2025 Apr 21 -  TCS3 Pointing Run (T.Denault, R.Sevao, G.Engh)

Goals
TCS3 pointing run. (1st half of night, Fri 04/16/2025, 18:50pm-23:30am)
TCS using coefficients from 2023/10/27. (last run was 2024-06 by Alex S. but coefficients never used )

1. Encoder Measurement

Asked DayCrew to clean/inspect gears/encoders. 
Did encoder measurement on 04/16. Will use new encoder values from r-250416.dat,
http://irtfweb.ifa.hawaii.edu/~tcs3/tcs3/data/encoders/ 

6:50, not TO at the IRTF.
Called GE cell at 7:15, TO at the HP said ICE, and bad weather condition.
7:50, GE txt he is going back up to the IRTF. (Hopefully no ICE).

2. Setup. How is the tcs servo performance?

Due to weather, start late at 8:30. (not 7:50)
Tracking is OK. Following error range is HA 0.146, Dec 0.056. 
250421-tcs_mcc_graph1.png (Best I saw was 0.111, 0.050)

- Collimate and balance are set. Hexapod is used.
- Spex is in the center. 

3. Benchmark current TCS

Start at 8:40
Using current TCS version v241106.
Pattern: benchmark13

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

Done at 9:20. 40 min to take data.

4. Pointing Run

DID NOT switch to new TCS version (with updated encoder ratios) to save time.

Starting at 9:30 with a GRID w/ 70 stars
Done taking data at 21:00 .. about 1hr 30 min.
Copy unedited data file to :  point.dat.org

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


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 2025/04/21 pointing run:
IH        +33.5632  
ID       -221.8157  
NP        -10.2311 
CH         +8.4255  
ME        +25.5129  
MA        +21.8775  
HCES      +50.1079 
HCEC      -35.3266 
DCES     -393.6325 
DCEC      +75.0816 
FO        +25.4663 
TF       -114.7962 
TX        -15.3566 

5. B2 benchmark 

Doing benchmark "b2" with new coefficients
Started at 11:20... ran out of time at 11:40 (35 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 11:40.

6. Conclusion 

Point run went ok. Due to weather we had limited time, so....
   Didn't use the new encoder ratios like I planned.
   Didn't finish the b2 benchmark, but got enought b2 data to show the new coefficents are better.
  
   HA  big improvement in the benchmark graph.
   DEC shape is the same, slightly worse offset error.