Science Operations

Starting the software

 

 

LUCI can be run directly from the 64-bit mountain workstations (obs1,obs2) as well as from the Tucson remote operations room (rm507-1,2,3,4) workstations. Log into an LBTO workstation using your partner account (inaf,lbtb,osurc,az). In the remote operations room in Tucson, log in as observer.

Opening GUIs on Remote and Onsite computers (robs-1,2, obs1,2)

The primary command used to bring up the interfaces/components for LUCI1 and LUCI2 on all observer workstations is now just luci. It will only open only the main LUCI Observer panel and the LUCI Telescope GUI.  The instrument, readout, and real-time display GUIs are opened using the buttons below the green status panels on the main Observer GUI.  The lower level detector engineering GUIs can be brought up if necessary through the commands luci_geirs1  and/or luci_geirs2 though they are not normally needed for standard science observing.  

On 64 bit machines, type luci then tab-tab to see options:

There is only one remaining 32-bit computer on the mountain, known as obs-32bit.  It has been updated to use the same startup commands as the newer machines.  We recommend you use the 64-bit machines for observing, but if necessary, obs32-bit can be used.

We recommend users have the FACSUM rather than the GCS or IIF open.

Position the arrangement of windows to your liking. The small GEIRS control GUI is not directly interacted with, but must be left up.

Observer Panel

On all machines, the command luci_observer is used to open just the LUCI Observer Panel GUI.

 

 

   This panel is used to load and execute scripts, as well as get real time instrument configuration feedback. Multiple Observer panels can be open at any given time, users should be wary of having too many instances open. Executable commands can be sent from all Observer Panels, and all Observer Panels relay updated instrument feedback. Too many instances can result in confusion or unnecessary slowdowns.

On the Observer Panel GUI are 3 buttons, below the green status panels, for each LUCI.  Use these buttons to open the Instrument Manager GUIs (the LUCI2 and LUCI1 buttons), the Readout Manager GUIs (READ2 and READ1) and the Real-Time Displays (RTD1 and RTD2).  The LUCI software has been re-worked to remove java conflicts that were causing problems in the past, now each sub-GUI runs in its own Java virtual machine.

GEIRS

On the 64 bit machines, the command luci_geirs1 and or luci_geirs2 is used to open the LUCI GEIRS GUI.  GEIRS is not needed as part of normal operations.

Opens an instance of the readout service GEIRS. It takes about 45 seconds to initialize and come up. Once initialized a popup will appear asking the user to confirm the Observer. You do not need to set this, but if you do just select your ISA’s name.  Do not change any other information in this popup.  


Clicking “all” rather than “OK” does almost the same thing but will initialize the ROE.  We recommend selecting “OK”.  The GEIRS control and display GUIs will then open.

Only ONE instance of GEIRS is allowed open at any given time. This server side of this software must remain running during an exposure, and that is restarted as part of the launching script, so please do not re-launch the GEIRS GUIs while an integration is in progress. This will cause a problem.  If you need to re-launch the GEIRS windows (i.e. if your screen freezes or another problem occurs) please wait until the exposure is done.  Re-launching the GEIRS windows causes the system services to stop and restart.  Closing a GEIRS window does NOT stop the system services, so GEIRS guis do not need to be visible to take data.

LUCITelescope GUI

 

On the 64 bit machines, the command luci_telescope_gui is used to open the LUCI Telescope Service GUI.

The user can use this interface to confirm connection to the IIF and send manual offsets to the telescope.

FACSUM

We recommend a user monitors the FACSUM for guider information, rather than bring up the GCS guis, as the latter use a lot of bandwidth.  If necessary, GCS can be brought up with the command GCSGUI left or GCSGUI right in a terminal.  The GCSGUI is used by the observer to visually confirm and monitor guider acquisition and wave front sensing, but the same information is contained on the FACSUM.

The telescope will collimate, and once the wavefront sensor error WFE (circled above in the GCS GUI) is below ~800 nm, LUCI will proceed with executing the observations.

GCSGUI & IIFGUI

We recommend a user brings up the FACSUM for the telescope telemetry rather than have the IIFGUI or GCSGUIs running.
However, if necessary, the IIF GUI can be opened from a terminal with the command IIFGUIThis GUI displays useful telescope telemetry information and telescope status information. Much of the information in this GUI is repeated on the FACSUM.
Similarly, the FACSUM contains the important information from the GCSGUIs, but if necessary these can be started from a terminal with the command GCSGUI left 
or GCSGUI right.  The GCSGUIs look like this: