THE UNITED KINGDOM INFRARED TELESCOPE
ANNUAL REPORT
1998

3.5. Computing

This was a busy year for the UKIRT software group and their colleagues at the UK ATC. Highlights were as follows:

• Continued development of the ORAC project at the UK ATC and in Hilo.
• Development of the UFTI software resulting in the successful software integration at ROE in July and culminating with UFTI acceptance and delivery.
• Successful hire of a new telescope controls engineer.
• Commissioning and population of the new UKIRT archive.
• Arrival of Malcolm Currie and work on UFTI ORAC-DR recipes under shared risk.
• Upgraded computing at the summit to cope with the UFTI data rate.
• Installation of the ORAC Observing Tool (ORAC-OT) at the summit, significantly improving the efficiency with which guide stars are acquired; it is used by both TSSs and observers.
• Work on improving the mount servo system.