The Acquisition and Guiding GUI : pics_ag


The pics_ag widget provides the user interface for field acquisition and guiding. Although similar to pics_gui, and also based on the same layered software structure (shown in Fig. 1), this GUI is somewhat less detached from the underlying programmes during ongoing sequences of guiding. In principle, however, also pics_ag can be killed and restarted at any time.



Fig. 2 Acquisition and Guiding widget pics_ag. For full resolution image, click on Fig. 3




Operating the internal A&G CCD Camera :

The large window to the left shows an acquisition frame, having a 3.4' x 3.4' wide field-of-view. It is sampled at a resolution of 0.2 arcsec per pixel. Note orientation: North to the LEFT, East to the BOTTOM.

The dark circle in the middle indicates the aperture in the center of A&G Field Mirror, giving way to the IFU Field Optics, and, at the end of the optical train, to the lens array. The location and size of the lens array is projected into the aperture and is shown as a white square. The square can be switched on and off using a pulldown menu (see table below).

The column of 3 square windows next to the main image window ised used for zooming regions of interest (ROI) defined by mouse clicks, and plotting cross sections in X and Y. The column of 3 rectangular windows to the right are used in Guiding Mode to plot the sequence of FWHM in X/Y, offsets in X/Y (error signal to the telescope), and stellar flux over time. The FWHM and FlUX plots are useful to estimate seeing and atmospheric transparency changes over the course of a night.

Acquisition exposures are started simply by clicking the "Acquisition" button. Similarily, exposures with window readout are initiated by pushing the "Window" button. The number of exposures and the exposure time per frame is taken from default values which can be modified through pulldown menus (see below).

The autoguider is started by pushing "Autoguider" and stopped by pushing "STOP".

The pics_ag GUI provides the following pulldown menu options for operating the camera:

File : "Load A&G Image from disk" load image from disk and display in main window
"Print Fits Header" print FITS header of most recent file in display
"Info picsdb" print content of picsdb status array
"Set A&G data path" set data path to new direction
"Set A&G prefix" set prefix of FITS images to be acquired
"Print Log Form" print observing log sheet on laser printer
"Quit" finish pics_ag
Options : "set DISPLAY min / max"
"set DISPLAY histequ"
"set DISPLAY median +/-5%"
"set DISPLAY histequ"
"set DISPLAY median - 5% / + 1*sky"
"set DISPLAY median - 5% / + 5*sky"
"set DISPLAY locut,hicut"
"locut,hicut = "
"locut = "
"hicut = "
"LARR on/off "
"Find Threshold"
N_exp : "1 frame"
"2 frames"
"5 frames"
"10 frames"
"20 frames"
"1000 frames"
Exposure Time : "0.5 sec"
"1 sec"
"2 sec"
"5 sec"
"10 sec"
"20 sec"
"30 sec"
"60 sec"
"120 sec"
"300 sec"
Binning : "1 x 1"
"2 x 2"
SetWindow : "50 x 50 (Guiding)"
"100 x 100"
"200 x 200"
"point Cursor..."
Zoom : "x1"
"x2"
"x4"
"x8"
"x16"
"x1 with fit"
"x2 with fit"
"x4 with fit"
Find : "find stars > 200"
"find stars > 500"
"find stars > 1000"
"find stars > 2000"
"find stars > 5000"
"find stars > 10000"
Pointing : "Telescope Offset"
"Telescope + AG Offset"
"Pointing & Offset"
"Blind Offset"
"GET Offset"
"GO Offset"
"CHECK Offset"
Filter : "Filter 1"
"Filter 2"
"Filter 3"
"Filter 4"
TMTOP : "A&G Unit in"
"Cal.Unit in"
"TMTOP park"
Focus : "AGFOC Series"
"AGFOC set manually"
"Telescope Series"
last change : 07/12/2002 mmr | Comments AIP | CAHA