Afternoon/Evening Tech Duties

Overview of Duties

In general, the duties of the day time Technical Assistant consist of following up on any service requests especially, any that are outstanding or critical to telescope operations. If the TA, himself or herself, is not capable of servicing any requests then responsibility needs to be taken to ensure that those who are expert with the particular problem are notified and that work is proceding.

Duties also consist of doing rounds at all KPNO telescopes first thing in the morning, to do dewar fills, if neccesary, and in general just to check up on things as described below.

There may be other activities during the day which include helping with and instrument change and/or, an observer startup or, possibly a filter change and, any other assitance involving observing support that may be necessary.

In the evening to be available to respond to observer needs at the 2.1 meter or operator needs at the other telescopes.

AM Duties

Read service, including comments, and Email to find out what things may need immediate attention, like dewar fills if domes closed early. There may be flat field needs or other requests for later in the day.

Reply to, or Acknowledge, any requests that you can respond to.

Acknowledge any other requests with the intent to try and contact any persons who may be able to respond to the request.

Check with other groups (ie., EM or facilities) about work they may need to do and be sure there are no conflicts with your work.

Check the Kitt Peak Activities Calendar. Also check the Telescope Schedule, Instrument Support Schedule.
All of these schedules can be accessed from the Mountain Observing Information page: http://www-kpno.kpno.noao.edu

Make rounds of telescopes:

Do a visual check of the buildings and turn off unecesary lights, turn off coffee pots, be sure appropriate doors are closed.
Check all N2 bottles. Swap hoses of any empty bottles and mark empties as being so.
Fill any instrument dewars that may need it.
Fill transfer dewars that need it.
At the 2.1 meter, also check fill station. Swap large LN2 dewar if neccesary. Do manual fill on instrument dewar/s if neccesary. Note, that email will be sent out in the event that an instrument dewar is warming or if the large LN2 transfer dewar needs to be swapped. Status of the fill station may also be monitored via the web page:
http://fillstation.kpno.noao.edu/~lane/FSStatus.cgi
At the 4 meter, also check status of mirror cooling.
A plot of Mirror, Ambient, and Dewpoint Temperatures can be found at:
http://www-kpno.kpno.noao.edu/cgi-bin/glaspey/Weather/pltpmtc.cgi

Instrument changes are first priority if yor're scheduled. Evening Tech. should check on status when they come on duty, (~13:00).

AM/PM Duties

Do midday dewar fills where needed.

PM Duties

Check TA's mailbox (front office). Distribute any mail for the OA's
Setup any telescopes for dome flats as requested in service comments.
Check schedules again to see if action is needed for future instrument changes (ie., cryogens ordered, dewars pumped and pre-cooled, or instruments moved between domes).
Check service again to check on progress of repairs. Advise observer of repairs or work-arounds.

Other Duties - When Spare Time Happens

The are many things that need to be done at each telescope on a periodic basis. These might include:

Cleaning and tidying shelves and counters.

Cleaning monitor screens.

Filing and archiving observer logs.

Ensuring that the appropriate manuals and handbooks are present and of current date.

Writing and updating LTO documentation.