FEROS Installation/Commissioning

New Pictures of FEROS

Jump to Commissioning I

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Installation and Commissioning I (Sept 21 - Oct 17, 1998)

Installation Logfile

Sept 11: FEROS shipped from LSW to ESO, La Silla
Sept 15: Arrival of boxes at La Silla
Sept 21:
- Arrival A.Kaufer, S.Tubbesing
- Start Installation, Inspection of FEROS facilities
- Cinema: Alien 4
Sept 22:
- Transport boxes from aluminisation room up to telescope floor
- Installation of optical bench in FEROS room
- Mounting of FEROS enclosure started
- Arrival P.Noerregaard
Sept 23:
- Setup of FEROS Control and CCD Control PCs, Network configuration
- Arrival of CCD system from Copenhagen
- Installation of CCD control boards
- First CCD tests, first warm images
- Mounting of enclosure finished
- Evacuation and Baking of CCD
- Mounting of field lens on CCD dewar
- Mounting of CCD on flange
- 2nd Evacuation and Baking
- First cooling of CCD
- Unpacking of all Optics for athermalization in FEROS room
Sept 24:
- Unpacking and inspection of all optics: no transport damages detected!
- Camera F5 lens shows weak haze on inner surface, looks like remnants from cleaning, maybe not detected at LSW because difficult to see under normal conditions. Effect on performance has to be determined ! Examination with laser does not show obvious straylight.
- Preliminary mounting of optical components on bench
- First CCD images from cooled device. Same performance as in Copenhagen ! Read-out time, 2 channels: 77 sec.
- Still problems with Exh.heater, does not work. Therfore, no temperatures below -100°C can be reached on the CCD, which gives additional bad columns.
- Software upgrade of CCD control PCs remote from Copenhagen.
- Action item to ESO: upgrade of instrument workstation to HP-UX 10, MIDAS 97 NOV, 128 Mb RAM : Oct. 1/2
- Pre-alignment of alignment tools and optical components
- Alignment of mirror-system started.
Sept 25:
- Alignment of mirror-system finished
- Alignment of complete system finished!!!
- 21:27 LT: First lamp-spectra taken with science CCD!!!
Sept 26:
- Installation of remote transfer of CCD frames to WS
- Integration of telescope and instruments status information in CCD FITS header
- Installation of 120l LN2 vessel and LN2 line outside FEROS room
- Work on interference noise in CCD readout, optimization of grounding started
- Set-up of FEROS Calibration Unit FCU in FEROS room with remote control
- Installation of FEROS support cupboard
- Installation of straylight stops
- Alignment of CCD camera: focus, wavelength range, rotation of CCD for slit alignment
- Optimization of WCU1: angle of IRC filter, attenuation of Neon lamp (d=1)
- Optimization of FFU: balance of Halogen lamp 1 and 2
- see here for single-fiber flatfield
- see here for single-fiber wavelength calibration
Sept 27:
- Preparation of two 5m STU 100mu test fibers
- Installation of test fibers in fiber-exit head II, alignment of fiber-exit head (fibers, F/N system, Image slicer)
- Installation of fiber-exit head II in spectrograph
- Interference noise of CCD mostly removed, RON=3.5e-
- Setting of bias levels of CCD done
- Installation of CCD finished
- Bad columns of CCD are not 2 as given by EEV but many more can be seen at -105 °C. It has to be seen how the spectra are affected by the additional bad columns and if this is really a Science CCD ...
Sept 28:
- Start of implementation of on-line reduction software
- Afternoon: hike to petroglyphs
Sept 29:
- installation of software contd.
- light-tightness of spectrograph improved
- realignment of fiber-exit unit II started
- departure P.Noerregaard
Sept 30:
- preparations for FCU at telescope started: mechanical flange modified
- realignment of fiber-exit unit II contd.
- arrival O.Stahl
- installation of software contd.
- link to TCS established, TCS info included in FITS headers
- synchonization of clocks of CCD control PC, instrument control PC,and instrument workstation established
- cinema : the devil's advocat
Oct 1: begin of installation at telescope
- Focus test, Mexican hat curves, tilt camera tests, recentering of field lens: no improvements
- Arrival L.Pasquini, G.Avila
Oct 2
- conclusion on problem: fieldlens has to be rotated by 90 degrees: CCD warm up, rotation of fieldlens, cooling, pumping of CCD.
- first test show flat FWHM curves !
- measurements of required fiber lengths
- dismount of B & C
- preparation of fiber head
- modification of FCU for fibers
- modification of telescope tube to lead fibers inside hour axis
- holes in FEROS room for fibers
- windows of FEROS room sprayed black, lot of fine spray and resolvant in FEROS room (spectrograph not completetly closed !)
- upgrade of ins1p5 WS completed
- start installation of FEROS DRS
Oct 3
- alignment and focus with rotated fieldlen, FWHMs over the field 2-2.5 pixels
- set of test exposures of lamps, sun, dome, etc taken for adaptation of DRS
- Installation of new NDFW electronics: works fine
- Installation of new slit unit
- Preparation of fiber link contd.
- Identification of ThAr lines for DRS, no 79 l/mm catalogues available ...
Oct 4
- Installation of FCU cables between computer room and telescope through old Coude axis
- FCU control PC, FCU control box, and FCU power supplies moved to computer room
- CCD control PC moved to control room, fiber link installed with a 10 m extension
- Software link between CCD control and HP WS + MIDAS established
- FCU and CCD monitors swapped (15 - 17 inch)
- Wavelength calibration established, first sun spectra reduced
- Mounting of fiber-head in Boller and Chivens
- Fiber lengths defined, final mounting of fibers in tube
- Test mounting of FCU: small mod. of holes required, realignment of optics required
Oct 5
- FCU modifications done, alignment improved
- Fiber cable installed between telescope and FEROS room
- test of mobility of telescope with fiber link
- change of pier tested
- telescope balanced with FCU
- problems with orientation of fiber-head detected, re-machining required
- Software control for Calibration Flip Mirror (CFM) from Instrument control PC installed (works active high !) For switch between FEROS and CAMAC control, switch at Boller and Chivens control box has to be used
- Neon lines of WCU 1 included in wavelength calibration
- Fiber ends prepared at FEROS side
- Fiber ends mounted in Fiber-exit head I (with IS I)
- alignment of Fiber-exit head I with spectrograph
- because of wrong fiber head only Maglite spectrum possible, shows strange interference patterns ... !?!?
- direct illumination with flashlight does not show patterns
Oct 6
- Further problems with fiber head. Has been designed for 10 deg angle to TV camera but need 6 degrees !
- fiber head aligned with secondary of telescope (laser light through object fiber, fiber pupil projected to secondary)
- TV camera and optics aligned to fiber head
- slit unit aligned to ThAr lamp
- focussing of spectrograph with the science fibers
- problems with fiberillumination with flatfield, to be fixed later
- Centering of first star on slit unit, focussing of TV camera
- Test exposure with 4.5 mag star on sky and object fiber: sky fiber is about 10-15% less sensitive (as exptected due to the fiber-fiber coupler)
- 21.45 LT: FIRST LIGHT on standard star HR 7596 (V=5.61, 1 minute exposure, S/N per pix in V = 165)
- Several exposures on RR Tel
Oct 7: Begin of Commissioning I
- Departure of G.Avila
- Adjustment of FFU to longer exposure times: Filter setup : Halogen 1 nd=2, Halogen 2 nd=1, Neon nd=1 Wratten
- Begin of commissioning at telescope
- Efficiency measurement on standard stars HR7596 and Feige 110: Theoretical peak efficiency of 26 percent confirmed !!!
  
  This plot shows the measured efficiency of the spectrograph without the telescope as derived from the spectra taken of the standard star HR7596 under photometric conditions. Correction for the extinction has been made. The red curve shows the expected efficiency as presented at the Final Design Review; the blue curve is the expected efficiency from the measurements of the subcomponents.. Including the telescope a peak efficiency of 18 percent (!) for the whole system is derived.
- problems with the illumination of fibers with calibration lamps; B&C has to be dismounted for alignment and tests of FCU
Oct 8:
- B&C dismounted
- Alignment of the FCU with the B&C and Fiber Head
- Re-alignment of IS slit with CCD picel rows
- Mounting of B&C CCD-camera, balancing of the telescope in final configuration on both sides of pier; test of B&C rotation with fibers
- Further testing of the instrument by v sin i standards
- This picture shows a part of a FEROS-spectrum of Tau Ceti (G8V, V=3.5) observed in the object-calibration mode. In this mode one fiber is exposed with the object and the other simultaneously with the ThArNe-Calibration lamp over the whole exposure time to monitor residual motions of the spectrograph.
- In this picture parts of two echelle orders around H beta of the on-line reduced reduced spectrum of Tau Ceti are shown. . Blaze correction was done by flatfielding only. The exposure time was 3 minutes.
Oct 9:
- Comm. observations contd., objects in object-calibration mode tested, tau Ceti, 51 Peg
Oct 10:
- Thermal test started: Airconditioning set from 18 C to the final operation temperature 16 C. Reaction of spectrograph with continuous sky spectra with simultaneous calibration spectra
- After power failure the airconditioning in the computer room next to the FEROS room did not restart, room heats up and FEROS room only reaches 16.5 C. After restart of AC in computer room, temperature of FEROS room drops to final 16 C. FEROS is athermalzed after about 10 hours; total shift in dispersion direction about 4 micron
Oct 11:
- thermal test contd., the simultaneous object - calibration mode allows to correct the shifts forced by the change of temperature easily to a 50-100 m/s level; more detailed analysis is required to derive reachable rad.vel. accuracy with object-calibration mode
- temperature (and humidity ?) sensors should be read by FEROS Instrument control PC and deposited to the FITS header. Check, what hardware is required to read sensors.
- observations of standards reveils inconsistencies of used gain values for the CCD; gain has to be determined: planned for tomorrow with beta light source which is to be installed in FEROS for continous performance monitoring of the CCD.
Oct 12:
- pupil illumination of object fiber tested, still well centered on telescope pupil, i.e. secondary
- CCD gains measured with beta light source:
  
  Ampl gain GAIN RON exp.level
  
  B low 2.52 4.6 1000
  
  B low 2.72 5.6 10000
  
  B high 0.68 3.5 1000
  
  A low 2.50 4.6 1000
  
  A high 0.67 3.7 1000
- with this new gain values foer low gain the measured efficiencies are consistent with the former measured in high gain
- calibration series taken for NDFW
Oct 13:
- reduction of NDFW test data, adaptation of xfcu software
- debugging of xfcu software
- checked if temperature sensors in FEROS room can be used by FEROS control PC to log temps into FITS header: It seems more efficient to provide independent temperature sensors : have to be purchased by LSW
- The following spectrum has been obtained from a 1.5 hour exposure of star 38 in the cluster IC4651 (Twarog et al., AJ 95, 1453, 1988). The object is a V~14.1 mag G-star. Seeing was about 1.7 arcsec. Notice the nice lithium-feature at 6708 Angstrom and also the strong Ca I at 6717 A. This preliminary reduction has been done on-line with the FEROS DRS under MIDAS.
Oct 14:
- light tightness test with open shutter; dominated by dark current
- check of commissioning plan for outstanding points
- definition of action items ESO LS/ ESO Ga/ LSW/ AOC
Oct 15:
- Concepts for fiberprotection, fiber mount in FEROS room, beta light slide
- Box #8 prepared for sending back to LSW
- cleanup
- Departure L.Pasquini
- Total efficiency of 17.5 % verified on HR9087 in an excellent night (we hope this is not related to the previous point); good focussing on fiber is crucial; we should think about a exposure meter ...
Oct 16:
- FEROS account on HP WS moved to a 9 GB harddisk (/data1/feros)
- dismount of B&C
- fiber head + fibers taken out of the B&C and the FCU; stored with fiber cable in telescope tube till Comm II
- new fiber heads (10 deg, 1 spare) will be sent to Germany for polishing next week
- B&C brought back to old configuration, i.e., TV camera, filter wheel
- FEROS optics covered to allow secure mounting of beta light slide till Comm II
- new B&C shutter mounted
- problems with movements of decker, shutter, and collimator of B&C
- test with FEROS FCU to use with B&C for calibration: lamp intensities and slit illuminations seems to be fine; tests done with low and 'high' resolution mode of B&C
- all B&C exposures have to be done in REGULAR mode; selection of exposure type is done in xFCU oc pc1p5fer2 as for FEROS
- FCU will be used for the next 3 weeks for B&C observations; in case of troubles, the old B&C calib. unit can be re-installed quickly.
- no observations during last comm. night possible
Oct 17: end of Commissioning I
- departure A.Kaufer and S.Tubbesing

[Rainbowline]

Commissioning II (Nov 11 - Nov 30, 1998)

Logfile

Nov 10:
- Arrival A.Kaufer
- Installation FEROS on-line DRS, reduction pipeline
- Doors of FEROS room painted again
- FEROS documentation cntd.
Nov 11:
- Arrival P.Francois
- FEROS documentation cntd.
- FEROS on-line DRS optimized
- Problems with installation of new fiber head because of missing pieces.
Nov 12:
- FEROS documentation cntd.
- Images of FEROS components taken for documentation
- machining of pieces for fiber head
Nov 13:
- Installation of new fiber head
- Alignment slit unit with guiding TV camera
- Alignment of fiber head with telescope pupil
- Mounting of fibers in FCU
- Problem with synchronization of PC clocks with WS fixed
- first calib spectra -> no change between CommI and II
- metal film nd filters replaced by glass nd filters in the FCU. No more interference patterns in flatfields !!
- Change between B&C and FEROS slit tested: alignment very well, star does not move out of autoguider box when changing the slits.
- Focus difference between B&C and Fiber slit tested -> small
- Change between FEROS and B&C tested. FEROS and B&C session can easily run simultaneously on the instument workstation !
- test for ghost intensity with eta Car, Halpha ghost intensity 5x10^-4.
Nov 14:
- B&C/FEROS cabling has been considerably improved: All electronical cables are going through the alpha axis now.
  Guides for the fiber cable have been installed. Therefore, change of pier is eased considerably since cables have no to be moved from one side to the other anymore.
- FCU optimized for B&C wavelength calibration. HeArFe lamp shaped with BG 39 (1mm) and ND filter since shutter is too slow for short (1-5 sec) exposures. Tested between 350-900 nm, looks fine.
- B&C grating #6 mounted
- FEROS focussed according to computed focus shift for 2 degree temperature shift as applied during CommI: focus back to value before temperature shift. This confirms the wrong behaviour of the Delrin temperature compensator as found at LSW. Has to be replaced.
- FEROS focus improved. Still slight tilt in dispersion direction present.
- Change between FEROS and B&C tested with high and low-res spectrum of MWC560: The following FEROS spectrum of the 11 mag star MWC560 was obtained in 15 minutes + 3 minutes on-line reduction. The B&C spectrum was taken in 1 minute with the 600l/mm grating #6 less than five minutes later after moving the slit unit manually.
- Change of pier test during night: perfectly easy now ! Observations at different extreme telescope positions are no danger for the fiber anymore. This is a great operational improvement of this telescope !!
- Skylight subtraction capabilities of FEROS tested during morning twilight: the test star (O9II) first taken at night and then followed with 5 min exposures during twilight. Object+sky spectrum recorded through object fiber; sky recorded simultaneously through the sky fiber. Subtraction of both reduced 1D spectra clears the stellar spectrum very good !!
- Observations after sunrise tested. In principle possible, but filters for TV camera needed.
Nov 15:
- BG39 in FCU installed
- Focus tilt tested (cf. above): Probably CCD tilt, not fieldlens (tbc)
- Night of the standard stars: several standards measured under varying seeing conditions. Maximum effiecieny of 16% reached. Best seeing during night about 1.2" at Dan 1.54.
- Documentation of on-line DRS started
Nov 16:
- Documentation of on-line DRS draft finished
- Identification of DARK frames in BIAS was added by Klougart at AOC during the day
- DARK frame handling added to the on-line DRS and tested
- Standard stars: several standards measured under good seeing conditions. Maximum effiecieny of 17.5% reached, i.e., we are back to the value achieved with the old fiberhead during Comm I, i.e., the new fiberhead performs equally well !
- Test observations on 51 Peg and tauCeti continued: short term and long term stability.
Nov 17:
- Arrival L.Pasquini/Departure P.Francois
  
  The instrument scientist from ESO/Garching, Sr. Pippo.
- Calibrations and Flatfields before and after B&C - FEROS - B&C change taken for comparison (have to be reduced)
- XFCU software bug fixed
- XFCU software extension: Calibration lamps are turned off automatically after a timeout of 1 hour. This is since it happened several times that observers leave the lamps on when they leave.
  In Object - Calibration mode lamps do not receive timeout.
- Mounting of hook for fiber cable in FEROS room (started)
Nov 18:
- documentation, utilities for data archining
- test observations
- night assistant training
Nov 19:
- Fiber hook mounted
- test observations
- work on radial velocity routines
Nov 20:
- New DRS version installed: new wavelength calibration routines, rms < 3 mA.
- test observations
- work on radial velocity routines (cntd.)
- FEROS response function determined again
- night assistant training
Nov 22:
- Temperature/humidity readings (every 6 minutes) from VME computers are included in the FITS headers (TSPEC, TROOM, RHROOM, MDATE gives the date of measurement)
- test observations
- work on radial velocity routines (cntd.)
  barycentric correction of MIDAS checked against IRAF: consitent results down to 5m/s (the accuracy given by IRAF)
  rms on standard star tau Ceti 18m/s, down to 6m/s in one night, peak-to-peak 40m/s.
- DAT-OBS is written as date at end of exposure: has to be changed to begin of exposure
- night assistant training
- FEROS response function determined again (identical to yesterday)
Nov 23:
- problems with guess session for DRS solved
- Installation of temperature sensors: 1st in spectrograph room (free air), 2nd inside spectrograph, thermal contact with optical table close to camera; humidity sensor also in free air.
- test observations
- work on press release (cntd.)
- Test of highest S/N , flatfield stability with beta Ori spectra taken at beginning of CommII:
  
  S/N > 1000 is easily reached with multiple exposures, in single exposures a S/N > 700 was measured
- Just to demonstrate the FEROS wavelength coverage, look at the B[e] star R50 in the SMC in different spectral regions:
Nov 24:
- Introduction to the 2.2-m team member: FEROS instrument, operation, and maintenance
- BIAS changes by J. Klougart: DATE-OBS descriptor is written with date at begin of exposure; object setting is BIAS is reset after each exposure.

Nov 25:

On-line DRS: 'IDENT' descr (created from 'OBJECT' FITS descriptor) is now copied from raw data to the result files
Training for 2.2 team + CCD team + optics: Alignment (centering) of fieldlens. Refocussing of spectrograph.
As preparation for CCD repair/uprade in February '99

Don Feros during the training with the 2.2 team at (in) the spectrograph.
Check of haze on F5 camera lens: has disappeared !!
Reinitialization of DRS in 'new' configuration after alignment.

FEROS CCD upgrade planned for February 1999: new cabling, improved thermal contact to coldhead
Proposed schedule:

	2-2-99  Feros last observing night 
	3-2-99  ODT (A.Pizzarro) with 2p2 Team (Castillo, Torrejon) remove 
                Feros CFC and brings it to the ODT lab for warming up.
	4-2-99  Deiries and Sinclaire come up to La Silla
	5-2-99  to 7-2-99 The upgrade is performed and the CFC is cooled down
	        to check for performance.
	8-2-99  If everything is fine, the CFC can be re-mounted and the tests
	        with the instrument (and alignment: Castillo, Tighe) can 
                start on 9-2-99 
		Otherwise, another iteration can be done to improve the thermal
		contact of the different parts.
	10-2-99 By this time the CFC should be ready to mount if not done 
	        already. True (not displayed) CCD temperature should be 
                -105 C or lower.
		Tests are continued throughout the rest of February.
	11-2-99 SDI and PSI celebrate the upgrade in Santiago.
	20-3-99 First observing night of Feros (Calibration Plan).

Nov 26:

Departure of L. Pasquini, arrival of S.Tubbesing
Mounting of light-tight tube between enclosure/shutter and fieldlens.
Prism aligned to optimize echelle orders on CCD: reddest order was already partially out of useful area
Re-initialization of DRS: order definition, wavelength calibration
REBIN_STEP set to 0.030 to obtain good sampling in the blue; all sofar on-line reduced spectra (350) re-reduced.

Nov 27:

2nd introduction to the 2nd turno of the 2.2-m team: FEROS instrument, operation, and maintenance
User/operation manual cntd.

Nov 28:

User/operation manual cntd.

Nov 29, Last night of FEROS commissioning:

on-line DRS tested with y-windowed frames, works fine
x-windows give only little gain in readout time, not implemented in on-line DRS.
on-chip binning makes no sense for FEROS.
Radial-velocity curve of 51 Peg, measured during Comm I and II (now without any corrections from the standard star measurements !).

Note: The results were all obtained by simple order-by-order crosscorrelation of the 39 echelle orders of the object and the simultaneous calibration fiber. No special masks or templates for the star or the calibration lamp have been used.
Radial-velocity curve of the 'radial-velocity standard' tau Ceti as measured during Comm I and II

Note: During Comm I a temperature test was performed, during Comm II the spectrograph's camera - fieldlens - CCD was realigned; further, the wavelength range was adjusted by turning the X-disperser prism.
Things to by done by ESO/La Silla:
1. Guide for cables at FCU
2. Guide for cables at telescope pier
3. Guide for fiber cables inside B&C to avoid damaging by B&C gratings/filter wheel
4. Timer switch for lights in FEROS maintenance room [done, 30-11-98]
5. Light indicator for FEROS room [done, 01-12-98]
6. Find out where air for airconditioning is sucked, since humidity in FEROS room follows outside humidity
7. copy keys for FEROS room; install key box in maintenance room for case of emergency. FEROS room will be locked in general
8. Installation of mirror sample (has to be sent from Garching) inside FEROS to monitor coating performance
9. Installation of beta light
10. Setup of standard CCD test procedures
11. First characterization of CCD at La Silla
12. CCD upgrade (cf. schedule above)
13. Alignment of CCD chip with fieldlens (during upgrade).
Things to by done by FEROS Consortium:
1. Wait for things to be done by ESO
2. update of software on spare CCD PC [done, 01-12-98]
3. CCD controller software, check for bad rows, flatfields
4. Delivery of new thermal compensator, to be installed in camera during realignment of CCD after 9-2-99
5. Delivery of updated documentation CD-ROM
6. Preparation of press release
7. Preparation of Messenger article

Nov 30, First night of FEROS guaranteed time:

The first regular observer as seen by the B&C (left) and the new FEROS (right).
Preparation of Acceptance Plan, completition of 'results'
Preparation of Commissioning Plan, completition of 'results'
During observations it was noticed that the calibration fiber gets stressed by the electrical cable tree of the telescope in low telescope positions. Protection urgently needed (s.above)

Dec 1

Installation of identical software on spare PC for pc1p5fer2; tested with CCD, ins1p5, pc1p5fer1
tar backups of all relevant software installed on harddisk
tar backups of all relevant software written to DATs (available together with the docu CD-ROM in the FEROS cabinet)
backups of Comm II reduced data
preparations of shipping of LSW tools back to Heidelberg
preparations for PR
visit of Guy Monet
Part of the time series of MWC 560 obtained during the second comissioning phase. The time series shows the blue shifted absorption due to the jet accelerating from 1500 km/s to 2200 km/s and back in 2.5 days (results obtained with the on-line data reduction pipeline).

Dec 2

departure P. Francois
preparations for PR

Dec 3

departure A. Kaufer

[Rainbowline]

FEROS in the FEROS room at La Silla

The new calibration and slit unit mounted at the B&C at the ESO 1.52-m telescope.

[FEROS Logo]

Ampl	gain	GAIN	RON	exp.level
B	low	2.52	4.6	1000
B	low	2.72	5.6	10000
B	high	0.68	3.5	1000
A	low	2.50	4.6	1000
A	high	0.67	3.7	1000