Automatic CCD Logsheets

The automatic logging routines for direct CCD imaging, including the Mosaic, at the 4M, 2M and 0.9M are now in regular use.. The GoldCam spectrometer at the 2M also has auto-logging. The manual describing use of the routines is available in the orion FTP KPNO manuals directory or from the Telescope & Instrumentation WEB pages.

  1. Logging will not take place until the `loginit' command has been called. This is best done at the time of `obsinit'. It can be done at any time later, and even repeated as desired, but images recorded prior to its first invocation will not be logged. The current fix for this is to use the `addlog' command directly, which can add any image to the logs after the fact.
  2. TeX is used to format the logs. Currently users are allowed to use TeX formatting commands. The TeX chatter is piped to /dev/null to avoid eyestrain. If an error occurs in TeX, however, the message and it's request for interactive action will not be visible. The process will then appear to hang. ^\ will kill the whole thing. This is simply a matter of pragmatism versus aesthetics and it will take 5 seconds to modify the formatting scripts to echo the TeX chatter if people would prefer this as a default option. A more severe fix would be to trap for \ and thus in effect turn off any TeX formatting commands input.
  3. Direct editing of the .lis file can correct errors easily.
There should be a copy of the autolog manual in the control rooms of the 4m, 2m, and 0.9m. Just ask your OT or see the on-line manuals.

21Aug98 jdv