Software Overview
Observing with the Nickel Spectrograph 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 Spectrograph | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Program | Function | Icon | Command Line |
| Data-Taker | Control CCD array and set exposure parameters (starting the data-taker also starts the Motor Controller). |
 |
nickel_spect_client |
| Motor Controller | Filter wheel, aperture wheel, collimator,
CCD stage, and grism slide control. (This program starts when data-taking program is started; this program also controls motors for Nickel Direct Camera). |
 |
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 observer starlists and display starcharts |  |
coords |
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 icon 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 18:50:14 PDT 2012