SALT - Southern African Large Telescope

FAQs

What position angles are allowed?

The allowed range of position angles depends on your target coordinates. Please refer to SALT document SALT-3170AM0009 for more information.

What is the current instrument status?

Please check our current instrument availability page for the current status.

What are the rules for Phase I -> Phase II transition?

You can find the rules here

When validating my proposal, I'm told that I'm exceeding the allocated time. But that's not true!

Version 1.95 of the PIPT contains a bug and counts the acquisition overhead twice when validating. This has been fixed in version 1.96, which can be downloaded from https://www.salt.ac.za/wm.

What should I know about defining MOS observations?

Please have a look at Eric Hooper's advice to MOS observers.

I want to do spectroscopy with an 0.6 arcsec slit. What about the calibrations?

The PIPT currently assumes that for spectroscopy an arc is done only after the observation. However, in case of an 0.6 arcsec slit it might be advisable to do an additional arc before the observation.

In order to do this, add an identical setup with an exposure time of 0 seconds before your science setup.

A future version of the PIPT might add the second arc automatically, so please watch this space.

Please don't hesitate to contact salthelp(at)saao.ac.za if you have any questions about this.

I'm getting warnings like In Acquisition "XYZ": No guide method has been chosen. Should I be worried?

No, not at all all. These warnings are caused by a bug in version 1.95 of the PIPT, which will be fixed in the next version. Please just ignore them.

Which version of the PIPT do I need for submitting commissioning proposals?

You will need version 1.95 or higher for resubmitting your commissioning proposals. Note that you have to add a priority and ranking to your blocks. Please contact salthelp(at)saao.ac.za if you want to create a new commissioning proposal.

Can I use the PIPT with a proxy?

You possibly can. Here is what to do.

  • Find the Preferences item in the menu and select it (On a Mac it's in the PiptManager menu, otherwise it's in the Edit menu.)
  • Select the Proxy tab in the preferences window.
  • Provide the proxy URL and select whether your proxy uses authentication.

Unfortunately, the PIPT doesn't work with all proxies. Local IT support at your institution may be able to help resolve proxy issues.

My target coordinates have changed. What is happening?

If you check the visibility by launching the Visibility Tool from within the PIPT (version 1.96 or earlier), your target coordinates may change slightly, as the seconds of the right ascension are rounded to an integer value.

In case this is of concern to you, close the Visibility Tool again and revert the seconds back to their original value. If you don't do this, the Web Manager will display a warning stating that a target has changed.

This bug should be fixed in the next release of the PIPT.

The Web Manager claims I have changed a target in Phase 2, although I haven't. Why?

There is some evidence that during importing and resubmitting your proposal a small change in your target coordinates may creep in. So you should check your target coordinates. If that's not the reason, feel free to ask salthelp(at)saao.ac.za for help. 

The Web Manager charges calibration overheads twice? Why?

It is true that the Web Manager lists an overhead for the calibrations, which is included in the science configuration overhead already. But don't worry, you are not charged twice; that duplicate overhead is not included in the total block overhead.

I have a science setup with 11 iterations and the arc calibration has 11 iterations as well. But I want only one arc! What should I do?

Just ignore the number of iterations for the arc. This number should be 1, and if it isn't, that's a bug.

The Web Manager claims that my Block has an overhead of 0 seconds. Am I that lucky?

No, unfortunately you aren't. There is an overhead for your block, which is included in the displayed shutter open time. (And yes, "shutter open time" should rather be "total time", as it includes the overheads.)

Where can I find more answers?

The Phase I FAQ contains information which may be relevant for a phase 2 proposal as well.

My question still isn't answered. What can I do?

Please contact salthelp(at)saao.ac.za with your question.