Observer Target List

This app is a simple interface for sending science targets to the TCS:

The list is loaded into the app via a text file and displayed in a table. The first 2 lines in the input file are meta data containing information about the optional data.

#title=true ra=true dec=true epoch=true muRA=true muDec=true magnitude=true dRA=true dDec=true rotatorPA=true rotatorFrame=true 
#
"Vega - Alpha Lyrae" 18:36:56.336 +38:47:01.28  2000 200.94 286.23 0.03 1.0 2.0 3.0 Target
"HR 173 - HD 3795" 00:40:32.809 -23:48:17.56 2000 635.18 -363.56 6.14 1.0 2.0 3.0 Fixed

Title, Right Ascension, and Declination are mandatory columns and the rest are optional. The first line of the meta data declares which columns will be supplied in the input file. The order of the columns cannot change and the only thing that can change in the first line is the true/false value for the column. In other words, the first line has to include all the parameters shown above.

The columns are:

• title or name (surrounded in double quotes) - this will be send to the TCS and the science target name
• Right Ascension (hh:mm:ss.sss) - the seconds can be either integer or float
• Declination (+/-dd:mm:ss.ss) - plus sign is optional for the degrees, and arc-seconds can be either integer or float
• epoch
• Proper Motion in RA (mas/yr) - this is the angular measurement used by most catalogs: μαcos(δ)
• Proper Motion in Dec (mas/yr) - μδ
• Magnitude
• differential tracking rate in RA (arc seconds/hour)
• differential tracking rate in DEC (arc seconds/hour)
• rotator Postion Angle (degrees)
• rotator Frame ("Target" or "Fixed")

The coordinates need to be in FK5 (J2000). Not all combination of optional data make sense and the code is not robust enough to check for all the possible combinations. For instance; proper motion in RA and DEC and epoch should be all together. 

The fields should all be separated by at least one space and the columns in the input file do not have to line up. Magnitude is included in case the observer wishes to sort the table based on brightness. It is not used by the TCS.

The table can be sorted by clicking on the column headers. First click will do an ascending sort. Second click will do a descending sort and third click will revert to original order.

The Menu Bar contains several items but the main item is File --> Open Target List:

Open Target List (⌘o) will open a standard dialog box for selecting the input file. The default extension for the input file is *.tls and all other types are greyed out. The input file has to be a standard ASCII text file but it can have any extension (or none at all). Binary file will not be read correctly.

The open file dialog box allows selection of other file extensions via a drop down menu. The user can choose "All Files (.)" from the file type drop down menu and that allows selection of any file in the directory. They files other than *.tls would still be grey but they can be selected and loaded into the app:

Multiple input files can be used during one session and each file would be loaded into a separate tab.

The process of sending the target to the TCS is a 2 step process. First a target is selected from the table. The data is loaded into the upper view for a final check by the observer. It can be sent to the TCS as a science target by pressing the "Send to TCS" button. It is important to remember that even though some times it looks like that a row is highlighted in the table but the observer still has to make sure that the intended target is echoed in the upper panel.

It is possible to edit an item in the table and send the modified target to the TCS. Double clicking on a cell should go to the edit mode and after the editing is done, the row needs to be selected again by clicking some where else and clicking back on the edited row. Please verify that the intended values are echoed in the upper panel before sending the target to the TCS. First row in the table (ID=0) is a special row for sending a target that was not in the input file. All the cells are filled with default values which are meant to be edited by the observer.