KEY POINTS
The CCD is a fragile and expensive device. Please exercise extreme caution when using it. These are the key points to remember so you don't fry something:

1. Do not drop the CCD on the floor. If the CCD is not securely attached to the telescope, it should be in its storage box, with cables coiled out of harm's way.

2. Do not plug or unplug any cable connections when power is on.

3. Use the power strip, not the individual power switches, to control power to the computer system.

TELESCOPE PREPARATION
1. Open the dome and get the telescope aligned and focused as described in C-14 setup.

2. You will find the finderscope and setting circles particularly useful when trying to aim the small field of view of the CCD, so you may want to devote some extra time to making sure that these are properly calibrated.

COMPUTER BOOTUP
1. Turn on the power strip sitting on top of the computer tower case, to the left of the observer's desk. The CPU and monitor will turn on.

Main computer power is controlled here.

2. Look inside the CCD storage box, under the desk. The LED display on the back of the CCD unit should indicate 'FF'.

The CCD lives here in the box.

The FF code indicates normal powerup.

3. The computer will start its RAM check. To speed this up, press the ESC key.

4. Use the arrow keys to select "Windows 95" and press the RETURN key.

CCD MOUNTING
1. Unscrew the smaller collet ring that holds the eyepiece and star diagonal at the C-14 Cassegrain position. Put the unit on the table in a safe place.

Loosen and remove the eyepiece holder with the smaller collet ring...

...and remove it from the telescope.

2. Find the focal reducer unit in the CCD storage box. Remove the dust caps -- one translucent, one orange. 3. Attach the focal reducer unit to the telescope. Screw it on snugly. Tighten the lower collet also.

Here's the focal reducer unit.

Take the caps off...

...screw it on to the Cass port...

...and tighten this collet ring too.

PICTOR SOFTWARE LAUNCH
1. Once Windows has started fully, pull up the 'Start' menu (bottom left), select 'Programs:Pictor:Pictor'. The Pictor window will take up the whole screen.

Launch the software from the Start menu.

The PC code indicates communications have been established between the PC and the CCD.

2. Pull down the 'Connection' menu and select 'Connect'. The LED display on the CCD will change to 'PC', and the camera cooling sequence will begin.

3. When the temperature indicator (along the bottom right of the window) has stabilized at the operating temperature (usually -10 C), try a test exposure. Select '0 sec binned' from the exposure menu (top center), and then click the shutter button (the blue camera icon to the right of the menu).

Chip temperature display is in the lower right side of the window.

Pull down the exposure options from the top center of the window.

4. The image will read out from the chip, indexed by a progress bar. It will be slow -- about 30 seconds to read out completely. Be patient. The progress bar may be rolling along and then stop dead for a few seconds. This is normal. Annoying, but normal.

Readout takes a short while...

5. The image will appear, probably all black with a few bright 'hot pixels' along the top edge. You should see a speckled, streaky grey field. This is the chip's background signal in the absence of light.

This is what a dark image is supposed to look like.

FOCUSING
Getting the telescope focused on to the chip can be slow and laborious, but doing it properly will result in much better image quality, and it only needs to be done once at the beginning of the night.

1. Put the special 40 mm eyepiece from the CCD box (it's got a metallic red barrel) in the eyepiece holder, and tighten the setscrew, just like normal eyepiece operations. Make sure it's inserted all the way in to the black collar.

Insert the red focusing eyepiece...

...and tighten the eyepiece holder setscrew, not the black collar setscrew.

2. Find a good target star. It should be close to zenith, and not too bright -- v = 4-6 is probably good. Just surfing around through the finderscope and centering on a modest star often works well. Center and focus the star in the main scope.

3. Remove the eyepiece. Be sure to loosen the eyepiece holder setscrew, not the collar setscrew.

4. Pull the CCD unit from the box and insert it fully into the eyepiece socket. Rotate the CCD so that the white triangles are aligned. Tighten the setscrew very snugly, and make very very sure that the CCD won't slide out and fall on the floor.

Insert the CCD into the eyepiece socket.

Make sure it's in fully like this...

...not like this.

Align the triangles to within a few degrees...

...and then tighten the setscrew very snugly.

5. Verify that the CCD cables are hanging freely and loosely, and will not catch on anything as the telescope is moved. Pay attention to their position as you observe, and don't let them get tangled up in the other cables.

The cables should hang free, not touching the floor, but with enough slack to permit full telescope motion.

6. Select the '1 sec binned' exposure from the menu, and take an image.

7. Adjust the telescope pointing to roughly center the star in the CCD field, using the paddle. The orientation of the image has north at the top and east to the left. Bear in mind that the directions noted on the paddle controller are for moving the telescope relative to the sky, i.e. if the star is on the west edge of the image, press WEST to move the telescope west, instead of pressing EAST to move the star towards the east side of the image.

8. Make rough adjustments to the focus by turning the telescope focus knob a half- or quarter-turn at a time, until the annulus (doughnut) shape has shrunk down to a point. As you get near focus, the star may saturate as the total light is concentrated into fewer pixels. Select '0-1 sec binned' from the exposure menu, and click on the button just to the right of the menu to adjust the exposure time as necessary as you proceed.

The exposure window lets you change the exposure time for a given setting.

9. When the star looks vaguely pointlike, go into the special focus mode. Select 'Camera:Focus Mode'. The computer will take another exposure and display it. You will be prompted to use the 'Subframe tool' to select a section of the image surrounding the star. Click the toolbar icon of the nested boxes (to the left of the exposure menu), and then drag the mouse in the image window to draw a box around the star, about 1/3 of the chip size on a side. Click 'Yes' if you're happy with the box, or 'No' to take another shot at it.

10. The focus window will appear. Enter '0' into the delay field at the bottom and press 'Start'. The computer will take images of the specified box area, and display each new image on the right, with the prior image on the left for comparison. When each new image appears (every 20 seconds or so), make an incremental change to the telescope's focus knob. Tweaking the knob back and forth is often not so effective -- instead, scan through the focus range to see what the best focus looks like, and then go back to repeat, and stop when it looks good again. The optimal focus spot size will vary from night to night, depending on the seeing.

11. When you've got good focus, click 'Done' (it'll take a while to respond), and try another full-size exposure, to make sure everything still looks good.