Subject: The DIS upgrade and REMARK

From: Michael Strauss

Submitted: Thu, 14 Feb 2002 09:01:16 -0500 (EST)

Message number: 551 (previous: 550, next: 552 up: Index)

Hello all,
  Here is a message from Russet McMillan, which can now go out, now
that the APO 3.5m mail exploders are working.  Apologies that they
were down for so long. 

		 -Michael Strauss
Hello, everyone,

The DIS upgrade is expected to occur very soon now, so it's finally
time to make the newest version of Remark official.  There have been
many changes made since last summer, but most of the versions were
still being tested or altered during the intervening months, and that
is why Remark 2.62 has remained the official version until now.  It's
time to make the change because everyone will need to have the newest
version in order to communicate with DIS after the upgrade (it also
works now, before the upgrade).  Many institutions with echelle
observers are already running version 2.80a, but there has been one
more bug fixed since then.  The official version will now be Remark
2.80b.  Version 2.62 will continue to work for telescope control and
GRIM control (and DIS control until the instrument upgrade takes
place), but we strongly recommend that you get the new version in
place and running within the next two weeks.

Here's a description of some of the changes that have occurred between
version 2.62 and version 2.80b.

General changes: These are mostly transparent.  A few options that
observers never used (except when pressing buttons by accident) have
been removed.  A few extra messages will scroll by in the Status and
Debug windows, but everything else should be familiar.

Changes to GRIM control: The interface will no longer try to move the
instrument to f/20 when entering/exiting Dark mode.  Otherwise, no
changes. 

Changes to DIS control: A number of changes in lower-level command
structure were made to enable Remark to talk to either old or new DIS,
but these changes are mostly transparent at the Remark level.  Some of
the messages about moving gratings, reading out exposures, etc. have
changed slightly, but the interface is essentially the same as before.

Changes to Echelle control: The spectrograph control is mostly the
same, with just a few alterations to some of the messages and signals
(a double-beep to signal the end of readout, for example).  The big
change was in the slitviewer control, accounting for the vast majority
of the work that has been done since last June.  All echelle users
except those at UW have seen the new controls, so I will just mention
the general features: The slitviewer is now much more robust and less
likely to crash; dark subtraction of longer slitviewer exposures is
possible; and an autoguider is available through Remark.  The
autoguider's effectiveness varies somewhat depending on the of the
target; it will be less effective for targets fainter than 10th
magnitude, targets that badly saturate the slitviewer (use a filter to
correct this), and the autoguider shouldn't be used at all on double
stars.  For most targets, the autoguider can be combined with
occasional adjustments by hand to ensure the star stays where you want
it with less need for constant vigilance.

Here are instructions to get the newest version up and running on your
Mac.  It should be possible for any observer to make the upgrade in
just a few minutes.  In the event of problems, your older version of
Remark should continue to be usable as long as it remains on the
machine.  Call or mail the observatory if you have trouble.

1) Use Fetch on your Mac to connect to Host ftp.apo.nmsu.edu, Username
   anonymous, your email for password, Directory pub/src .

2) Get the file Remark2.80b.sea.bin .  Your desktop is a good place to
   put it.  Once you have this file, you can exit Fetch.

3) Click on the Remark2.80b.sea.bin icon, and choose Extract.  Again,
   the desktop is a good destination.

   a) If you are upgrading from 2.80a, this should be all you need to
   do. 

   b) If you are upgrading from an earlier version like 2.62, it may
   want to replace your History file and some others.  Let it replace
   any file it likes.  Your various windows will show up in new places
   at first, but if you adjust them and then observe normally, it
   should remember the desired setup again.

4) Start up Remark 2.80b and connect with it to make sure it works.
   If it is daytime, phone or email the observatory first to find out
   if it's okay to connect right now.  If it's nighttime, connecting
   should be fine, but don't raise your priority if you're not
   scheduled to observe.

5) Once you've confirmed that Remark 2.80b will start up and connect,
   you can move the sea.bin file to the trash.


Please make sure that your institution's Remark is upgraded by the end
of the month!

				Russet McMillan.




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