SHARK-NIR Commissioning Activities List

This is an evolving page and the lists and activities will evolve in time as we gain more and more experience.

Although it is mentioned as the commissioning activities list, it lists all the activities of SHARK-NIR from its unpacking at LBT till the Science Verification, with the exception of the instrument installation at the LBT Bent Gregogian Central focal station.

The commissioning is broadly divided into 3 Phases:

Phase 1: We start from inspecting the boxes at LBT mountain bay, unpacking and installing the instrument at the mountain lab for alignment verification and functionality checks. All of these are daytime activities.

Phase 2: The activities after the installation of SHARK-NIR at the SX central bent Gregorian focus of LBT to the acquirement of the first nighttime telescope collimation model of the instrument form the Phase 2. Most of the activities are daytime. The only nighttime activity is to check the pointing, acquisition sequence and getting the first nighttime telescope collimation model for SHARK-NIR.

Phase 3: Phase 3 of the commissioning starts from sending preset to the telescope to testing individual SHARK-NIR observation modes for performance to the total SHARK-NIR performance. All the activities are nighttime. By the end of this phase, SHARK-NIR is ready for Science Verification.

Note that the corresponding evolving doc in SHARK-NIR Dropbox folder is SHARK-NIR-INAFP-COM-001_CommissioningPlan.docx. There is also an excel file listing the activities titled SHARK-NIR-INAFP-COM-002_CommissioningActivityList.xlsx.

Applicable Documents

No.	Title	Number & Issue
AD1	SHARK-NIR Schedule	SHARK-NIR-INAFP-Schedule-FDR Issue 0.3
AD2	SHARK-NIR SW ICD	SHARK-NIR-INAFP-SW-ICD-FDR Issue 0.4
AD3	SHARK-NIR Installation Plan	SHARK-NIR-INAFP-IP-001 Issue 0.1
AD4	SHARK-NIR Calibrations	SHARK-NIR-INAFP-MAN-004

Category

The table below lists the categories of commissioning activities.

Category Name	Category Number
Installation, integration, verification	C1
Daytime testing (functionality and operability)	C2
Daytime calibration	C3
Nighttime testing (functionality and operability)	C4
Nighttime calibration	C5
Nighttime testing for performance	C6

Phase 1

SHARK-NIR Location : LBT mountain bay and clean room

Number	Activity Name	Day / Night	Duration (mins)	Maximum Duration (mins)	Category	LBTO Support
P1.1	Inspection of the boxes	Day	40	40	C1	-
P1.2	Opening boxes and their visual inspection	Day	60	60	C1	crane operator to lift and move containers/boxes, 1-2 crew to support unpacking and moving
P1.3	Install the instrument in the cleanroom with its electronics cabinet	Day	240	240	C1	crane operator to lift and move containers/boxes, 1-2 crew to support installation on the mechanical structure
P1.4	Cable in the instrument, power on, and connect to LBT network	Day	120	120	C1	support to connect to LBT network? Any electronics support?
P1.5	Start all the services and initialize all the motors	Day	20	20	C1	-
P1.6	Cool down the cryostat	Day	480	480	C1	Liquid N2 fill
P1.7	Verification of the operability of the motors and light sources	Day	60	60	C1	-
P1.8	Verification of the internal alignment of the instrument	Day	120	120	C1	-
P1.9	Science detector calibrations	Day	60	60	C1	-

Phase 2

SHARK-NIR Location : LBT platform

Number	Activity Name	Day / Night	Duration (mins)	Maximum Duration (mins)	Category	LBTO Support
P2.1	Activating the instrument and testing instrument states & transitions	Day	60	60	C2	Verify the working of emergency button
P2.2	Instrument operability and performance	Day	180	180	C2	-
P2.3	TCS communication test	Day	60	60	C2	Authorise SHARK-NIR, connecting to ASM+LBTI AO system, able to send preset, receiving LBT telemetry and details for the fitswriter
P2.4	Align SHARK-NIR to the telescope	Day	120	120	C2	Mounting RR on the SX side. Support from LBTI?
P2.5	Synergy with LBTI AO system test	Day	120	120	C2	Mounting RR on the SX side. Support from LBTI for AO running
P2.6	Measurement of NCPA	Day	180	180	C3	Mounting RR on the SX side, Support from LBTI for AO running
P2.7	Looking for filter defects/effects/features	Day	60	60	C2	Support from LBTI for AO running
P2.8	Flexure tests	Day	180	180	C2	Support from LBTI for AO running
P2.9	Nighttime acquisition and setting telescope collimation for night	Night	180	180	C4	Support from LBTI for AO running

Phase 3

SHARK-NIR Location : LBT platform

Number	Activity Name	Day / Night	Duration (mins)	Maximum Duration (mins)	Category	LBTO Support
P3.1	Telescope control – sending preset	Night	10	10	C4	LBTI(AO), presence of John Hill while collimating, Steve Allensen as TO
P3.2	Telescope control – checking focus for different wavelengths	Night	10	30	C4	-
P3.3	Telescope control – telescope mode and offset	Night	30	30	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.4	Telescope control – focal plane geometry estimation	Night	10	60	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.5	Check the acquisition procedure	Night	60	60	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.6	Orient the coronagraphs	Night	20	40	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.7	Estimate the instrument throughput	Night	10	50	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.8	Estimate the limiting magnitude for every filter	Night	10	50	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.9	Estimate sky background for broadband filters	Night	10	50	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.10	Verify the ADC rotation on sky	Night	20	40	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.11	Ghost positions on the SCICAM	Night	10	50	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.12	Checking field-stabilized mode/bearing rotation service	Night	20	40	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.13	Center the slit	Night	40	40	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.14	Astrometry plate scale and orientation	Night	-	30	C5	LBTI(AO)
P3.15	Flux calibration (off-centered target observation)	Night	-	20	C5	LBTI(AO)
P3.16	Instrumental throughput and absolute flux calibration	Night	20	40	C5	LBTI(AO)
P3.17	Atmospheric calibration and absolute flux calibration	Night	-	20	C5	LBTI(AO)
P3.18	Large spatial scale instrument and telescope flat field	Night	-	60	C5	LBTI(AO)
P3.19	Sky background	Night	-	10	C5	LBTI(AO)
P3.20	Instrumental background for science	Day	-	20	C3	-
P3.21	Star center	Night	-	20	C5	LBTI(AO)
P3.22	Instrument flat field, detector linearity and bad pixels	Day	-	20	C3	-
P3.23	Wavelength calibration	Day	-	10	C3	-
P3.24	Thermal background	Day	-	60	C3	-
P3.25	Detector gain	Day	-	20	C3	-
P3.26	Detector persistence	Day	-	20	C3	-
P3.27	Spectral resolution	Day	-	10	C3	-
P3.28	Ghost calibration	Day	20	60	C3	-
P3.29	Distortion map	Night	-	10	C5	LBTI(AO)
P3.30	Filter wheels reproducibility monitoring	Day	-	20	C3	-
P3.31	Pupil alignment	Night	-	5	C4	LBTI(AO)
P3.32	PSF Alignment	Night	-	5	C4	LBTI(AO)

Additional Information

Note:

• as of now, there is no one to one correspondence with the evolving doc (eventually they will be the same)
• you may see that there is some repetition in the activities. this needs to be sorted out eventually.
• the order of the activities may also be changed later.

To be added:

1. Nighttime performance activities:
   • Evaluate the seeing performance and Strehl achieved from the LBTI AO in closed-loop and in various seeing conditions.

2. Look-up table activities:
   • NCPA measurement for different telescope elevations?

Reminders:

• The space requirements at the mountain bay (@LBT) should be communicated to LBT at the earliest, along with the availability of crane operator, container moving tools, etc. Depending upon the month of the year, the mountain bay can be seriously booked (especially during July-October months due to summer shutdown).
• The same is true for the clean room near the mountain bay. If we need access to the LBTO network in the clean room, there are some network ports. But we may need to tell them in advance (Talk to Florian Briegel for more info).
• Note that if there is any ASM repair/activity scheduled in the clean room, preference is always for them and we will have to co-live or get after that.
• From the LINC-NIRVANA commissioning experience, it is always better to keep the tools associated with a particular alignment together, to avoid looking for it in all the boxes there. Also, there MUST be a living inventory wiki page where everyone should note down what is taken and kept in the box/container.