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Observing Titan with IRTF/SpeX

Thanks for five great Titan seasons!!! Now, on to the sixth!

  • Read the paper "Storms in the Tropics of Titan" published in Nature
    This paper reports on a huge cloud system detected in Titan's tropics with IRTF and subsequently observed with Gemini

  • Read the paper "Seasonal Change on Titan Observed with IRTF/SpeX" submitted to the Astronomical Journal
    This paper covers the first 2 years of Titan cloud monitoring

  • Read the paper "Discovery of Lake-Effect Clouds on Titan" submitted to Geophysical Research Letters
    This paper incorporates Cassini, Gemini and IRTF data to understand a new cloud phenomenon on Titan

    Nightly Titan Coordinates

    (J2000)

    (Or just enter Horizons 606)

    Please feel free to call me anytime! Cell (386)-846-4739

  • 2012-Feb-10 15:40 UT (5:40AM HST)*** 13 52 57.61 -08 47 48.4
    **Titan can be observed from 11:21UT (1:21AM) until sunrise
    click for diagram showing Titan's position relative to Saturn

  • 2012-Feb-11 15:40 UT (5:40AM HST)*** 13 52 57.40 -08 47 43.9
    **Titan can be observed from 11:17UT (1:17AM) until sunrise
    click for diagram showing Titan's position relative to Saturn

  • 2012-Feb-12 15:40 UT (5:40AM HST)*** 13 52 54.82 -08 47 37.6
    **Titan can be observed from 11:14UT (1:14AM) until sunrise
    click for diagram showing Titan's position relative to Saturn

  • 2012-Feb-13 15:40 UT (5:40AM HST)*** 13 52 50.03 -08 47 26.6
    **Titan can be observed from 11:10UT (1:10AM) until sunrise
    click for diagram showing Titan's position relative to Saturn

  • 2012-Feb-14 15:40 UT (5:40AM HST)*** 13 52 43.50 -08 47 08.2
    **Titan can be observed from 11:05UT (1:05AM) until sunrise
    click for diagram showing Titan's position relative to Saturn

    HD 115080 -- 13 14 55.72 -11 22 09.9

    Observing Instructions

    • The basic outline:

    ***I am Guest30***
    Please focus the telescope if it has not been done in the past hour or you have any reason to suspect it may be out of focus.
  • 1. Take spectra of the calibration star (HD 115080) using "schaller_compstar" macro
  • 2. Do calibrations with "schaller_cal_sxd_1.6"
  • 3. Take spectra of Titan using "schaller_titan" macro.

    The details:

    1.
  • Execute the macro /macro/bigdog/observer_macros/schaller_compstar
    (This macro changes everything to the correct settings (sxd, 1.6'' slit, etc)
  • Slew to HD 115080.
  • Check to make sure the paths for the autosave on bigdog and guidedog are guest30/UTdate (this should be done automatically when you sign in as guest30)
  • Take an image of the star with guidedog (in the GuidedogXUI "Obs","Basic", press go)
  • click on "Auto Guidebox Setup" located on the right side of the guidedog xui (this will draw the A (top) and B (bottom) guide boxes on the slit)
  • Move the star into box A by placing the cursor on the star, holding down the shift key and the center mouse button and drawing a line from the star to the center of box A
  • Now click on "offset telescope" (which is in the guidedog dv window under the "tcs offset" tab
  • Start guiding: Switch from "basic" to "slow.gd", press go
  • Take spectra of the star (press go on bigdog) (takes ~3 minutes)
  • Remember to stop guiding when spectra finish

    2.
  • Perform calibrations by executing the macro "schaller_cal_sxd_1.6" (takes ~2 minutes)

    3.
  • Slew to Titan
  • Execute the macro "schaller_titan"
  • perform the same procedure above to get Titan in the slit. Once the Titan is in the slit, turn the guidedog autosave to "on". I like to keep the guider images for Titan just to have a reality check in case anything looks funny (it ends up only being about 60 images or so). Start guiding on Titan
  • Take spectra of Titan (press go on bigdog) (takes ~5 minutes)
  • Remember to stop guiding when spectra finish