.6	305.5	TC1=5x 10-3

0718	1x10-3

0746	301.2	301.59	289.0

0819	272.0	275.9	255.2	outer can full

10:21	122.7	167.4	165.2

inner can full ~30 min ago

April 6, 2005

Preparing for the next MMTAO run that starts April 23 and goes through May 2.

ARIES was opened on April 1 in the early AM and was sealed and on the pump by 1 PM. The science array (the original Pisces science detector) has been swapped to the tip-tilt channel. The tip-tilt array (#206) is now in the science detector position. All hopes are that it will be as clean as the current Pisces science detector.

In addition, the 102.5 x 102 x 101.5 sandwich of neutral density filters that was installed for Pete Worden and Ken Hege's alpha Ori obervations (which showed multiple images) were removed and replaced with the usual single 102.5 filter.

An attempt was made to fix the bad temperature sensors #2 and #3 (offner and tip/tilt), but the tip/tilt channel seemed to have fixed itself. The problem is not inside the offner box for channel #2, so we buttoned it back up and will look at the external wiring harnesses first.

A new vacuum gauge was installed to replace the old burned-out one. From now on, we don't need to run the vacuum controller at its highest current setting (4 mA), with a low cutoff in the 10-4 torr range and a high vacuum limit of 10-9 torr. Most of the time, we are best off with the lowest current setting of 20 uA, which ranges from 10-2 to 10-6 torr. 200 times less current should dramatically extend the micro-ion gauge lifetime. The gauge definitely runs cooler, though still fairly warm to the touch.

ARIES was pumped on for 4.5 days; no external heaters were used. The vacuum pressures followed the usual pattern, though in the final day a very meager gain from 3x10-4 to 2x10-4 torr was measured in the dewar. We'd need a full seven days to break into the 10-5 torr range. Next time we'll fire up the heaters early and see if we can accelerate the process a bit.

ARIES was cooled starting at 8 AM on April 6th. This was the fastest cooldown yet; with a 15 minute interruption to get the fill tube heaters caught up after forgetting to turn them on, the outer vessel was full at 9:10 AM and the inner vessel followed at 9:40 AM. The fill tube heaters are vital; a vacuum leak was observed after the seals got too cold. We've lost temperature sensor #3 (tip/tilt) again. Kirby suggests a cold solder joint somewhere; certainly seems to be a wiring issue.

The inner vessel ran out at 3 PM and was promptly filled. Both 160-liter storage dewars are reading ½ full. The detector sensor reached 77K at 5 PM; at that point the ADC was the warmest working sensor, at 110K. It would seem that a quick fill minimized LN2 usage, though possibly (?) at the expense of greater thermal shock to the system.

April 7-11, 2005

Temperature sensor #3 has decided to work again after all. Biased the new #206 science array for proper operation. Obersing the unsubtracted single reads, the ICTL voltage is adjusted to minimize streaking; the DACs are adjusted to level the quadrant offsets, and then the preamp global offset is adjusted for proper range (just above the low-voltage rail – ex. 2000 counts) in the no-light condition. The array is not fully saturated when the 16-bit data numbers overflow, however the array is observed to be nonlinear in the usual place; clearly demonstrated at 25,000 ADU. As with the Pisces science array, the gain is about 4.4 e-/ADU and the readnoise about 4 ADU.

Current settings for #206 science array:

VICTL = 2700 dec = 0xa8c

VBASE = 3690 dec = 0xe6a

DAC1 offset: 0x510

DAC2 offset: 0x000

DAC3 offset: 0x4c0

DAC4 offset: 0xdf0

The old science array is now at the tip/tilt position. The best VICTL setting (2850) rendered the array insensitive to light; that is, no matter how long the exposure, the two correlated reads were nearly identical. I settled on the nearest setting that minimized streaking and provided normal operation.

Current settings for tip/tilt array:

VICTL = 2880 dec = 0xb40

VBASE = 3350 dec = 0xd16

DAC offsets set to 0x000

ACTION ITEMS:

ARIES COLD OPERATION: December 6 to 31, 2001

DonMcCarthy

2001-12-31T08:14:00