# Appendix A - Monitor panels full description¶

## operatorInput¶

This is the input console where users write DISCOS commands. The prompt is just a sequential number enclosed in <>. If a command is properly read, the system replies repeating the command itself, followed by the operation results (if they are foreseen). Otherwise, an error message appears. To close the window, type exit.

## AntennaBoss¶

This monitor shows the target info, indicating the commanded and actual positions pointed by the antenna. It also gives a feedback on the pointing accuracy and on the overall antenna status.

Parameters:

• Target: label (as extracted from schedule or commanded), coordinates (RAJ2000.0, DecJ2000.0), estimated flux density (Jy, if available).
• Radial Velocity: (as extracted from schedule or commanded), value (km/s unless it is a redshift), velocity reference frame, velocity definition.
• Horiz. Offs: Horizontal (Az-El) offsets as read from schedule, degrees.
• Equat. Offs: Equatorial (RA-Dec) offsets as read from schedule, degrees.
• Galac. Offs: Galactic (l-b) offsets as read from schedule, degrees.
• Raw Horiz.: commanded Az-El, including pointing model, refraction, etc…
• Observed Horiz.: Az-El coordinates read from the mount encoders and cleaned from the pointing model and refraction contributions. Because of this, observed coordinates will differ from the raw ones.
• Observed Equat.: RA-Dec J2000.0 coordinates, converted from the observed horizontal.
• Observed Galac.: l-b Galactic coordinates, converted from the observed horizontal.
• Generator Type: which component is in charge of the generation of the coordinates. It can be NONE (which is the condition at startup), OTF, MOON or SIDEREAL.
• Corr. az/el/ref: azimuth and elevation corrections (degrees) applied by the pointing model, plus the refraction model contribution– which is an additional correction to elevation.
• FWHM: Full Width Half Maximum (corresponding to HPBW), degrees.
• Enabled: a green @ indicates that the antenna is correctly receiving commands; a red o means the communication is disabled.
• Tracking: it indicates whether the pointing error exceeds 0.1*FWHM or not. A green @ corresponds to error < 0.1*FWMH. It should turn to a red o only when the antenna is slewing between scans on the same source, or when slewing to/from a new source.
• Correction: application of the above horizontal coordinates corrections. If disabled (red circle), all corrections are zeroed.
• Status: OK, WARNING or ERROR. “Warning” needs investigation but usually does not stop the ongoing activity (it also appears at startup, before the setup commands), “Error” generally appears if something stops the observations.
• Generator: under this line all the subscan setup parameters appear when it is commanded. See the two cases here below.

In particular, for OTF observations:

• Start-Center-Stop – coordinates in the subscan frame of the start, center and stop positions (degrees)
• StartTime-Dur. – subscan start UT yyyy-doy-hh:mm:ss.s and duration hh:mm:ss.s
• J2000-Apparent eq – during the subscan, current RA-Dec position pointed by the antenna, both in the J2000 epoch and precessed to the date. Format is hh:mm:ss.s-°:’:”.”
• Horizontal - during the subscan, current Az-El position pointed by the antenna (degrees)
• Galactic - during the subscan, current l-b position pointed by the antenna (degrees)
• Sky/Phi rate – actual subscan speed on sky along scanning direction (°/s) . The ‘Phi rate’ value refers to great circle arcs, if it is the scanning geometry, otherwise it copies the first speed value.

For SIDEREAL scans, instead, this is what appears:

• Source name – target name
• Catalog Eq. – target FK5 coordinates and info (if available): RA hh:mm:ss.s, Dec °:’:”.”, Epoch, RA proper motion (milliarcsec per julian year), Dec proper motion (milliarcsec per julian year), parallax (milliarcsec), radial velocity (km/s)
• Catalog Gal. – target Galactic longitude and latitude (degrees) converted from the above Equatorial or provided by user/catalogue
• Apparent Eq. – target current apparent Equatorial coordinates: RA hh:mm:ss.s, Dec °:’:”.”, Epoch
• Galactic – current l-b position pointed by the antenna (degrees)
• Horizontal –current Az-El position pointed by the antenna (degrees)

To close the monitor, type exit in its prompt (the grey line).

## Observatory¶

It is devoted to the station coordinates and times:

• Observatory Name: SRT, Medicina or Noto
• Universal Time: YYYY-DOY-HH:MM:SS.SSS
• Julian Day: d.ddd
• Apparent GST: Greenwich Sidereal Time HH:MM:SS.SSS
• LST: Local Sidereal Time HH:MM:SS.SSS
• DUT1: difference between UT1 and UT (s), if applied.
• Pole motion: celestial pole offset w.r.t. a reference position (details are note provided here), measured in μarcsec on a tangential projection.
• Geodetic Coords: updated Latitude and Longitude (degrees) and Altitude (m) for the telescope, plus the geodetic model code.
• Geocentric Coords: geocentric cartesian coordinates (m) for the telescope.

To close the monitor, type exit in its prompt (the grey line).

## Mount¶

This is a quite complex frame, allowing the technical staff to monitor all the various parts of the antenna mount.

Observers must focus only on a subset of the displayed parameters and flags. We thus describe the main features only.

The top left section gives the online readouts for the Azimuth and Elevation axes, compared to the commanded positions. Line by line:

• Azimuth: current azimuth position (in the -90°/450° wrapping range), rate (°/s) and commanded offset (degrees). Then the measured position error and tracking error (both in degrees) are given. Finally, the axis active mode is displayed: it can be PRESET (fixed Az-El pointing only), PROGRAMTRACK (for tracking, OTF and schedules), STOP (if axes brakes are on), UNKNOWN (indicating a non-configured status).
• Cmd Az.: commanded azimuth position (in the -90°/450° wrapping range), rate (°/s) and offset (°). This offset comes from metrology devices, it is not related to user-defined offsets or subscan-defined offsets.
• Elevation: current elevation position (degrees), rate (°/s) and commanded offset (degrees). Then the measured position error and tracking error (both in degrees) are given. Finally, the axis active mode is displayed: it can be PRESET (fixed Az-El pointing), PROGRAMTRACK (for OTF and schedules), STOP (if axes brakes are on), UNKNOWN (usually indicating an error condition).
• Cmd El.: commanded elevation position (degrees) and rate (°/s).
• Wrap: readouts from the cable wrap. The status flag on the right can be CWor CCW.

The general condition of the mount is summed up by one keyword, in the central part:

• Mount status: it can be OK, WARNING, FAILURE or BUSY, the latter is associated to operations which take a lot of time to complete (as the stow-unstow procedure). When the mount is BUSY it will not accept further commands until the ongoing operation is completed.

The rest of the panel lists several flags and status labels. For average users, the only points to be taken into account are:

• in standard observing conditions, when a schedule runs, all flags should be green o;
• in case of warnings, flags turn to yellow o;
• errors correspond to red o;
• when a “failure” keyword turns steadily to a red o, or a permanent failure status appears, immediately call for technical assistance.

To close the monitor, type exit in its prompt (the grey line).

## GenericBackend¶

The panel shows one row for every section.

• Freq: value (MHz) to be added to the LO frequency in order to obtain the observed frequency at the beginning of the band
• BW: bandwidth (MHz)
• Feed: number of the receiver feed connected to this section
• S.R.: sampling rate (MHz)
• Pol: polarisation (Left or Right)
• Bins: number of frequency bins (1 for total power)
• DBs: attenuation (dB) applied to the section
• Sect: section number
• Tsys: the last measured Tsys (K)

Also some backend-dependent status flags are present, in the top right area. When observing with the TPB, look for:

• Time_Sync: if it frequently or steadily turns red call for assistance (the backend time is not synchronized)
• Busy: when schedules are running, it must turn yellow. If it does not, the backend is not acquiring.

To close the monitor, type exit in its prompt (the grey line).

This monitor summarizes the frontend setup. The bottom part is devoted to the derotator (dewar positioner), when available.

• Mode: NORMAL, SINGLEDISH, VLBI… (other codes to come)
• Status: OK, WARNING or FAILURE
• Feeds: number of feeds (1 fore single-feed receivers, 2 for the K-band DF)
• LO: Local Oscillator frequency (MHz)
• Start Freq.: step (MHz) to be added to the LO frequency in order to obtain the actually observed frequency at the beginning of the band
• Bandwidth: actually observed bandwidth (MHz)
• Polarization: LCP, RCP

To close the monitor, type exit in its prompt (the grey line).

## Scheduler¶

This monitor shows details on the selected data acquisition devices and on the running schedule, if any.

• Project code: project name, as specified at the launch of the schedule (or as input using the project= command)
• Schedule: name of the active schedule
• Scan/Subscan: scan number and subscan number, relative to the ongoing acquisition
• Backend: name of the selected backend, as listed in the schedule
• Recorder: name of the selected data recording device, as listed in the schedule
• Device: number of the currently selected device (see device= command)
• Rest Freq.: rest frequency of the line(s) being observed (MHz). The number in brackets indicates how many IFs the given rest frequency refers to.
• Tracking: tracking status of the telescope, including antenna, active surface, minor servo. A red o means the telescope is not yet in its tracking route (or that it is not tracking properly), a green light means the observation is ongoing and the tracking is accurate within 0.1*HPBW
• Status: flag summarising the telescope status. OK is self-explanatory, WARNING in principle indicates that the acquisition can go on even if a problem has been reported, ERROR signals that a major problem was detected and the observation cannot be performed.

To close the monitor, type exit in its prompt (the grey line).

## Logging Display¶

Here all the log messages will appear. New messages are shown on top of the previous ones. To close the window, click on its dedicated icon.

Note

All the monitors can be closed at a time using the command (in a terminal on the observing machine):

\$ discosConsole --stop