Operating the ST-8 CCD Camera

• Open CCDOps on the "Planck" computer.

• Under the Misc menu, select "Graphics/Comm Setup" and switch it to the Parallel port.

• Now unpack the camera/filterwheel and plug it into the CPU. Plug in all the necessary cables to the CPU, but make sure to plug the power cable in last.

• Now go back to CCDOps and under the Camera menu, select "Setup".

• Turn the temperature regulation box to "Active" and set the temperature to -25 (this is in Celsius).

• Wait ten minutes, then check the CCD temperature (it can be found on the bottom right of the CCDOps window). Now set the temperature regulation to a few tenths of a degree high er. Throughout the night of observations, the cooling should be kept between 95% and 99% efficiency. This can be read beside the CCD temperature.

• Now mount the CCD on the telescope by removing the silver part that holds the eyepiece from the telescope and unscrewing the narrower aperture from the camera. Insert this end into the eyepiece on the telescope and tighten thumbscrew. When mounting the CCD on the telescope, try to align it such that declination is up/down on the CCD and R.A. is left/right.

• Set the initial telescope focus at 3370 using the handpaddle.

• To focus, select an object and slew the telescope to it. Enter an exposure time agreeable with the sky conditions and the magnitude of your object and hit "OK." The minimum exposure time is .011 seconds. The brightest objects require this shortest time to avoid oversaturation.

• In between exposures in this mode, there is a delay that may be set (in seconds) in the focus box before hitting "OK." During this delay, look at your last downloaded image and adjust the focus on the handpaddle accordingly. When the light is focused on the camera, the peak value that the camera reads should be at its hightest, but its fluctuations are very sensitive, so first focus by eyeballing it, then fine tune it using the peak pixel value.

• You can also adjust the centering of the object in this mode by setting the telescope coordinates on the handpaddle. To make this tedious process a bit faster, select "planet" mode instead of "full" when the focus prompt box comes up, then it will allow you to select a smaller region of pixels to be downloaded, which takes less time.

• Select the filter you wish from the "Filter" menu.

• Take a picture with the "grab" option in the "Camera" menu. Save images as "Compressed SBIG."

• Whn shutting down, warm the CCD up gradually by setting the temperature back to 20 in the "Setup" box. When it has reached temperatures close to room temperature, sellect "shutdown" from the "Camera" menu, disconnect the CCD, close CCDOps, and pack up the CCD and filter wheel.