The only way users should start TCS60 is by starting the Realtime system. TCS60 is an integral part of the Realtime system; it is started automatically whenever you type either gofast ,goechelle, or goafoe. If you attempt to start TCS60 independently, bad things will happen!
The TCS60 window will display a series of buttons and a list of information. The information area will update every few seconds, and will accept no input. This display will not contain the profiles and rotator widget if you are running echelle or afoe. Some of the list information varies according to instrument, for example the echelle instrument shows info for Left and Right counts. 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:
These functions are supported only by the FAST version of TCS60:
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.
If you wish to manually type in coordinates, simply put the cursor anywhere
inside the white line, and type coordinates, for example :
This window also allows the management of catalogs. When typing into
the white line, three catalog commands are recognized:
Please note that a catalog MUST be loaded before you can retrieve
objects. After manually entering coordinates, or selecting an entry from
a catalog, click on the "OK" button to transmit coordinates to the Mac.
In a few seconds, the "Slew Enabled" message will appear on the Mac.
at this point you can click on the "Slew Enabled" button, and the telescope
will slew to the 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.
When you click on the Rates Menu button, this window appears :
Clicking Change Threshold will send that value to the guider as the threshold.
Not for casual use.
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.
Home Dome will turn off Dome, and send the dome to the stow position.
Selecting Dome to Az will produce this window:
NEW COORDS
When you click on NEW COORDS the above 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.
12:12:12 32:00:01 1950.0 or
12 12 12 32 00 01 1950.0
Spaces are used to separate the fields RA, DEC, and EPOCH, spaces or
colons may be used as internal field separators. 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!
RATES MENU
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.
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. 
where you can enter a dome azimuth. Dome will
move to that azimuth when you click OK.
Selecting Stow Tele will turn off Tracking, and Dome, and stow the telescope.
Begin Guide and Stop Guide
These allow you to manually start and stop guiding. Clicking start guide will
produce a frame from the guide computer in a window on the Sun. Right click
on a star in this window to start guiding on this star. If frame seems empty,
hit Stop Guide, and then Begin Guide until you see the star. (Will be fixed,
TG 11/02)
FOCUS
When you click on the Focus Move button, this window appears :
The focusing mechanism uses a stepper motor controlled
from the Sun computer via the TCS60 window to change spectrograph
focus. The size of the movement can be changed with the Focus Set
button. The default movements are steps of 20.
The current spectrograph focus position is displayed in the main
TCS60 info window.
INFO WINDOW
The rest of the main window contains the info window, which shows the
current values of telscope position, time, focus setting, etc. This
window updates around every two seconds :
CATALOGS AND TCS60
All catalogs should be stored in the directory /Realtime/lib/catalogs.
OBJECT CATALOGS
Object catalogs have the following format, illustrated from
the file rudy.mct:
!P.I.: Rudy
!Program: Periodicity
TWQSO 09:57:57.3 56:08:23 1950.0
3c351 17:04:03.0 60:48:31 1950.0
ot546 17:27:04.0 50:15:31 1950.0
4c34 17:21:32.0 34:20:00 1950.0
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 last field is epoch. Currently this
system will not use proper motion! After the listed fields,
do not pad with spaces. Object names must not contain embedded blanks,
since the program uses blanks as delimiters. Use of dashes
or minuses and plus marks in object names will confuse IRAF, and
should be avoided. All users should be able to write in catalog directory, please
do not clobber existing catalogs!
Written by Ted Groner