Calvin Observatory
Home
Hours
Directions
Weather Forecast
Cool Images
Equipment
Publications
Observing Request
External Links
 
Related Links
Wildrik Botjes Planetarium
Physics & Astronomy Department

Observing Requests

The Calvin-Rehoboth robotic observatory uses the ACP Observatory Control Software from DC-3 Dreams to schedule and control the observing. One approach to using this package is to construct observing "plans", simple text files that describe what and how to observe. We have written the four web forms below to make writing observing plans quick and easy. Simply fill out the form that most closely matches your observing goals. The scientific detail are up to you, but the form checking insures there will be no uninterpretable typographical errors.

Calvin students and staff can get a course password from their teacher or supervisor. With a correct password, a submitted observing plan automatically becomes a text file with a sensible name (RA-dec-Name.txt) in the observatory "in box" file directory. On clear evenings, these files will be assembled together to make a master plan for the night by the observer on duty. When observations are completed, the text files are placed in the "out box" and a note is made in the observatory log spreadsheet. Students can search this spreadsheet for their name to find the date their data were taken. Data files are stored according to date.

The web forms can also be used without a password by anyone interested in generating ACP observing plans. The plan will appear as text in your web browser, and can be copied and pasted from there for use elsewhere.

Web Forms

One filter - if you want to take just one image or a set of images all with the same filter and pointing position.

Color - if you want to take images in a number of different color filters, all with the same pointing position.

Mosaic -- if you want to take images at a number of different pointing positions, all using the same filter.

Auto-Mosaic -- if you want to take images at a two dimensional grid of pointing positions, all using the same filter.

If you want to do something more complicated than these forms allow, see Prof. Molnar.

Acknowledgements

These forms were written by Deborah Haarsma using Macromedia Dreamweaver. The php files which process the output of the forms were written by Calvin student Matt Voorman.