1 General Guidelines and Preliminary Information

1.1) About This Manual

1.2) Graduate in One Night!

1.3) Technical Problems

1.4) Transportation and Area Maps

1.5) Accommodation and Meals

1.6) Observing Preparation Form

1.7) Telephones & Fax

1.8) Publications

1.9) Sending Documents and Parcels To MDM, Also location of AURA lot

2 What Every Observer Should Know

2.1) Observing

2.1.1) Obtaining the best seeing!

2.1.2) Limits on observing conditions

2.2) Weather Conditions

2.2.1) Weather radio

2.2.2) What to do during bad storms.

2.3) Emergency Conditions

2.3.1) Telephone help

2.3.2) Emergency radio

2.3.3) Emergency generator and the UPS

3 Telescope Specifications

3.1) Historical Introduction

3.2) Optical Specifications

3.3) Mechanical Specifications

3.4) Geographical Coordinates

4 Telescope Control & Data Acquisition Computers

4.1) Introduction

4.2) Basic Operating Instructions

4.2.1) Turning the machines on

4.2.2) Re-booting from a computer "crash"

4.2.3) Turning the machines off

4.3) The Telescope Control Computer

4.3.1) Logging on

4.3.2) Directory structure

4.3.3) Disk storage space

4.3.4) Starting the Telescope Control Software

4.3.5) Restarting individual windows

4.3.6) The mouse buttons

4.4) Some Useful Info

4.4.1) Internet Access

4.4.2) Storing Data on DVD

4.5) Quick Look and Data Reduction

5 Telescope Control System (TCS)

        5.1) Introduction
        5.2) TCS
        5.3) Starting the TCS System
              5.3.1) TCS Commands
                   5.3.1.1) Dome and Home Buttoms (Popup windows)
              5.3.2)  Taking Dome Flats           
              5.3.3) Opening the dome, dark hatch and Mirrors covers
        5.4) Estop
        5.5) Guiding
        5.6) Hand paddle GUI and telescope hardware hand paddle
        5.7) When things do not work properly
        5.8) Closing

6 The Multiple Instrument System (MIS)

6.1) Introduction

6.2) The MIS Camera

6.3) The Multiple Instrument System Control Software, xmis2

6.4) Finder & Spectroscopic Calibration

6.5) Guider

6.5.1) xmis2 guider parameters; preset pop-up menu

6.5.2) Off-axis guiding for direct imaging

6.6) How to Focus the Guider and Instrument

6.6.1) Focus procedure: direct imaging

6.6.2) Focus procedure: spectroscopy

6.7) MIS Filter Wheels and Filters

6.7.1) 4" filter wheel

6.7.2) MDM filter sets

6.8) Technical Reference Section

6.8.1) Guest instrumentation and the MIS mounting plate

6.8.2) xmis2 software configuration (for staff use only)

7 Slit-Viewing & Autoguiding Systems

7.1) Introduction

7.2) Andor Cameras for Slit-Viewing

7.3) Autoguiding and Acquisition at the MDM Telescopes

8 The Instrument Rotator

8.1) Introduction

8.2) Moving the Rotator

9 The LN2 Storage Dewars

9.1) Pressurizing LN2 Storage Dewars

9.2) Hints on Filling Instrument Dewars

APPENDIX A: Startup Checklist

APPENDIX B: Shutdown Checklist

Emergency Lightning Shutdown Procedure

Updated: 2016Apr13  [Galayda/MDM]