Software Overview
Observing with the Nickel Direct Imaging Camera is controlled through a suite of programs that operate in concert, but are addressed through several GUI's, separated by function as follows:
| Summary of Observing Software for the Nickel Telescope and Direct Imaging Camera | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Program | Function | Icon | Command Line |
| Data-Taker | Control CCD array and set exposure parameters (starting the data-taker also starts the Motor Controller). |
 |
nickel_direct_client |
| Motor Controller | Filter and aperture wheel control (this program starts when data-taking program is started; this program also controls motors for Nickel Spectrograph). |
 |
nickel_inst_gui |
| POCO | Telescope pointing and control |  |
poco_fe |
| Auxilliary Telescope Hardware | Dome shutter, windscreen, and flatfield lamp control. |  |
naux_fe |
| Guider | Acquisition/guide TV and autoguider control. |  |
nickel_guider_client |
| Coords | Read starlists and display starcharts |  |
coords |
| Check40 | Permissions and Weather Status GUI |  |
check40_obs |
| Eventsounds | Sound generator for exposure events | eventsounds nickel | |
From the observer's perspective, all software runs on noir.ucolick.org. This manual focuses on data-taking and instrument control. Telescope and autoguider operation, and other ancillary software are described in the users' guides for the Nickel 1-m Telescope and Lick Autoguider.
Each software component can be started from its icons on the noir toolbar, as shown above, or by typing its command line argument. Observers may not need all the software listed, but in general will require most.
Support Astronomers (sa@ucolick.org) Last modified: Tue Jul 17 18:15:49 PDT 2012