EQUIPMENT PARAMETERS:
  Mount type (G=German equatorial,F=Fork mount):                      F
  Nominal mount slew rate (deg/sec):                                  1.
  File containing mount slew time model:                              telescope.txt
  Use Nominal Mount Slew Rate (NMSR) or Mount Slew Time Model (MSTM)? MSTM
  Automated dome? (yes/no)                                            yes
  Nominal dome slew rate (deg/sec):                                   2.30
  File containing dome slew time model:                               dome.txt
  Use Nominal Dome Slew Rate (NDSR) or Dome Slew Time Model (DSTM)?   DSTM
  Offsets of telescope from dome center (in units of dome diameter):
    Vertical (positive if upward):                                    -0.0174
    Northward:                                                        +0.0092
  Offset between telescope axes (in units of dome diameter):          0.0041
  Maximum possible slew time (sec):                                   310.
  Empirical timing correction (sec):                                  +2.10
  Waiting time after slew (sec):                                      2.
  Minimum allowed |hour angle| (min):                                 0.
  Maximum allowed |hour angle| (min):                                 500.
  Download times (sec):
    High resolution (1x1 binning):
      Full frame:                                                     20.
      Center frame:                                                   12.
    Medium resolution (2x2 binning):
      Full frame:                                                     6.
      Center frame:                                                   3.
    Low resolution (3x3 binning):
      Full frame:                                                     3.
      Center frame:                                                   2.
  CCD field of view (full frame):
    Width (arcmin):                                                   18.5
    Height (arcmin):                                                  12.3
  Pixel scale ("/pixel) in full resolution:                           1.44
  Automated filter wheel? (yes/no)                                    yes
  File containing filter names:                                       filters.txt

This section contains parameters which describe your equipment (telescope, dome, camera, filter wheel, and filter):

• Mount type. Currently only equatorial mounts of German (G) and fork (F) types are supported. Support for altazimuth mounts should be added soon. Please contact the author if you would like to request support for other kinds of mounts.

• Nominal mount slew rate. If you don't yet have a mount slew time model, you may use this option to specify an approximate constant mount slew rate (expressed in deg/sec), which will be assumed in computing mount slew times. If you already have a mount slew time model (which is necessary for accurate timing of telescope motions), then the nominal mount slew rate will be ignored.

• File containing mount slew time model. If you have a mount slew time model, specify the path of the file containing it. The path may be absolute (e.g., c:\TAO\schedule\telescope.txt) or relative to the TAO\schedule directory (e.g., ..\myTelescopes\telescope.txt). If the file containing the mount slew time model is located in the TAO\schedule directory, you just need to specify the file name. If you don't yet have a mount slew time model, this option will be ignored.

• Use Nominal Mount Slew Rate (NMSR) or Mount Slew Time Model (MSTM)? If you have a mount slew time model, choose MSTM; if you don't yet have such a model, choose NMSR.

• Automated dome? Answer yes if your telescope is housed in an automated dome, and no if it is not. If you chose no, you should skip some options which only apply to automated domes.

• Nominal dome slew rate. If you don't yet have a dome slew time model, you may use this option to specify an approximate constant dome slew rate (expressed in deg/sec), which will be assumed in computing dome slew times. If you already have a dome slew time model (which is necessary for accurate timing of dome motions), then the nominal dome slew rate will be ignored.

• File containing dome slew time model. If you have a dome slew time model, specify the path of the file containing it. The path may be absolute (e.g., c:\TAO\schedule\dome.txt) or relative to the TAO\schedule directory (e.g., ..\myTelescopes\dome.txt). If the file containing the dome slew time model is located in the TAO\schedule directory, you just need to specify the file name. If you don't yet have a dome slew time model, this option will be ignored.

• Use Nominal Dome Slew Rate (NDSR) or Dome Slew Time Model (DSTM)? If you have a dome slew time model, choose DSTM; if you don't yet have such a model, choose NDSR.

• Offsets of telescope from dome center. As mentioned in a previous section, the dome geometry models currently implemented in TAO assume that the telescope housed in the dome has an equatorial mount, either of fork or German type (support for altazimuth mounts will be added soon), and that the polar axis of the telescope mount lies in a vertical north-south plane which contains the dome's rotation axis (if this is not the case for your telescope, please contact the author for further assistance). Let us define a point P as follows:
  • For a German equatorial mount, P is the intersection between the polar and declination axes.
  • For a fork equatorial mount whose polar and declination axes do not intersect, P is the point on the polar axis such that the plane passing through P and containing the declination axis is perpendicular to the polar axis. If the polar and declination axes intersect, P is defined to be their intersection point.
  The position of the point P with respect to the center of the dome's spherical surface is specified by two parameters (expressed in units of the dome's diameter):
  • Vertical displacement. This is the distance between P and the horizontal plane passing through the center of the dome's spherical surface, taken with a positive sign if P is above the plane and with a negative sign if P is below the plane.
  • Northward displacement. This is the distance between P and the dome's rotation axis, taken with a positive sign if P is to the north of the axis, and with a negative sign if P is to the south of the axis.

• Offset between telescope axes. This is a distance D (expressed in units of dome diameter) defined as follows:
  • For a German equatorial mount, D is the distance between the point P defined above and the optical axis (here it is assumed that the declination and optical axes intercept each other).
  • For a fork equatorial mount, D is the distance between the point P defined above and the declination axis, taken with a positive sign if the declination axis is above the polar axis when the telescope points at the meridian, and with a negative sign otherwise. If the polar and declination axes intersect, D is zero.

• Maximum possible slew time. This is an estimated upper limit for the time (expressed in seconds) taken by the telescope to move between two arbitrary points in the sky within its safety slew limits. If the telescope is housed in an automated dome, this time refers to the telescope-dome system.

• Empirical timing correction. After the end of the first scheduled observing run using a new set of parameters in the TAO software, it will often happen that the scheduled observation times will not accurately coincide with the actual times when each exposure is taken. These cumulative timing errors may be due to various causes, such as inaccuracies in the slew time models for the telescope and/or dome, inaccuracies in values of equipment parameters assumed in the scheduler configuration file, and unmodeled effects (filter change times, shutter times, computer processing times, etc.). After tens or hundreds of exposures are taken, small timing errors may accumulate to tens of minutes. After the end of your first scheduled run, you should perform a simple analysis which allows you to estimate the accumulated timing error per exposure. This will be the amount by which the current value of the empirical timing correction (expressed in seconds) should be adjusted. The second scheduled observing run should show a much better agreement between scheduled and actual observation times. If desired, the value of the empirical timing correction may be refined after the end of the second scheduled run, often resulting in timing errors of the order of one minute after a full night of observations.

• Waiting time after slew. This is a telescope settling time (expressed in seconds) after each slew; it allows for the damping of mechanical vibrations induced by the telescope's motion.

• Minimum allowed |hour angle|. This is a minimum allowed absolute value of the hour angle (expressed in minutes of time), which serves to ensure that no observations are scheduled to take place too close to the meridian. This parameter would normally be set to zero for a fork equatorial mount, and to some value between 15 and 30 min for a German equatorial mount (which may run into problems if pointing too close to the meridian). This is an absolute hour angle limit which (for telescope safety reasons) is imposed upon every observation request regardless of the hour angle limits specified by the users in their observation requests or user profiles.

• Maximum allowed |hour angle|. This is a maximum allowed absolute value of the hour angle (expressed in minutes of time), which serves to ensure that no observations are scheduled to take place too far from the meridian. This parameter would normally have a value close to the maximum |hour angle| to which the telescope can safely point. This is an absolute hour angle limit which (for telescope safety reasons) is imposed upon every observation request regardless of the hour angle limits specified by the users in their observation requests or user profiles.

• Download times. You should specify the measured camera download times (expressed in seconds) for all the camera resolutions (binning factors 1, 2, and 3) and frame sizes (full frames and center sub-frames) that the telescope users intend to use. Download times for resolution/frame size combinations which the telescope users never use may be set to arbitrary values. Note that the option to take center sub-frames is only available if the telescope is controlled by ACP using the MU image acquisition script.

• CCD field of view. Specify the width, or east-west dimension, and the height, or north-south dimension, of your full CCD field-of-view, expressed in arcminutes. It is assumed that the sides of the detector are parallel to the north-south and east-west directions.

• Pixel scale in full resolution. This is the scale of your high resolution (unbinned) CCD images, expressed in arcseconds/pixel.

  Note: Cameras with non-square pixels are not currently supported by the scheduler. Please contact the author if you need that support be added to such cameras.

• Automated filter wheel? Answer yes if you use an automated filter wheel, and no otherwise.

• File containing filter names. If you use an automated filter wheel, specify the path to the filter specification file. The path may be absolute (e.g., c:\TAO\schedule\filters.txt) or relative to the TAO\schedule directory (e.g., ..\myTelescopes\filters.txt). If the filter specification file is located in the TAO\schedule directory, you just need to specify the file name. If you don't use an automated filter wheel, this option will be ignored.