CTIO enclosure photograph.    2MASS OBSERVATORY OPERATIONS OVERVIEW  
The 2MASS observing facilities were attended during data taking by an observatory staff member who was designated the operations manager.   The manager's duties are listed in the operations manual which was created and maintained by Eric Howard at UMASS.    With the exception of instances where special tests were requested or intervention was required because of weather conditions the data taking proceeded automatically throughout the night without the intervention of the manager once the startup procedures had been completed.     The managers kept logs which were reviewed each day at UMASS.   Satellite weather maps for each night of operations were archived at UMASS.

At Cerro Tololo 2MASS operations continued throughout the year.  At Mt. Hopkins operations were suspended during the monsoon season in Arizona.  This included all of August and parts of July and September.
The data acquisition system at the observing facilities was comprised of three linked computers.
The telescope computer control system software was written by David Harvey and provided by Comsoft.   This software package interfaced to a pointing model program created by Patrick Wallace.  Control and display of telescope parameters were available to the manager through the telescope control system.

The data acquisition computer software was written by Michael Rudenko at the UMASS.   This system provided the interface to the camera electronics and hard disk temporary data storage.   During observing a jhk frame display was provided to the manager that was useful in determining if clouds were present or if there were problems with the camera.   When nightly operations were completed this computer system was used to transfer the data from hard disk to DLT tape.     After the speed of network links between the observatories and IPAC was increased late in the survey this computer was also used to transfer calibration scan data to IPAC so that rapid quality control feedback to the scheduler database could be provided.

The scheduler computer contained the database showing the data acquisition status of sky segments (called tiles) and on the basis of these data selectd optimum tiles for observation.   The scheduler provided the highest level interface to the operations manager.  As the data were processed and evaluated at IPAC updates were sent to the observatory schedulars so that scans previously observed in poor photometric conditions could be repeated.    The schedular software was written by Booth Hartley at IPAC.

Rae Stiening September 13, 2005