Mopra Schedule File Creator: Position Switching V5.0
To refresh the screen using the default entries, press SHIFT and click
the 'reload' button simultaneously.
Note that this schedule file creator assumes a cycle time of 2s.
This output should be saved on your local computer (.sch) and then uploaded to the Mopra control
computer bigrock.
The project number assigned to your proposal.
Example: M007
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Initials or short name of the observer(s).
Example: ZOZ
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Select a MOPS configuration from the menu. MOPS refers to
the Mopra Spectrometer, the new polyphase digital filterbank. MOPS is now the standard mode. MOPS can operate in wideband mode (8.2 GHz bandwidth) or zoom mode (137.5 MHz bandwidth). There is an option for the wideband mode to observe with only 1024 channels and therefore reduce the size of the data files. This third option is rarely used.
Example: MOPS Zoom
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The
centre frequency of the 8 GHz covered by MOPS. If Doppler
tracking is enabled, the frequency here will be interpreted as the
rest frequency of the observed line. If Doppler tracking is disabled the frequency here would be
the actual observing frequency (sky frequency).
Make sure your frequency is within these limits:
- 12-mm: 16000 - 25000 MHz
- 7-mm: 30000 - 50000 MHz
- 3-mm: 77500 - 117000 MHz
Example: 92900
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For MOPS zoom mode use the
mops_vis.pl script available on pyroclast to determine which values to enter into the
4 spectral windows of each band. For unused windows leave blank.
Example:
33,44,51,56
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Enable/disable Doppler tracking. Note that this only adjusts the
centre frequency, it does NOT continuously track the Doppler shift during
an observation. For observing with MOPS it is recommended that Doppler tracking be disabled.
Example: disabled
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The radial velocity of your source. Also choose the reference frame,
LSR (local standard of rest) or barycentric. The
radial velocity information provided here will be ignored if Doppler tracking
is disabled.
* Note: If Doppler tracking is disabled (recommended for MOPS) and no radio velocity is
specified (also recommended) then you must adjust your sky frequency to account for
the velocity of both the source (LSR or barycentric) and the velocity of the observatory relative
to the rest frame. An online tool is available
Frequency Calculator
to calculate this adjustment.
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Integration time on your source in seconds for each individual
sub-scan. The corresponding reference (OFF) sub-scan will be observed
with the same integration time. Don't make this value too large (say
larger than a couple of minutes) as the sky conditions may change
while you are on source.
Example: 60
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* CHECK WITH SUPPORT STAFF BEFORE CHANGING THIS OPTION.
Number of seconds to average spectra over before writing to disk.
Default is no averaging (2s). However, for high data rates averaging
is recommended.
Example: 2
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Two different patterns to are provided: The symmetric pattern
will perform observations as OFF-ON-ON-OFF while the
non-symmetric pattern will alternate between the the ON and the
OFF position like OFF-ON-OFF-ON... The symmetric pattern has
the advantage of reducing driving times, whereas the OFF integration
of the non-symmetric pattern can be chosen to be toward the same patch
of sky as the ON position. For the latter you may provide the
reference position relative to the ON (see below) by selecting an RA
offset of the reference position equal to the negative of the
integration time.
Example: symmetric
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For observations in the 3-mm band only. Approximate time between Tsys measurements, i.e. ambient load calibration
using the paddle. The true intervals between the Tsys measurements may
vary slightly from the input due to other constraints of the
schedule. The value provided here acts as an upper limit.
* Observations in the 12- and 7-mm bands do not require a Tsys (paddle) measurement. To avoid entering a Tsys measurement in the schedule file you must enter a time much larger than the duration of the schedule (e.g. 999). Then delete the following lines from the schedule file text output:
$unit 2
mm_tsys
Example: 30
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Total duration of the observing pattern in minutes. This 'total time'
includes all ON and OFF integrations but not driving times and time
needed to perform Tsys measurements. It is recommended that the
maximal time is not longer than 60 min in order to perform pointing
scans between.
Example: 15
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The coordinate system of your coordinates. You may choose between
equatorial (J2000 or B1950) or Galactic coordinates. Please take care
of the format: Equatorial, RA: hh:mm:ss DEC: dd:mm:ss, Galactic
GLON: ddd.xxxxx GLAT: dd.xxxxx. It is your responsibility to
input the coordinates in the right format.
Example: J2000
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Specify the name of your source here. If you leave the source name
unset, you will create a generic schedule file and can pick your
source from a catalogue file that you create.
Example: Orion
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Please provide the source coordinates in the specified coordinate
system here. All relative offsets (ON and OFF) are computed relative
to the coordinates specified here. If you leave the source position
unset, you will create a generic schedule file and can pick your
source from a catalogue. However, you must provide the source
position if you are using an absolute position for the reference.
Example: RA: 23:41:32
DEC: -82:43:09
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The location of the ON position relative to the source coordinates.
Generally not used.
Example: RA: 00:02:00
DEC: -00:10:00
will shift the target position 2 time minutes to the east and 10
arcseconds to the south.
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The position
of the reference (OFF) integration. You may choose between relative and
absolute positioning. The relative position refers to the position you
provided for the the source coordinates. Alternatively, you may
provide an absolute position for the OFF integration. Depending on the
coordinate system you choose, the coordinates must be given in
sexagesimal or decimal format.
Example: absolute
RA: 12:33:15.3
DEC: -72:54:04.8
Example: relative
RA: 00:00:00.0
DEC: -00:15:00 (offset of -15 arcmin in dec)
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Original: Juergen Ott (11-July-2005)
Modified: Kate Brooks (10-March-2009)