Observing system

The FASU filter wheels have absolute encoders and are not moved when they are thought to already be in the correct position. However, when moved by hand the software will not be aware of this. To avoid any problems, an option was added to the alfosc.wheels command that allows a full set-up of the instrument in a single command, to force the FASU wheels to move to a specific position if so requested even when it is already supposed to be in the correct position.

To increase the observing efficiency, as part of dither scripts, the telescope can be moved during detector read out. However, when using the fast read-out speed there are issues with the timing when only part of the detector is read-out. The latter needs to be solved before a general implementation of this feature in dither scripts can be implemented.

ToDo: *ALFOSC fast readout in dither script: Implement the fast readout to dither script, so that the telescope offset is done during CCD readout. This works for full frames, but there are timing issues with small windows (i.e. when the readout time is only few seconds). Jacob is aware these issues.

Thomas Augusteijn 2016-05-05