Making & Changing Schedule Files

Schedule files are just 7-bit ASCII files that can be edited with any text editor (eg vi or any other wordprocessor that saves files as ASCII files). If only one scan is to be edited, use fetch n to bring the wanted scan onto the ATCASCHED screen. Change the fields as required and then use replace n to put the changed menu screen back into the schedule. Use the GLOBAL command to change one field for a lot of scans at once.

This example text file can be used much in the manner of a VMS command file to produce the final schedule file required by the telescope-control computer. Run ATCASCHED and say @filename where filename is this text-format file. (Do not include any italicized comments). The keywords given are abbreviations of the full keywords. Any unique abbreviation is acceptable. The keyword and value should be separated by one or more spaces, not tabs.

KEYWORD1111222VALUExxxxxxxxxxxxxblah
KEYWORD		 VALUE 		 COMMENT (DON'T INCLUDE IN FILE) 


OBSERV 		 K.Jansky 		 Observer  


PROJ 		 C001 		Your Project  Number 


CONFIG 		 FULL_128_2 		Correlator Configuration  


SCHED 		 Z5QUASAR 		Schedule file name 


1FREQ 		 4790.0 		1st  Observing Frequency in MHz 


2FREQ 		 8640.0 		2nd Observing Frequency in MHz 


2BAND 		 128.0 		2nd Bandwidth in MHz 


LST 		 19h 		Nominal start time (sidereal) 


SOURCE 		 1934-638 		Source Name 


RA 		 19:39:25.006 


DEC 		 -63:42:45.68 


EPOCH 		 J2000 


SCAN 		 10m 		Observe for 10 minutes 


ADD 		 		Add all above info. to schedule 


SOURCE 		 1933-400 


RA 		 19:37:16.2171 


DEC 		 -39:58:01.548		 Will assume J2000 again 


SCAN 		 1h 		 Observe this source for 1 hour 


ADD 


CAT 		 1934-638 		 Get RA and DEC from AT catalog 


SCAN 		 10m 


ADD 


CAT 		 1903-802 		 Get RA & Dec from AT catalog 


ADD 		 		 Will again observe for 10 m 


SOURCE 		 OV-161 


CAT 		 1923+210 VLA 		 Get RA & Dec from VLA catalog 


SCAN 		 05:43:27 		 Observe for 5h 43m 27s 


ADD 


LIST 		 		 List the output schedulec


EXIT 		 		 Make actual ATCASCHED file & exit 

Observers using B1950 coordinates should note that calling for a catalogue (i.e., CAT) will set the EPOCH to J2000 with continuing effect, and they must therefore reset the EPOCH to B1950.

To start an observation, you use the CAOBS command set file filename to load your schedule file and then use the CAOBS start n/[m] command to open a data file and start observing. CAOBS expects schedule files to be in the $ATCA_SCHED directory on XBONES.