Camera Control Tool

Camera is a dedicated tool for controling image aquisition instruments. Currently it supports three infrared instruments: MAGIC , OMEGA and MAX, but could be easily adopted for any other imaging or spectroscopic system based on IR arrays or CCD detectors. Camera tool controls mainly specific camera functions: readout modes, exposure time, number of exposures, but also data management (entering comments, object names), data saving (paths, filenames, disk-space), macro and mosaicing capabilities (generating, recording, replaying, pausing).

Control Camera window is divided into the following, described below, areas:

Menu Bar with the pull-downs:
- File
  
  New Configuration button which opens Configuration window.
  Quit button which pops up Quit menu. One can quit application or the whole system.
- Options
  - Preferences
    - Sound switch - enables/disables accoustic effects.
    - Verbose switch directs underlying camera control system to give more comments (useless with the graphic tools).
    - Saturation Check switch enables/disables saturation check on each frame.
    - Huge Blink switch changes the form of the blinking buttons. Switch it on when you are sleepy.
  - Save/Path... pops up Save Options menu.
- View may be used to start other YOGI tools:
  - Image Display - dATAview general image viewing tool,
  - Filter Control tool,
  - Star Map star atlas and user catalogue tool,
  - Telescope Control tool,
  - Command Window for direct access to the command language layer.
- Help button which starts Netscape navigator.
Configuration line displays current configuration of the telescope, focal ratio, camera optics, image size and pixel scale.
FITS keywords
- Name field is used to enter the object name. It will go to the FITS OBJECT keyword. This field is automatically filled when one selects the object from the Map or User Catalogue. Sky toggle button may be used for fast in/ex-clusion of the frase (sky) in the object's name.
- Comment. Any content of this field will be added to each saved frame.
- Sky File field may contain the disk file name of the frame, that should be used for sky subtraction in image displaying tool dATAview. This is the only place (yes, you can also use Command Window) where you can enter sky file name. Last button may be used if one wants to enter the name of the last file saved on the disk.
Exposure Control area content depends on the camera being used. Currently three camera systems are supported: OMEGA, MAGIC and MAX. For details please refer to the camera pages.
- OMEGA and MAGIC
  - Mode - Readout mode selector.
  - Readout Schematics displays graphic representation of the readout mode and shows integration progress during exposure.
  - Expose - Exposure time (in seconds). Input window and slider.
  - Repeat - Number of frames to be read before Read command completes. Input window and slider.
- MAX
  - Mode - Readout mode selector.
  - Readout Schematics displays graphic representation of the readout mode and shows integration progress during exposure.
  - FT - Frame time (exposure time of the individual frame in seconds). Input window and slider.
  - CoAdds - Nuber of individual frames to be coadded by the camera.
  - ET - Exposure time (total integration time for the coadded image; in seconds).
  - Hz - Frequency at which camera will read coadded images.
  - Periods - refer to the MAX manual.
  - Repeat - Number of coadded frames to be read before Read command completes. Input window and input slider.
Action Control area controls data aquisition:
- Read button starts exposure sequence as set up in the Exposure Control area.
- Endless button starts continuous exposures. This is usefull e.g. during focusing. Use Abort button to interrupt command.
- Pause/Continue button can be used to suspense/restart Macro execution.
- Macro button starts Macro execution. If the Macro name is not given (input field to the right is empty) than user will be first prompted to select some macro-file-name.
- Macro Name input/display field. Contains name of the macro file to be executed. Hiting ENTER when the cursor is in this field is equivalent to clicking on the Macro button, i.e. it starts macro execution. Clicking on the right mouse button in the Macro Name field brings up the list of previously selected macros. Selecting any item will immediately execute this macro.
- Mosaic button pops up Mosaic Creator window.
- Progress Display used for animated display of the read/macro progress.
Save area controls are used to control image saving.
- Save button causes last read frames to be saved on the disk. Save will use the content of the next field as a name of the file. Blincking button warns you, that data have not been saved yet.
- Save Name is the file name that will be given to the next frame. It is automatically updated after each save action. One can change this field to override the automatic naming (once for each save).
- Auto toggle. When ON - causes each read to be followed by the save command.
- disk button displays how much space (green vs. red) is left on the current device. Clicking on this button will bring up information about other storage devices available in the system. Than one can select new drive for data saving.

Save Options Menu

Save Options define the way in which Save command works:

Auto Save Mode toggle. When ON - causes each read to be followed by the save command.
Enable Overwrite - save may overwrite existing file of the same name.
Buffer Dump - file will be saved in the binary format.
Save Only Integrated Images - all images in the frame buffer will be coadded before saving.
Save In Cube - all images in the buffer will be saved in 3-dimensional FITS cube.
Save Frames: From [To] - only images with numbers between From and To from the frame buffer will be saved. If To is omitted than number of frames in the frame buffer is used instead.
Save Area - set image area that should be saved.
Storage Path - set/Display working directory.
User Path - set/display directory with user files (macros, objects).
Log File Name - set/display Log File path and name.
Start Backup to DAT from - start backup of the directory, which path is given in the next field.
Backup only files containing - filter used for backup command.

Mosaic Creator

Mosaic Creator Tool generates macros used for imaging sky area larger than covered by detector. It creates mosaics of three types:Spiral, Scan and Dither with three overlaping factors: 5%, 53% and 95%.

Frame Size shows you the size of one frame, used for sky coverage calculations. One can change this value to fool Creator and obtain different overlap factors.
Mosiac Type - current choices are Spiral, Scan or Dither.
Overlap - current choices are 5%, 53% or 95%.
Frames in x,y - requested numbers of frames in x and y direction.
Field Size - field size, which will be covered with the above selected parameters. Or requested size of the covered area in which case numbers of frames will be aproppriately adjusted.
Scan Angle - positional angle of the direction, along which scanning takes place. Valid only for Scan mode.
Start will create mosaic macro and immediately execute it.
Dither radius - radius of the circle in which centers of all frames will be contained. Valid only for Dither mode.

You may now return to System Overview or select Tutorial, Frequently Ask Questions, Feedback, Technical Refernce Manual.

Grzegorz Pojmanski / gp@sirius.astrouw.edu.pl