2024 June 19 -  TCS3 Pointing Run (A.Seigel, B. McOuat)

Goals
TCS3 pointing run. (1st half of night, Wed 06/19/2024, 18:50pm-23:50am)
Last one was done on 2023-10-27.

1. Encoder Measurement

* DID: Asked DayCrew to clean/inspect gears/encoders/tachometer (a few weeks prior, at the previous scheduled date).
Did encoder measurement on 06/18. Will not use new encoder values, as the counts/arcsec is still roughly 20,
so there would not be any improvement.
See: 
http://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu/~tcs3/tcs3/data/encoders/ 

2. Setup. How is the tcs servo performance?

Tracking is OK. Following error range is HA 0.148, Dec 0.084. 
* no screenshot of MCC details this time

- Collimate and balance are set. Hexapod is used.
- Spex is in the center. 
Sunset at 7:01

3. Benchmark current TCS

Start at 19:05
Using current TCS version v240221.
Pattern: benchmark13

tpoint file:  b1.dat
.ape   file:  b1.ape

Done at 19:50. 45 min to take data.
(slow due to slow west slews, and slower dome speed).

4. Pointing Run

Using TCS to new version v240221 (no changes, using same encoder ratios).

Starting at 20:05 with a GRID w/ 70 stars
Done taking data at 22:15 .. about 2hr 10 min.
Slow due to light clouds and full moon.

tpoint file:  point.dat
.ape   file:  point.ape

used all data, RMS =  67.07  
Removed #70,   RMS =  64.97
Removed #3,    RMS =  59.57
Removed #3,    RMS =  55.75
Removed #2,    RMS =  51.99
Removed #1,    RMS =  48.38
Removed #1,    RMS =  38.66
Removed #1,    RMS =  29.08
Removed #1,    RMS =  26.81
Removed #1,    RMS =  16.95
Removed #6,    RMS =  16.37

Orginial data file is:  point.dat.org

tpoint.log - log of fit using point-adj.dat
point.ps
point.pdf - tpoint graphs (postscript and PDF)
point_coeff.txt - resulting coefficients.


Updated .tcs-init with new coefficients
# coefficients from 2024/06/19 pointing run:
IH        +52.5300
ID       -273.4929
NP        -15.5957
CH        +31.7720
ME        +39.5531
MA        +17.0296
HCES     +105.2313
HCEC      -69.5869
DCES     -356.9656
DCEC      +98.7516
FO        +17.3321
TF       -144.4184
TX        -22.6909

5. B2 benchmark 

Doing benchmark "b2" with new coefficients
Started at 23:00... finished at 00:00 (60 mins)
tpoint file:  b2.dat
.ape   file:  b2.ape

Now, let's compare the 2 benchmarks:

   Here is a graph of HA error of b1.dat vs b2.dat
   
   gnuplot to make the graphs:
       plot   'b1.ape' using 10 with linespoints  title 'b1 HA pt.madj'
       replot 'b2.ape' using 10 with linespoints  title 'b2 HA pt.madj'

   Here is a graph of DEC error of b1.dat vs b2.dat
   
   gnuplot to make the graphs:
      plot   'b1.ape' using 11 with linespoints  title 'b1 Dec pt.madj'
      replot 'b2.ape' using 11 with linespoints  title 'b2 Dec pt.madj'
   
Finished at 00:00.

6. Conclusion 

Point run went pretty smooth. High cirrus clouds and a full moon possibly led to getting off target in the beginning, causing high starting RMS values.
Benchmark 2 still ended up being much better than b1.

Will use new coefficients, which should work better than the old ones.
   HA  big improvement in the benchmark graph.
   DEC shape is the same, slightly better offset error.


2024-06-18: Re-did encoder ratios right before pointing run (remotely from Hilo): http://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu/~tcs3/tcs3/data/encoders/