The 0.9m telescope has limited capabilities for remote observing. There are certain tasks, like removing the mirror cover, filling the dewar, turning on flat field lamps, aligning telescope with white spot for flats, lightning shutdown and others that require an observer on-site. An off-site observer can login to the various computers and either watch or participate in the observing program once all on-site tasks have been completed. The 0.9m control room is equipped with a video Polycom with easy to follow instructions.

Before your run, the remote observer has to be set up with a VPN connection through NOAO. Instructions on how to obtain an NOAO VPN account can be aquired through the site manager. Please contact Hillary at hmathis@noao.edu.

Off-site computer(s) need to have VPN and VNC capabilities. A video or audio Polycom must be present at the off-site facility if the Polycom is your communication medium of choice. No other communication devices are provided at the 0.9m facility, but observers are welcome to bring computers equipped with their own communication devices, for example skype or ichat, and need no prior authorization to use such devices.

Once a VPN account is set up the remote observer needs to test their end, prior to their observing run, to make sure that all systems are functioning as expected. The necessary computers for testing are listed below. The remote observer MUST receive prior authorization from the site manager before testing the connection. Contact Flynn at fhaase@noao.edu.

There are 3 computers that are needed for observing. Olive, the Telescope Control System (TCS) computer, Taupe, the data acquisition computer and Moss the guider computer.

Open three VNC windows on the off-site computer, if you wish to view all observing computers. The connections to each computer are as follows:

• olive.kpno.noao.edu
• taupe.kpno.noao.edu:1
• moss.kpno.noao.edu:1

NOTE: Do not preform any tasks unless there is someone present on-site in the control room to ensure safety of the telescope and instrument!