Procedure Index

• A. Preliminaries
• B. Image sharpening
• C. WFS calibration

Procedure

A. Preliminiaries

Bring up the AO tools

1. Open VNC viewers svncserver:2 and svncserver:3.
2. Right-click in the background of any of the VNC desktops and select NGS AO Control Menu → Start NGS Calibrations.
3. Wait for a few minutes until all GUIs are up.

Verify the following GUIs are present

• MAORI
• TT graphs
• The SC GUI (continously check SC GUI for faults (indicated in red))
• Calibration tools GUI (Keck II calib)
• ACAM tool (ACAMTOOL) (available on the second workspace)

The NIRC2 quicklook, status display and control terminal will also appear on the svncserver:3 VNC, but they are not needed for the NIRSPAO calibrations.

Firefox → K2 AO WYKO display (link only works in the internal network).

Bring up the NIRSPEC control software

Open the nspeceng VNCs and start all the NIRSPEC software from the VNC pulldown menu with NIRSPEC Control Menu → NIRSPEC Start Up.

This will launch the following GUIs:

• Control 0:
  • NIRSPEC Format Simulator (AO Mode) GUI, aka. Echelle Formal Simulator (EFS).
  • NIRSPEC instrument control GUI (mechanisms)
  • Program Identification GUI (PIG)
  • Eventsounds GUI
• Control 1:
  • SCAM Ginga display GUI
  • SCAM detector dialog
  • NSCAM Status display
• Control 2:
  • SPEC Ginga display GUI
  • SPEC detector Dialog
  • NSPEC Status display

Only the GUIs on the control0 and control1 VNCs are required for the NIRSPAO calibrations.

Run calibrations setup

• Keck II calib → Calibration setup. When prompted:
  • Select NIRSPAO.
  • Select NGS-AO
  • Dismiss Calibration setup GUI once the calibration setup is completed
• Turn HEPA off:
  • Keck II calib → Light Source Control
  • If HEPA still on, hit Click for HEPA OFF

Take a test image with ACAM

1. Keck II calib → Light Source Control → 0.1% = ND3
2. ACAMTOOL check that Tint(s) is 1.0
3. ACAMTOOL → goi
4. Verify that SFP is within 5 pixels of the OPT_AXIS pixel in qfix/acampo.dat; (1156.4, 1039.6) in October 2022

Run DM/WLS registration

1. Keck II calib → DM/WLS Registration
2. After Null Centroids, if needed, run fsmoffload from the Calibration toolbox IDL terminal until Cx,Cy in the Keck II - WFS Intensity GUI are less than 0.020

Once the registration is completed, Dismiss the DM/WLS Registration window.

B. Image sharpening

The purpose of this step is to set the DM actuators (hence shape) in a static mode (open loop) so that they correct the non-common path aberrations.

Establish the initial shape of the DM

• Clear DM voltages: Keck II calib → DM Control → Clear voltages
• Rough correction of the astigmatism introduced by IR dichroic: Keck II calib → DM Zernike Control → 0 deg astig → -0.6

Run image sharpening

There is no automatic image sharpening capability for NIRSPAO. Normally, a 0 deg astigmatism of -0.6 and playing a bit with the SFP obsfz value to look for the optimal focus is all what is needed.

The following procedure can be used to take continuous images with SCAM while modifying the SFP obsfz value until the best image quality is achieved.

1. Keck II calib → Light Source Control → ND4
2. SC GUI → SF (SFP) → sharpscam
3. EFS → Obs. Mode → Setup Only
4. EFS → Filter → FeII
5. EFS → GO

Monitor the setup progress on the NIRSPEC instrument control GUI and on the wait_wrapper popup terminal. Double check that:

• The Fold mirror stays Out
• The FEU flip stays In
• The Pinhole stays Out
• The Hatch stays Closed

Once the setup is completed, take a SCAM background image on a nirspec terminal with the following commands:

• tint2 0.67 (shortest SCAM exposure time in seconds)
• coadds2 1
• goi2

Set the last image as background for Ginga. On the SCAM Ginga display NIRSPEC_SCAM → Use last as subtraction

Open the NIRSPEC hatch and start taking continuous images with SCAM:

• NIRSPEC instrument control → Hatch → New value → Open → Apply
• On a nirspec terminal, use the following command:

  goi2 100

Monitor the FWHM of the fiber source image on SCAM using the Pick tool on the SCAM Ginga display as you change the SFP obsfz value on the SC GUI.

The optimal sharpening is achieved when the fiber image is not too elongated and the FWHM of the PSF as measured by the Pick tool is < 4 pix on SCAM. It is useful to manually set the cut levels in Ginga to something like low=0, high=1000. When the fiber spot is in focus, you should see about 5500 peak counts. See example here of a good focused fiber spot on SCAM showing 3.8pix FWHM (57 mas).

Stop exposing with SCAM and protect NIRSPEC:

• On the nirspec terminal where goi2 100 was running, issue a Ctrl-C
• NIRSPEC instrument control → Hatch → New value → Closed → Apply

Note the SFP obsfz value corresponding to the sharpened image and redefine the following SFP positions with the same obsfz value: sharpscam, scam, nirspao, optnirspao and optnirspec.

C. WFS calibration

1. Keck II calib → WFS Calibration
2. Choose instrument → NIRSPAO-N
3. Select → 2.4
4. After Clear Centroids, if needed, run fsmoffload from the Calibration toolbox IDL terminal until Cx,Cy in the Keck II - WFS Intensity GUI are less than 0.020

Once all the steps in the WFS calibration procedure have been completed, hit Dismiss in the WFS Calibration window.

IMPORTANT: Proceed to the daily image quality check procedure.