Duperrex, P.-A. Baumann, P. Joray, S. Kiselev, D.C. Laube, D. Reggiani, D. JACoW Publishing Geneva, Switzerland 978-3-95450-205-9 10.18429/JACoW-Cyclotrons2019-TUP016 English 189-191 TUP016 target experiment proton operation cyclotron Contribution to a conference proceedings 2020 2020-06 https://doi.org/10.18429/JACoW-Cyclotrons2019-TUP016 http://jacow.org/cyclotrons2019/papers/tup016.pdf The high intensity proton accelerator (HIPA) at the Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI) delivers 590 MeV c.w. proton beam with currents of up to 2.4 mA, i.e. 1.4 MW beam power, For experiments of nuclear and material research the beam is directed to the 4 or 6 cm graphite 1 Hz rotating target (Target E). Centring the beam on the target is an important task for the operation and has safety issues in case of beam misalignment. Transmission monitoring has been the standard method to optimize the beam position on the target, though not very sensitive. A new method is currently being tested that provides a more sensitive off-axis detection. It is based on the detection of beam inten-sity modulation from the milled grooves at the target edge. This paper presents the concept and preliminary experimental results that can be obtained with this method.