abort_telescope
Stops a motor that has been started with a command such as point with the nowait option.
beep [quick]
Pulses the warning tone generator in the dome. The quick keyword does it for a short time.
dome [home] [center] [put=%f] [left] [right] [stop] [home_force]
Reports back the azimuth of the dome in a string like:
done dome az=178.1
If the dome has not been moved to it calibrating position, the
message dome_not_homed will be added to the message.
The home option automatically moves the dome to the index mark so
that the dome encoder offset can be determined.
The home_force does not move the dome or cause the
encoder offsets to change but merely removes and 'dome_not_homed'
message that may be present.
The center option causes the dome slit to be centered at the proper azimuth for the telescope to look out. The dome will only move if necessary. If the dome actually moves it returns the keyword `moved' in its reply.
The dome can be rotated to the azimuth set by the put= command. The azimuth is in degrees from north (East is 90.0).
encoder
home [home | switch]
Reads out the coordinates of the Renishaw encoders in decimal degrees.
The result looks like
done encoder ha=-1.467 dec=3.921 ra=285.083
The switch causes the telescope to seek first ha=0 then
dec=0 by moving in a direction to cause the mercury switch to
change state.
The appropriate encoder is zeroed when this occurs.
Note: this is a very crude zero position (5 degrees) and
so the home flag in encoder command is cleared.
The home option is much finer and causes the telescope
to seek the magnetic home positions.
The home flag in the encoder command is set.
The command returns whether or not the telescope is currently at the home location. Also the power must be turned on before the telescope can be homed.
mirror [open] [close]
Controls the mirror cover on the telescope. Returns with `done mirror xx'
where `xx' is either `open' or `close' depending on the status after the
command is issued. If `open' or `close' is requested and the status
disagrees, an error message is
issued.
move_sec [mils=%f] [du=] [dv=] [home]
Moves the telescope secondary to the desired focus position
in mils (one thousandths of an inch).
The tilt of the mirror may be specified by the du
and dv options.
If the secondary is not been moved to the home position since
the server was started the messages 'sec_not_homed' will be appended.
The home will move the secondary to the home position
and reset the internal counters.
If the reported secondary position value is outside of the legal range of motion the position report will be prefaced by the word ERROR instead of done. The range of motion can be determined by using the keyword, help.
offset [ra=%f] [dec=%f] [cos] [ha=%f] [rate=%f]
Offsets the telescope from its present position where the values are in
decimal degrees.
The dome will not be adjusted and the current epoch will be
used. The maximum offset is 10.0 degrees.
If the `cos' keyword is specified
the motion is corrected (increased) by
1./cos(declination).The usual offset occurs at 0.8 degrees per second. If you want to change this value (for this one offset) use the rate keyword.
point ra=hh:mm:ss.s
dec=dd:mm:ss [epoch=yyyy]
[ha=]
[nodome] [nowait] [nobeep]
Positions the telescope to the RA and Dec specified.
If the epoch to which
the coordinates are referred is not specified the current epoch (today) will
be used.
The telescope will respond with `done' when pointed to within its
tolerance.
If the telescope drive is not turned on an error message will be
issued.
The dome will be moved unless the nodome option is specified.
power [on] [off]
Controls the power to the telescope drive also known as `main power'. It always reports back `done power xx' where `xx' is either `on' or `off'. If the power was unable to do as requested an error message `ERROR power did not turn on' or `ERROR power did not turn off' will be issued as appropriate. In the event of a reboot, or power failure in the telescope, the power is turned off.
Some of the telescope functions such as the point and where commands rely on the power being on for them to be done. If the power is not on when these commands are executed the message `ERROR main power not on' will be sent.
slit [open] [close] [keepopen] [clear]
This command controls the opening of the dome slit. When successful, the
`slit' command reports back `done slit [keywords]' where the allowed keywords
are:open/closed [stowed] [cantopen]
The open/closed keywords indicate whether the signal to open the slit is being transmitted and one or the other is always present. Since the slit controller is open-loop they may not represent the true state of the slit if there is an equipment failure or the motor driver has been left in the manual position. The `cantopen' keyword reflects the state of the weather and means that the slit cannot open. The thirty inch telescope reports back the cause of the cantopen message: the possible answers are
raining sunny too_windy too_humid.
The dome slit will stay open for about 20 minutes after each `slit open' command. Any point or offset command will reset the timeout. The `keepopen' command keeps it open if it is already open; it does not open the slit. The dome will also close due to bad weather: a) detection of a single rain drop; winds in excess of 15 knots; humidity greater than 95 percent; or daylight brighter than found when the sun is at about 8.0 degrees above the horizon. Once the dome slit has been closed by timeout or bad weather it must be explicitly re-opened.
Error messages will be issued if the dome open request is made and the weather is bad, or the dome remains stowed when an open request has been made.
The slit reports back the number of times it has been opened since the server was started (in order to keep track of battery life). The clear command resets this counter to zero.
done tel_status name=Leuschner obs=Leuschner lat=37.9183 long=-122.1570 elev=300.0 east=-100.0 west=100.0 north=89.5 south=-32.0 alt=15.0 scale=33.21
Where the East Longitude, latitude and limits are in decimal degrees; the elevation is in meters above sea level. The name is the name of the telscope, while obs specifies the name of the observatory. The limits to the telescope motion are specified in degrees. The scale is in arc-seconds per mm.
temps
Returns the values of the weather equipment.
track [sidereal] [local] [lunar] [on] [off] [solar] [ra=%f] [dec=%f]
Sets the telescope tracking rate. When used without arguments it simply
returns the current track rate in arc seconds per second. The Lunar rate is
approximate since declination tracking is not calculated. The sidereal and on
flags mean the same thing. The rates are set in arc seconds per second of
time.
The local option adjusts the tracking rate to the value determined by the derivative of the pointing coefficients at the hour angle and declination that the telescope is currently pointing.
where [epoch=] [nocorr] [noapp]
Reports the telescope position with a string like:
done where ra=20:21:59.8 dec=+69:57:58 epoch=1998.1 ha=+00:01:24 secz=1.19 az=359.8
If the telescope encoders have not been homed, the words, ha_not_homed and/or dec_not_homed will be added on. These can be cleared by the encoder commands.
zero ra=hh:mm:ss.s dec=dd:mm:ss epoch=yyyy< zero last zero [cra=%f] [cdec=%f]Used in the first method the zero command tells the telescope control program that the current position is that stated on the command line. The program will then adjust the additive constants to the pointing programs so that future `point' commands will refer to this origin. If either of the additive coefficients exceed 2.0 degrees, an error message will be issued, and the zero aborted. The `last' keyword can be used in place of specifying the coordinates.
The additive constants can be set manually by specifying them on the command line.
Last Revised June 9, 2000