TRES TCS User's Guide

Created 07/03/08 by TG
Updated 07/03/08 by TG

This document describes the TRES TCS program, which controls the 1.5m telescope from the nflwo60 Linux PC. The system provides controls via a Graphical User Interface

THE PURPOSE OF TCS

This document covers the program TRES TCS, the Telescope Control System currently in use on the FLWO 1.5m telescope for the TRES intrument. The basic purpose of TCS is to control Comsoft's PC TCS program from nflwo60, a Linux Dual Opteron PC, and move the telescope. It also manages catalogs, and inserts information from the telescope and catalogs into the FITS file headers. Most of the GUI actions have associated command line versions that may be typed into the TELSHELL command line, for example "tele enable". See Telshell.

GETTING STARTED

The only way users should start TCS is by starting the Realtime system. TCS is an integral part of the Realtime system; it is started automatically whenever you type gotres to start the Realtime System. If you attempt to start Tres TCS independently, bad things may happen! Also, you should only exit this program by typing exit in the telshell window.

THE MAIN SCREEN

The TCS window will display a series of buttons and a list of information. The information updates every few seconds, and accepts no input. To select any button place the cursor on the button and depress the left mouse button. The Buttons, starting at top left, have the following functions:

STOP TELE - Halt any telescope travel, clears next coords.
Slew Enable - After new coords are sent move the telescope.
New Coords - Enter new coords or manage catalogs.
Rates Menu - Set various telescope movement rates.
Misc Menu - Several functions.
Tele Tasks - Several telescope Tasks.
ThAr - Toggle the Thorium Argon Lamp
Incand - Toggle the Incand Lamp
Sky/Comp - Move comparison mirror out/in.
Focus Move - Adjust Spectrograph Focus
Iodine - Set the Iodine Cell Position (NOT ACTIVE YET!)
Fiber - Select active fiber, small, medium or large

POPUP WINDOWS

Some of these buttons when selected will cause a window with further choices to appear. This section will explore these windows, and their usage. In most cases these windows were designed to pop-up, be used, and disappear. For these windows, other windows will not work until the current pop-up has been dismissed.

NEW COORDS

When you click on NEW COORDS this window appears for selection of the next telescope position desired, either manually or via catalog management commands. The single white line can be used to display the last coordinates entered from this menu by using the up-arrow key.

If you wish to manually type in coordinates, simply put the cursor anywhere inside the white line, and type coordinates, for example :

12:12:12 32:00:01 1950.0 or 12 12 12 32 00 01 1950.0

Spaces or colons are used to separate the fields RA, DEC, and EPOCH. A control-K entered on this line will delete from the cursor to the end of the line, and the delete key will delete the character prior to the cursor. The epoch field is optional, but Ra and Dec MUST BOTH be entered!

This window also allows the management of catalogs. When typing into the white line, three catalog commands are recognized:


newcat        - "newcat rudy" loads file rudy.mct 
#objectnum  - "#3" gets line three from loaded catalog
!objectname - "!M67" gets object M67 from current catalog

Please note that a catalog MUST be loaded before you can retrieve objects. After manually entering coordinates click on the "OK" button to transmit coordinates to PC-TCS. That will happen automatically if you select from a catalog. In a few seconds, the "Slew Enabled" message will appear on the PC. and you can click on the "Slew Enabled" button, and the telescope will slew to those coordinates. See the catalog section below for specification of catalog layout, location, names, etc...

Under this area is a window which displays the loaded catalog, and you may select an object from this window by right clicking on that line.

If you select Load Catalogs, this window pops up, and will allow selection of catalog directory, and your choice of catalogs to load from that directory.

OBJECT CATALOGS

Object catalogs have the following format, illustrated from the file furesz.mct:

     
!P.I.: Furesz
!Program: 140 Pulsators
AUPeg        21:24:00.2 +18:16:43. 2000.0  0.00 -1.3
V411Lac      22:28:58.3 +50:57:47. 2000.0 -0.02 -0.3

The first two lines specify The P.I. and Program for the catalog. If these lines are in the file, the information from these two lines will be placed in the headers of all objects selected from this catalog. Subsequent lines have four fields. The first field describes object name, the second file is the entry for R.A, the third field is DEC, and the next field is epoch. The final two optional fields are for proper motion in RA and Dec. Both quantities refer to the motion over a century. The Dec value is arc seconds per century. The RA value is the change in RA per century. To convert from arc seconds per century in RA, divide by 15 and by cos(Dec). After the listed fields, do not pad with spaces. Object names must have fewer than 20 characters (fewer is better) and may not contain embedded blanks, as the program uses blanks as delimiters and IRAF will hate it. Use of dashes or minuses and plus marks in object names may confuse IRAF, and should be avoided.

All users should be able to write in the catalog directory. Please be careful and avoid clobbering existing catalogs! Catalogs should be stored in /Realtime/lib/catalogs/tres. If you change a catalog, please make sure that it is group writable when you are done, i.e. "chmod g+w mymunged.mct".

When you click on the Rates Menu button, this window appears :


  Track   -  Reset value of track rates, normally 15.0795
  Guide   -  Reset value of guide rate, normally 2.00
  Set     -  Reset value of set rate, normally 100

Misc Menu

When you click on the Misc Menu button, this window appears :

Selecting HA MOVES will produce this window:

This window allows you to move in Hour Angle, with the Dec fixed. You can click on the +3 or -3 buttons to move into position for a dawn or evening sky. You can also request a different number of hours in either direction by using the white text widget. Use this from the zenith. Use Slew Enable to move the telescope. It will also position dome.

Clicking Set Pc clock will sync the PC-TCS clock to the nflwo60 clock. This happens automatically at startup.
Clicking Slit Lamp toggle the slit leds on and off.

Guider Focus does NOT work, at least yet... .

Tele Tasks

When you click on the Tele Tasks button, this window appears :

Clicking on Set TelePos will produce this window:

It will contain the last coordinates that you used for a slew. After centering your target manually, hit OK, and it will set your coordinates to where you slewed.

Clicking Cosdec, Track, and Dome widgets will toggle that value. Track and Dome need to be on for Dome to follow telescope. Cosdec should stay on.

Stow Dome will turn off Dome, and send the dome to its stow position.

Init Dome will reset the dome encoder after a partial revolution.

Selecting Dome to Az will produce this window:

where you can enter a dome azimuth. The dome will move to that azimuth when you click OK.

Selecting Stow Tele will turn off telescope tracking and stow it. Note that this command DOES NOT stop dome tracking. At the end of the night, you should stow both telescope and dome , use the (Stow All).

FOCUS

When you click on the Focus Move button, this window appears :(WRONG IMAGE TED)

The focusing mechanism uses a stepper motor controlled tres-bench via the TCS window to change spectrograph focus. The size of the movement can be changed with the Focus Set button. The current spectrograph focus position is displayed this widget.