Software Overview
The Nickel Telescope has a suite of programs to control not only the telescope, but the dome and much of the ancillary hardware, such as the flat flield lamps and guide camera. The programs operate in concert, but are addressed through several GUI's, separated by function as follows:
| Summary of Observing Software for the Nickel Telescope | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Program | Function | Icon | Command Line |
| POCO | Telescope pointing and control |  |
poco_fe |
| Motor Controller | Filter wheel, aperture wheel, collimator,
CCD stage, and grism slide control. (This program starts when data-taking program is started; this program also controls motors for Nickel Direct Camera). |
 |
nickel_inst_gui |
| Auxilliary Telescope Hardware | Dome shutter, windscreen, and flatfield lamp control. |  |
naux_fe |
| Guider | Acquisition/guide TV and autoguider control. |  |
nickel_guider_client |
| Check40 | Permissions and weather monitor. |  |
check40_obs |
| Coords | Read observer starlists and display starcharts. |  |
coords |
From the observer's perspective, all software runs on noir.ucolick.org.
Each software component can be started from its icon on the noir toolbar, as shown above, or by typing its command line arguement. Observers may not need all the software listed, but in general will require most.
There are several software resources available on-line to observers that should be used in addition to the software required for telescope operation. Some of these resources are only accessible on Mt. Hamilton computers and approved off-site computers for remote operations. Nickel observers must pay close attention to the weather and several Weather Resources (local weather conditions at various points on Mt. Hamilton, regional forcasts and satellite images) are available. There are also small video surveillance cameras mounted in the Nickel dome for remote observers to use to see the state of the telescope, dome, and shutter.
Last modified: Tue Jul 17 19:15:36 PDT 2012