4 | QUIRC User Guide |
3.1Workstation setup
The program is run from a workstation in the control room, currently io (or halley on the 88”). There is one configuration file that qcdcom reads upon startup to determine the telescope, secondary, and other information. There are four preset configuration files currently used, located in the directory /aux/inst/qconf:
tel_config_06_quirc
tel_config_22_f10_quirc tel_config_22_f31_quirc tel_config_cfh_quirc
These files are for the 0.6m, the 88” at f=10, the 88” at f=31, and CFHT at f=8. To install the proper file, a symbolic link should be made in that directory called tel config that points to the appropriate configuration. For example, to set up for the 88” at f=10,
%rm /aux/inst/qconf/tel_config
%ln
This step only needs to be done once when the telescope or secondary changes, and should already be set up properly for the current configuration. Be careful not to delete the configuration files themselves.
One xterm should be devoted to the camera program. The qcdcom program does not provide an integrated image display capability. A separate program should be used to display the data. One option is to use the viewfits program (vf). This is a display program developed by Tony Denault at the IRTF that displays images and has statistical and graphical analysis features. A link has been provided from qcdcom to this program that displays images automatically. The program can be run by typing the following in any window:
% vf &
To display images automatically, one must set the data directory to be the same as where qcdcom is storing the FITS files. This is done by clicking on the “File" button and entering the proper path. One must also issue the command set vfout in qcdcom to enable the link so that data are displayed automatically. See the section on vf below for more information.
The saoimage program can also be used to display the QUIRC images. The observer should open a saoimage window on the camera workstation. The command line usually must be edited to read in the fits file. This can be done by pressing the “n" key (for the “new" command) while in the saoimage window. For example,
would read in file number 4. When in chop mode, qcdcom writes each chop position to a separate file, and the chop difference to a file ending in “chop" instead of the file number.
