Guide to Remote Observing with the ATCA

Remote observing from sites other than the ATCA should be possible provided that appropriate computing facilities (a unix workstation or X-terminal) and computing/network support are available. Care whould be taken to ensure that your institution's security measures do not prevent Remote Observations from your site. For further advice, please contact the Head of Science Operations, Phil Edwards (Philip.Edwards[at]csiro.au) in addition to following the steps below.

Before the Observations

  • Consult the document ATNF Remote Observing Conditions for information on remote observing requirements.
  • If you wish to observe remotely, use the Remote Observing Request Form to submit a request. This should be done as soon as possible after your observing dates are known.
    The Head of Science Operations (Phil Edwards) will decide whether approval can given given for the observations to be done remotely and you will be notified by email.

    • If approval is given then:

    • A few days before the observations, you should contact the Duty Astronomer scheduled for the observing date and confirm that you will be observing remotely.
    • If you plan to observe from the dedicated Ara (ATCA) or Norma (Mopra) workstation at Marsfield then you will need to know the password for the "remobs" account. This is available from the Marsfield computing staff.

  • Observations are controlled using a virtual network connection (VNC) so you will need to install a vnc viewer on your computer. There are many options. If you already have a viewer installed this will probably work: If you need to install something, one of the following should work:
    • For Mac:
      • Chicken of the VNC is the most common application.
      • OS/X has a native VNC reader available in 10.5 and later:
        • Finder => Go => Connect to Server =>
        • Enter vnc://machine_name:port_number in the server address text box
    • For Linux:
  • For many monitoring tasks, you need access to monica: to install monica, see the Monica page for information on setting this up.

Starting Up a Remote Observing Session

Since observing is done through VNC, you will be able to effect current observations as soon as the connection is set up. Sometimes (always if you use the 'noshare' switch) when you connect to the vnc server it will kick other viewers off so, please, do not frivolously connect to the vncserver - and be prepared to reconnect if your viewer dissapears while you are observing

If you wish, you may choose to observe without using the xbones VNC. A description of how to do this can be found here.

Connecting from inside the ATNF

If you are connected inside the ATNF, all you need to do is connect your VNC viewer to the VNC sessions

Start the VNC viewer on your machine, then:

  • connect to caobs/vis display xbones:1
  • connect to the caccc1 display caccc1:1

Connection from outside ATNF

If you are connecting from outside that ATNF network, you need to set up ssh tunneling as well as connect your VNC viewer to VNC sessions

Setting up ssh tunnels

If you are outside the ATNF network, you first need to establish a ssh tunnels into the ATNF computers. In a terminal window, you need to connect to xbones and caccc1.

  • For xbones:
    ssh your_username@venice.atnf.csiro.au -L 5901:xbones.atnf.csiro.au:5901
  • For caccc1:
    ssh your_username@venice.atnf.csiro.au -L 5902:caccc1.atnf.csiro.au:5901

Debugging Hints

1. Check the tunnel is working
Look for a program listing on port 5901 (and/or 5902). You should see something like:
% netstat -an |grep 5901
tcp 0 0 127.0.0.1:5901 0.0.0.0:* LISTEN

2. Check that the tunnel addresses are available
The ssh tunnels may be allocated to someone else - this would result in an error message like:
channel_setup_fwd_listener: cannot listen to port: 5901
Could not request local forwarding

To resolve this, use different (large) numbers (e.g. 5911 & 5912) to set up your ssh tunnels.

(Note the different local port number (5902) for the second connection)

Connecting to the VNC

Start the VNC viewer on your machine, then:

  • connect to caobs/vis display localhost:1
  • connect to the caccc1 display localhost:2

Note: The VNC passwords are not 'standard' passwords. You may need to contact the Duty Astronomer or Narrabri staff to get the correct passwords

Observe as if you were in Narrabri

Ensure that you exchange telephone numbers with the DA.

Some useful phone numbers

Emergency Services:
(fire, police, ambulance)		 000 Additional 0 needed for an outside line
 
Narrabri
Switch:02 6790 4000 
ATCA Control Room:02 6790 4033 and 02 6790 4032 
Mopra Control Desk:02 6790 4088 
Observer's Area:02 6790 4031 - near PMON rack
 02 6790 4048 - near Mopra corner
 02 6790 4022 - middle of observers area
Lodge:02 6790 4027 
Duty Astronomers Rooms02 6790 4008 and 02 6790 4009 
Non-PABX Phone:02 6795 9274
 
Marsfield
Remote Observing Room02 9372 4548 - ATCA
 02 9372 4648 - Mopra
 
Parkes
Parkes Control Room02 6861 1755 
 
CSIRO National Call Centre1300 36 3400 

How to Finish Off

When you have finished your observations,
  • Ring the Duty Astronomer or next observer to let them know that you have finished.
  • Fill in the Observers' Questionnaire
  • Disconnect from the VNC sessions and any SSH tunnels you have set up (by logging out of venice)
  • If you've had any problems, please submit a Fault Report

 

Original: Baerbel Koribalski
Modified: Robin Wark ( 5-Jan-2012)