Vdesk
vdesk for Dummies
This information is for vdesk v2.1, installed on newsmerd at the Mt Pleasant observatory.
Running vdesk
On newsmerd, vdesk can be started by either typing vdesk in a terminal, or by clicking
on the vdesk icon on the desktop.
Once vdesk has started, you will be prompted for which telescope (or more accurately, drive PC) you wish to connect to. The default is sys26m, the Mt Pleasant 26m telescope's drive PC. If you are happy with this, simply press enter, otherwise enter the name of the drive PC you want to connect to before pressing enter.
vdesk basics
Once vdesk has connected to the drive PC you specified, your terminal should look something like this:
You are now prompted to enter a command to either configure the telescope or control it. A summary of these commands follows:
Configuration commands
Each configuration command requires an argument, and should be specified as:command argument
- longitude
- Set the desired longitude of the telescope. This command expects an argument such as 12:12:12, ie. a more human-readable format
- dlongitude
- Set the desired longitude of the telescope, specified in decimal degrees
- latitude
- Set the desired latitude of the telescope, specified in human-readable format
- dlatitude
- Set the desired latitude of the telescope, specified in decimal degrees
- coord_mode
- Set the coordinate mode to use when interpreting the longitude and latitude. Available modes are b1950 (B1950 coordinates, longitude=RA, latitude=Dec), j2000 (J2000 coordinates, longitude=RA, latitude=Dec), date (JNOW coordinates, longitude=RA, latitude=Dec), hadec (longitude=hour angle, latitude=Dec), xy (XY native coordinates, longitude=x, latitude=y), galactic (Galactic coordinates, longitude=Galactic l, latitude=Galactic b), azel (Azimuth-Elevation coordinates, longitude=azimuth angle, latitude=elevation angle). Note that after changing coordinate mode, you should enter your longitude and latitude values again.
- leftlength
- Specify the length to scan the telescope along the longitude direction, in decimal degrees
- rightlength
- Specify the length to scan the telescope along the latitude direction, in decimal degrees
- leftrate
- Specify the rate at which to scan the telescope along the longitude direction, in degrees per minute
- rightrate
- Specify the rate at which to scan the telescope along the latitude direction, in degrees per minute
- leftmarker
- rightmarker
- ntvleftoffset
- ntvrightoffset
- angle
- calibrator
- Configure the telescope to point at one of the calibrators known to vdesk: 3C227, virgo, 3c286, 3c348, b1934-638, taurus, 3c161, hydra, 3c352
Control commands
Each control command is stand-alone, ie. does not require any arguments
- abort
- stops the telescope's current action
- slew
- move the telescope to the configured coordinates
- ldrive
- move the telescope to the configured longitude
- rdrive
- move the telescope to the configured latitude
- leftscan
- begin the configured longitudinal scan
- rightsca
- begin the configured latitudinal scan
- anglesca
- begin the configured arbitrary-angle scan
- nleftsca
- nrightsc
- stop
- stop the telescope
- park
- move the telescope to the pre-configured park position
- service
- move the telescope to the pre-configured service position
- drvon
- turn the telescope's drives on
- drvoff
- turn the telescope's drives off
- ldrvon
- turn the telescope's native left drive on
- rdrvon
- turn the telescope's native right drive on
- onsource
- move the telescope to the configured coordinates
- track
- move the telescope to the configured coordinates
- home
- quit
- exit vdesk
- exit
- exit vdesk
vdesk 2.1 allows you to enter only the minimum matching string for each command, and it also features TAB command completion.
For example, if you wish to give the command abort, then you only need to enter ab, as no other command begins with these two letters. Also, if you type ab, then pressed the TAB key, vdesk would complete the command abort.