It may be useful for the observer to have some understanding of the underlying architecture of the software systems and links will be provided as different components are mentioned. The LMI LOUI is an Eclipse based RCP (Rich Client Platform) application which is the front end (user interface) to the instrument and its data acquisition software (LOIS).
An RCP application has a workspace which is composed of one or more perspectives. Each perspective is composed of editors and views. A view encapsulates a unique function, such as camera control or Facility Summary, and is generally composed of many widgets which allow display of information or data input. The DeVeny LOUI has a main perspective referred to as Dashboard which contains all the views necessary for camera control and data acquisition.
Below you will see a standard view of the LMI LOUI's Dashboard on startup:
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The initial configuration is hard coded but there is a lot of flexibility in arranging the views and it is recommended that the observers play around with this functionality to become more familiar with it. A user should not be concerned about re-arranging or closing views. If at any time the UI gets to a state where things look very strange, one can always go back to the initial configuration by using Window → Reset Perspective command from the main application menu bar:
We'll start with a review of the layout of the Dashboard and then will go into the details of the individual components. Please remember that this is not meant as a set of instructions on how to take data with LMI but rather a detailed description of the available functions so the astronomers will have a more efficient interaction with the instrument.
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