Planner Scripts

Complex and/or lengthy input of observing requests using the Schedule Browser can be cumbersome. The Browser is not intended to be a mass data-input tool. ACP Planner can be used to generate Remote Telescope Markup Language (RTML) data for input to the scheduler, however its capabilities are limited to common observing tasks. IComplex observing requests should be imported using RTML. For general info on RTML and importing RTML, see Importing end Exporting.

This page describes scripts that have been supplied as examples of how to generate RTML programmatically. They use the supplied RTML 2.3 Wrapper object. The following sections describe each of the planner scripts.

All of the scripts are written to run under the standard Windows scripting console (cscript), in a Windows shell window ("DOS" window). RTML is written to the standard output, so in order to get the RTML into a file you need to redirect into the file. For example:

C:\xxx< cscript BasicRTMLGen.vbs > MyBasicRTML.xml

The result will be RTML in MyBasicRTML.xml. If you omit the redirection character > the RTML will be written into the shell window. This is useful for quick debugging. For more info on scripting in general, see the Introduction to Scripting section of the ACP Observatory Control Software help file.

BasicRTMLGen.vbs

This script is the most basic generator. It is heavily commented, and shows how to generate a single observing request. In RTML, a request maps to a Scheduler Plan, a target maps to a Scheduler Observation and a picture maps to a Scheduler ImageSet. Read this script, in combination with the RTML Programmer's Reference (available via the Start menu), to get a feel for how to write planner scripts.

TabToRTML.vbs

This simple script generates single observing requests from a list of targets and coordinates in tab-delimited format. The input to the script is a file containing observing targets. See the comments at the beginning of the script for specifics.

MessierMarathon.js

This script generates observing requests for the Messier Marathon 2004. After importing into the Scheduler, run this in simulation mode with the clock set for sundown on March 20, 2004. Read the comments at the beginning of the script for instructions on how to set up the scheduler so it will do the complete Marathon. Read the script itself to get a feel for how to generate more complex observing requests.

VisiblePGC.vbs

This script generates RTML to observe all of the PGC galaxies that will ever be visible (above the mathematical horizon) at the given location, using the MiniSAC catalog wrapper object. This is not really a practical set of observing requests to import, though, because there are so many! It would be better to further filter the galaxies by location and import only those visible during a given month, for example. Do have a look at this script, though, as it shows how to apply multiple constraints to each target (Observation). In its current form it generates a huge workload for the initial scheduler cycle.