For a routine spectroscopic observation the acquisition involves slewing to the target, acquiring the guide star, centering the target in the slit, and waiting for the primary mirror tip/tilt corrections to be derived. Aside from making sure that proper guide stars have been selected, the only step in this process that involves T-ReCS is getting the object into the slit.

For spectroscopy observations the acquisition steps are required for each observation: each wavelength range and each slit position angle. In each case the target has to be re-centered on the slit. For long spectral observations periodic re-centering may be needed as well. Each such acquisition takes of order 15 minutes overhead.

Instructions for creating a T-ReCS spectroscopic acquisition step in the OT can be found on the Example Observations page