Delta Scorpii 2011 - Day 2, June 29

One may think that a campaign like this one is just some kind of fun.
Well, it is fun.
It is because we have a genuine pleasure in it.
But it is hard work as well.
This day 2 of the campaign started at 18:00 and ended at 06:00.
Here is the team, Alberto, Thierry, Anatoly and J. Ribeiro in the control room.

This means 12 hours of work, to sleep a few hours, out of the normal schedule.
But, today we had good news. The maintenance staff has been working and solved the problem of the auto guiding.
The system is now perfectly operational and saved us hours of manual guiding.
These were great news.
We first started with the flats and darks related to the previous night; then, at the beginning of the astronomical night, we started with the star Delta Scorpii spectra in the Helium II range, followed by the calibration spectra, using a Filly lamp which had been attached to the telescope.
We found out that the signal was too weak and had to use a second lamp to increase the signal strength.
After this we changed the domain to Halfa, still in Delta Scorpii, and made the correspondent neon spectra, for calibration.
The difference here is that the neon lamp is integrated in the spectroscope.
Then we changed to 66 Ophiuchi, followed by Pi Aquarii and there was still time for the star MWC342, in Cygnus.
This is a very peculiar star, with almost no continuum, but with a very strong Halfa emission line.
This was a suggestion of Anatoly Miroshnichenko.
The flats and darks will be done tomorrow, by 18:00, before the astronomical night.
As I said, the autoguiding is now operational.
So I had the time to go out to the open air and to make some photos.
Here are two of them. One, taken from a table outside the telescope building and showing Spica, left of the Teide, and Saturn on the right, almost setting down.

The other shows the IAC80, with a beautiful Milky Way and Scorpio in the background.

The "calima" seems to be disappearing, but the wind is stronger and may impose limitations for the next night.

Alberto

Delta Scorpii 2011 - Day 1 - A long day's night

After the preparations and after finding out that the focus of the auto guiding camera could not be achieved, we decided to continue under manual guiding.
Also, all the extensions between the adapter and the spectrograph were removed and the spectroscope was attached directly to the accessories box.

With all the tests and attempts to find the solution for the auto guiding, part of the night was past and the time for Delta Scorpii was limited.
When the telescope is tracking any object, the computer provides information of the time limit for that object, due to the telescope limits.
The intention is to capture spectra in Halfa and in HeliumII, what means two series of captures, but there was time for one domain.
So we only captured the spectra in Halfa.
But there was time for two of our secondary targets: - 66 Ophiuchi and Pi Aquarii.
66 Ophiuchi lost its disk and Pi Aquarii had lost it 30 years ago, but is showing signals of having a not very important one again.
The night ended by 05:00 AM.
The flats and darks related with these captures shall be obtained the 29th afternoon, past 18:00 hours.
The decision now is to continue the mission with manual guiding.
The sky is clear of clouds but there is the locally called "calima" which limits the visibility, mainly at low altitude.
The "calima" is a kind of haze mostly caused by powders in the atmosphere, carried from the Sahara desert by the winds.
If the visibility is reduced, the seeing is better when the "calima" is around.

The next night, if there are no technical problems, we hope to obtain spectra of Delta Scorpii, in Halpha and Helium II and again of two secondary stars.

Alberto

Delta Scorpii 2011 - Day 1, June 28

Today, 28 of June, was a long work day.
The day started at 09:30 hours and the morning has been dedicated to make all the modifications needed and to install all the equipments required for this mission.
One of the problems was that the spectroscope, camera, computers for the control of the spectrograph were not IAC property. We carried that equipment ourselves.
So, the maintenance personnel first removed the unnecessary equipments. Then they installed all the equipments necessary and adequate to our mission. That included an adapter for 2 inches, a piece that has been machined by the IAC.

We needed to have a computer at the dome and another at the control room, so to control the spectroscope and the science camera remotely. At the dome, the computer was fixed at the telescope and both connected by a net cable.
A lamp of argon was installed in front of the telescope and fixed to it. Its objective is to get calibration spectra.
Also we needed to install a white piece of cloth for the flats. It was installed on the dome and a halogen projector fixed to the telescope structure and pointing at it.
Then the spectroscope, the camera, etc.
Next all the connections and the electric feeding were established.
Then all the cables were organized and fixed at safe positions.

Several problems arose during these works; the most important was one of our computers with a blue screen just after start. It reported a problem with a particular file and concerning the antivirus. The antivirus was uninstalled and this problem was fixed.
Then there were problems to establish communication between the computer in the control room and the one in the dome. Also this problem was solved and, by 14:00 hours, having started at 09:30, the setup seemed ready for the checks in the afternoon.
We, Alberto, Anatoly and José Ribeiro, followed all these preparations and where necessary, provided information about our equipments and about our needs.
I cannot end this report without talking about the maintenance crew. They were extremely professional, carrying out their job under well established routines and always complying with our requests.
We saw no rush, no precipitations, but like if a checklist was being followed.
This was a busy morning and a great lesson for us.
We learned how many small things can be well done and how a complex system can be correctly and safely managed and organized.

After this long morning, we had lunch and, by 19:30 were back at the IAC80 for a demonstration of how to use the telescope, what procedures, what limitations, etc.
At this time, Thierry Garrel arrived and joined us.
We found out that the cameras needed to be slightly rotated in order to get horizontal spectra.
After that there was a problem with the focus. It was first achieved the focus of the camera which would provide the auto guiding.
Later, after focusing the science camera, the focus of the first was lost and could not be achieved.
A solution was tried, which consisted in the removal of a piece with a prism through which we could eventually get the calibration spectra and the flats, and of an extension, buying a few centimeters of in focus, but yet not enough for the auto guiding.
The technical crew is still working in the problem.
We still have a long night ahead and we will continue with the experiences and tests and hope to have everything fully operational for tomorrow.

Alberto

Delta Scorpii 2011 - Day 0, June 27

After the preliminaries and preparations which took time and efforts, we, José Ribeiro and me, arrived at Tenerife.
Anatoly Miroshnichenko was waiting for us at Tenerife North airport and we shared the car up to the Observatory.

Now we wait for the arrival of Thierry Garrel who is expected tomorrow, 28.
Yesterday, after dinner, the 3 of us, Anatoly, Alberto and José Ribeiro, had a kind of chatting, in the open air, looking at the sky and at our target star in particular.
Today, 27, we all made a tour to the northeast of the island, coming back http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifthrough the mountains, from San Andrés to La Laguna and then to the Observatory.
At a certain point we stopped to watch an atmospheric phenomenon. A strong updraft of saturated air moved up the mountains, covering the tops with clouds. After passing the top, this air which is colder and denser, descended rapidly downhill, like a river of clouds which, in a short while dissipated.
See a short video at: http://youtu.be/YpBAAbQ-Zhw
By 21:00 hours we met IAC Technical Director, who was realigning the telescope, due to a recent realuminization of the mirror.


Tomorrow we will check the installation of the spectroscope, of the computers, test everything and, hopefully, have the first night of work in this campaign.
We will continue to report what is going on.

Alberto

Objectives of the Campaign

Delta Scorpii is a binary, probably multiple, system. Its orbit is extremely eccentric (e~0.94) and its period is 10.6y. During the last periastron one of the stars initiated a decretion disc becoming a Be star. The objectives of this campaign are:

-determination of the exact date of the periastron

-study the possible interactions due to the stars' proximity

-get a better knowledge of the companion star

The campaign was launched during the ProAm spectroscopic stage at the OHP in Aug, 2010. I used the synergies of my group ConVento (see above), to initiate a campaign for the spectroscopic coverage of delta Scorpii periastron at Tenerife. IAC assigned us a 10 day run at the IAC80 telescope, centred in the periastron most probable date, from 28th June to 7th July. The PI is Anatoly Miroshnichenko and will be present at the OT together with another 6 amateur and professional astronomers. Tanks to this, a more intensive coverage during the event will take place. Of course, all spectra presented at BeSS database will be very important during the whole campaign, and del Sco must be observed as soon as possible in 2011. Photometric observations are needed as well. The campaign page can be found here.

THE DELTA SCORPII CAMPAIGN

In 2009 we became part of the PROAM campaign for the periastron of WR140, a campaign that had the duration of 4 months at the Telescope MONS, in the Teide observatory, Tenerife.
This campaign was followed by a workshop at Convento da Arrábida, Portugal.
During this workshop the group "ConVento" was created and its main purpose is to facilitate and promote the PROAM collaborations.
That is how this campaign at the telescope IAC80, in the Teide observatory, is initiated, by initiative and under control of José Ribeiro.
The telescope IAC80 is property of the IAC - Instituto de Astrofísica das Canárias and the Institute awarded the group with 10 nights and the main objective is to determine the exact time of the periastron of the binary system Delta Scorpii.
These are the participants, by alphabetical order:
. Alberto Fernando;
. Anatoly Miroshnichenko;
. Joahn Knapen;
. José Ribeiro;
. Thierry Garrel
This campaign starts the 28th of June and ends the 8th July.
We intend to make daily reports during the campaign.

Alberto