OT Installation & Download

NEW OT Release October 3, 2022. (Point release Nov 21, 2024)

OT 2022B IS BACKWARDS COMPATIBLE WITH OT2020A.  SCRIPTS GENERATED WITH OT 2020A LOAD SEAMLESSLY INTO OT 2022B.  NOTE: OT 2020A V1.0.0 SUPERSEDES ALL PRIOR VERSIONS. OLDER VERSIONS HAVE BEEN DEPRECATED AND WILL NO LONGER GENERATE SCRIPTS.

UPDATE (Oct 07, 2022): A bug was discovered with the AO patrol field for OT 2022B V1.0.0.  OT 2022B V1.1.0 Includes accurate patrol field for LUCI1.

UPDATE (Nov 21, 2024): An update to the SIMBAD database caused target queries with Gaia G magnitudes to fail. OT 2022B V1.2.0 fixed the catalog parsing.

This page contains instructions for downloading and installing the LBTO (OT). You can install the software on a network of workstations or, for best performance, on individual machines. This machine needs internet access to communicate with script generators situated at the LBT Observatory and with other on-line image and catalog servers.If you experience any problems installing or running the OT, please see the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or release notes for the latest information.

If you are installing the OT for the first time, please read the installation instruction below.

Installing the Observing Tool

Distribution files for the following operating systems are available:

• Mac OS X (Mountain Lion, Maverick, Yosemite,  El Capitan, Big Sur, Monterey)
• Linux (Redhat Enterprise or Fedora recommended, likely to be compatible with other distributions)
• Windows (Vista / 7 / 8 / 10 / 11)

The application is distributed via Google Drive, you should use your web browser to download the files, follow the Google Drive instructions to download the file.

System Requirements

• The OT requires at least 6GB of free memory, that is: RAM + virtual memory (Windows) or RAM + swap space (MacOS, Linux) should have 6GB of free memory. In MacOS swap space is allocated dynamically, so the OT memory requirements would not be an issue. As for Windows and Linux, virtual memory (Windows) and swap space (Linux) can be increased or added as needed.

• The disk space requirements for the OT are minimal, about 400MB in total, including the application itself.

• It is also required an Operating System (OS) that can run java 1.7

Using and Installing the OT on Mac OS X

The OT can be used on Mac OS X 10.8.3 and newer releases (Mountain Lion, Maverick, Yosemite,  El Capitan, Big Sur, Monterey).

Installation:

• Download the current OS X distribution of the Phase II Tool, file named ot_2022B.1.2.0_macos.dmg.

• The OS X release is provided as a mountable disk image. Simply double click on the disk image to mount it, then drag the Observing Tool icon to the Applications folder, your DeskTop, to the Dock or to any place you find convenient. Double click on the icon to launch the application.

• Some security measures that prevents viruses, etc. from running on your Mac by only allowing users to open apps from the App Store and/or “identified and trusted developers”. The workaround is to Control+Click or Right Click on the PIT icon and select “Open” in the menu. Another pop-up will appear warning you that the OT is from a third-party developer. You can select Open and the OT will open correctly.

Using and Installing the OT on Linux

64 bit installation:

• Download the current Linux distribution of the Phase II Tool, file named ot_2022B.1.2.0_linux64.tar.gz (64-bit).
• Use gunzip and tar to unpack the distribution in a directory where you have at least 200 megabytes of disk space.
  gunzip -c filename | tar -xvf –
• The distribution unpacks into a single directory named “ot_2022B.1.2.0_linux64”.
• Make sure that the libgnome libraries are installed. These are needed to display file attachments. These can be installed with the following commands:
  Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install libgnome2-bin
  RedHat-based: sudo yum install libgnome
• Run the OT. You can use the complete path to the startup script, as shown below (where the $ represents your shell prompt), or you can include that directory in your PATH.
  ${where_you_untarred}/ot_2022B.1.2.0_linux64/ot_2022B.1.2.0

32 bit Installation:

• Download the current Linux distribution of the Phase II Tool, file named ot_2022B.1.2.0_linux32.tar.gz(32-bit).
• Use gunzip and tar to unpack the distribution in a directory where you have at least 200 megabytes of disk space.
  gunzip -c filename | tar -xvf –
• The distribution unpacks into a single directory named “ot_2022B.1.2.0_linux32”.
• Make sure that the libgnome libraries are installed. These are needed to display file attachments. These can be installed with the following commands:
  Ubuntu/Debian: sudo apt-get install libgnome2-bin
  RedHat-based: sudo yum install libgnome
• Run the OT. You can use the complete path to the startup script, as shown below (where the $ represents your shell prompt), or you can include that directory in your PATH.
  ${where_you_untarred}/ot_2022B1.2.0_linux32/ot_2022B.1.2.0

Using and Installing the OT on Windows

The OT can be used on any Windows system that can run java 1.7. This should include Windows Vista, 7, 8, 10, 11, Server 2008/2012

Installation:

• Download the current Windows distribution of the Phase II Tool and right or shift+click the file named ot_2022B.1.2.0_windows.exe
• The Windows distribution is provided as a Windows executable installer.
• Use Windows Explorer to display the directory in which you downloaded the installer. You must have at least 180 megabytes of disk space available to install the Phase II Tool on Windows.
• Double-click the installer executable and follow the installer instructions. When the installation is completed, you will see a congratulatory message. Press the “Done” button to exit.
• The installation places a “LBTO\LBTO OT 2022B.1.2.0” icon in your Start menu. Selecting “LBTO OT 2022B.1.2.0