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Up: CGS4 Handbook 

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CGS4 settings such as grating selection, wavelength, slit orientation, on chip exposure times and coadds etc are saved as formatted Ascii files, with a name of your choosing, which can be recalled at any time by the data acquisition system. These files are called Configs and a single config contains all the information necessary to take object, flat, arc, bias and dark observations.

Instructions for the data acquisition system to commence taking data of a particular type, (such as an ARC or an OBJECT observation), the observing sequence, and instructions to move the telescope (eg. to nod the source along the slit for sky subtraction) are saved with a name of your choosing in files called Execs .

This document describes how to run up and use the UKIRT_PREP system to define CONFIG and EXEC files off-line. You can run UKIRT_PREP and change or create new Configs and Execs while observing is in progress.

Please don't be a security risk ! Please do not leave yourself logged in at HP, Hilo or the summit running UKIRT_PREP - run it down when you have finished.

UKIRT_PREP currently runs only on Vaxes. (It is in the process of being ported to Unix). To run UKIRT_PREP from Hilo or HP you should log into IRTUKT using the ADAMUSER username. The password for this is changed frequently, so ask your support scientist to show you how to do this before you drive up to HP.

At the summit, log in as ADAMUSER - the most convenient place to do this is to open another window on the acquisition Vax-Stations. Type UKIRT_PREP to run the system up.

The system will prompt you for a user-id as it runs up. The user-id can be any name you choose (most people use their initials). UKIRT_PREP and the CGS4 data acquisition and reduction systems all use this name to ensure that your set-up is "yours" and cannot be over-written by anyone else giving their Config or Exec the same name as you chose.

Once you have given UKIRT_PREP a user-id, any Configs that you create will be saved to disk in the directory DISK$USERSPACE:[user- id.CGS4CONFIG]. Any EXECS that you create are saved in the directory DISK$USERSPACE:[user-id.CGS4EXEC]. The directory structure in Hilo and at the summit is the same. So if you create configs and execs in Hilo they are easy to copy onto the summit disks before observing starts.

If you have not used CGS4 before, the directory structure will be created automatically the first time you use UKIRT_PREP. If you have used CGS4 before, your userid and all the configs and execs from previous runs will still exist. Note however that configs created before May 1995 have been removed because they are incompatible with the new 256x256 array . When you have run up UKIRT_PREP the first menu looks like

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| CGS4...   IRCAM...   Set Options...  |
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Items on the left allow you to define, recall and print CGS4 config files, while the items on the right allow you to create and examine Exec files. The documents Guide To CGS4 Configs and Guide To CGS4 Execs provide details of how to use these menus to write configs and Execs. Before using the menus to define configs and execs users who are unfamiliar with SMS should read the following guidelines to using SMS.

2. How to select menus and enter values using SMS

To move between items on the menus use the arrow keys. Items which lead to another set of menus are drawn as name..., eg CGS4... in the above menu takes you to a set of menus for setting up CGS4. To select a new menu from the menu you are in use the enter key. To return to a previous menu use the PF1 key.

Menus for setting up parameters contain items which are either choices (of which the currently selected one is highlighted), or space for you to type in numbers or names as appropriate. Use the up/down arrow keys to move from one item to another on these menus and the left/right arrow keys to move a highlight to choose your setting. Items which require you to fill in an alpha-numeric value will have an example of the type of input - delete this and enter your choice. Note that you cannot use the keypad keys to enter numerical values because the keypad is setup to control SMS. To return to the previous menu, and to execute anything set up in the current menu use the PF1 key.

A highlighted strip at the bottom of the screen reminds you of what to do in each menu e.g. It often says "set required values, then PF1", or "use enter to select, PF1 to return to previous menu". DO NOT use PF4 (which aborts) unless you were "just looking" at a menu and need to get out of it without changing anything. The PF4 key will prompt "do you really want to abort?" if in doubt always answer no and ask for advice.

There is also on-line help available. Move the cursor to any menu or menu item and type ?. A line of text describing that item will appear at the bottom of the screen. A second ? provides more detailed information in most cases.

SMS "remembers" settings, so after you have changed items on a menu, the next time you enter that menu it will display the previous settings that you chose.