AGES Observing Guide

1. Start CIMA from the right-mouse-button menu on the ‘Observer’ machine. You will get the ‘CIMA version selection’ window shown below. Choose CIMA version 3.0 (the "next generation" version) – the normal (default) version will not work correction for ALFA drift-scan observing. If you are running remotely, type cima --X at the command-prompt on ‘Observer’.
   
2. The next window to appear is the ‘observing session set-up’ window shown below. You should enter the project number ‘a2048’, put your initials in the ‘Observer’ box and select ‘line’ observing by clicking that button. Once the window is set-up click the ‘Accept’ button to proceed.
   
3. A number of windows will open: the ‘CIMA Observation Log Display’, the ‘CIMA main menu’, the ‘CIMA observation status’, the ‘CIMA observation log display’ and the ‘Receiver selection menu’ screens. You should firstly go to the ‘Reciever selection menu’ screen (shown below) and select ‘ALFA’. Then click the &lsquoAcceptw’ button at the bottom left to continue. This window will now vanish.
   
4. Next go to the ‘CIMA main menu’ window, seen on the left of the screenshot above.Before starting observing, it is a good idea to restart the WAPPs (the spectrometers used by AGES). This is done from the ‘CIMA utilities’ window which you bring up by pressing the ‘Utilities’ button on the main menu. On the ‘Utilities’ window that then appears (shown on the screenshot below), click the ‘Restart WAPPs’ button to restart the WAPPs.
   
5. Once the WAPPs have been restarted, dismiss the utilities window by clicking the ‘Close’ button at the bottom left. From the main menu, select ‘Command File Observing’ to bring up the ‘Command file observing window’ (below).
   
6. To load a command file, click the ‘Load’ button at the bottom to bring up the ‘Command file selection menu’. This should be automatically placed in the /share/obs4/usr/a2048 directory. Files are arranged alphabetically, with only the files with .cmd extensions shown by default. You may need to scroll down to see all the files.
   
7. If there is time, or if TOGS has time assigned at the start, you should run the TOGS setup as described below:
   1. First choose the command_galfasrc.cmd file in the command file selection menu and click ‘Accept’ at the bottom left (the button is greyed-out until a file is selected). This will load the file into the ‘Command File Observing’ window, as shown below. Hit the ‘Run’ button at the bottom of the command file observing window to run the file. This will drive the telescope to a position near the start of the field and run the TOGS calibration.
      
   2. When the command file reaches the actual observing command (’SMARTFREQ‘), it will pop up the observing window for smart frequency switching. This is necessary for CIMA's parameter checking - if there are any errors they will show in this window. If you are observing remotely over VNC, you will need to place this window before CIMA times out (about 1 minute). If it does time then it should give a warning and continue running without checking the options.
      
8. To carry out the AGES observing, you need to run the (pre-prepared) observing script. This has a name in the format YYMMDD.cmd (with YYMMDD being replaced by the current day's date at Arecibo at the start of the observations). You should select this from the command file selection menu as described above.
   
9. You run this script by hitting the ‘Run’ button at the bottom of the command file observing window. When it reaches the actual observing command (’FIXEDDRIFT‘), it will pop up the observing window for the fixed azimuth drift map. This is necessary for CIMA's parameter checking - if there are any errors they will show in this window. If you are observing remotely over VNC, you will need to place this window before CIMA times out (about 1 minute). If it does time then it should give a warning and continue running without checking the options. Note that if you previously ran the TOGS setup and left the smart frequency switching window open, CIMA will use this window and will not open another one.
   
10. The telescope should now drive to the source and start observing. It should run smoothly and should not require any more interference until the end of the AGES time, but it is a good idea to monitor the data on the ‘Dataview’ machine. This machine should already be logged in and running TOGS, you can choose another window using the window manager on the top of the screen, or just use the other screen. Click on the ‘Dataview’ button on the window-manager at the top of the screen to bring up a menu. Select ‘Quick Look Data Display’ to open up the data display window. If running remotely, type alfadatawin at the command prompt on ‘Dataview’. If you open this program from the menu, you will get the same ‘CIMA version selector’ window you got on opening CIMA, select ‘normal’ again, if you open it from the command line then ‘normal’ is automatically selected.
    On the ‘ALFA on-line data display’ window, you will want to select ‘ALFA Pattern’ to see all the beams displayed in a layout similar to the ALFA array. From the ‘Diagrams’ button next to ‘Plot Type:’ you can select ‘Spectrum’ to see the instantaneous spectrum, ‘Saterfall’ to see a waterfall plot of recent spectra (the most normal display) or ‘Total Power’ to see the total power plot (this is normally dominated by the 12-second pulses of the FAA radar). You can use this display to monitor data quality, in particular whether any unusual source of RFI is present.
    
11. You should also open a web browser (Mozilla is available on the ‘Dataview’ drop-down menu, or if observing remotely you can use whatever you local browser is) and fill in the AGES log form available at http://www.naic.edu/~ages/a2048/logform.html. You should note any RFI seen on the data display and any problems encountered during the run.
12. At the end of the run, if there is time, or if TOGS has allocated time, restart the WAPPS again (as above) and run the command_galfacurpos.cmd command file to calibrate TOGS at the current telescope position. As long as you do not close the fixed azimuth drift map window opened earlier, this window will be re=used by CIMA and no new window will be popped up.
    
13. Submit the AGES log, and move the files following the guidelines that will appear on the browser by copying a pasting the commands from the browser into a terminal screen logged into the AGES account.
14. Go to bed!!

Prepared by R. Minchin

Last updated: Wednesday, 02-Jul-2008 14:41:14 AST, by R. Minchin