Some features of ACP Expert are infrequently used and thus have been left out of the routine-usage user interface (to preserve simplicity). This section documents the current set of these features. They may be implemented in future releases if their usage increases. The features are accessed by putting special text into the Description or Reason fields. Where multiple of these can appear in a particular field (e.g. the ImageSet Description field) they may appear in any order.
If the Description field of an ImageSet contains "#subframe 0.nn" anywhere within it, and with a variable number of tabs or spaces between the #subframe and the (decimal) number, then the image will be acquired with the fraction of the whole frame. This is the same as the #subframe feaure of ACP. The desktop Schedule Browser's ACP Plan importer will recognize and import #subframe directives in the imported plan. To specify subframing on an ImageSet, put the following into its Description field:
#subframe 0.nn
If the Description field of an ImageSet contains "#defocus nnnn" anywhere within it, and with a variable number of tabs or spaces between the #defocus and the (positive or negative integer) number, then the image will be acquired with the given focusing change in focuser counts. This is the same as the #defocus feaure of ACP. The desktop Schedule Browser's ACP Plan importer will recognize and import #defocus directives in the imported plan. To specify defocusing on an ImageSet, put the following into its Description field:
#defocus nnnn
If the Description field of an ImageSet contains "#romode [xxxxx]" anywhere within it, and with a variable number of tabs or spaces between the #romode and the readout mode name in square brackets, then the image will be acquired with the given readout mode. This is the same as the #readoutmode feaure of ACP. The desktop Schedule Browser's ACP Plan importer will recognize and import #readoutmode directives in the imported plan. To specify a readout mode on an ImageSet, put the following into its Description field:
#romode [xxxx]
Sometimes it's desirable to skip the plate-solving step in acquiring data images. For example, if the images are of standard stars, the exposures will be short, resulting in very few stars in the image. Plate solving will usually fail on these images, and the time it takes to fail (time out) can substantially detract from observing efficiency. The desktop Schedule Browser's ACP Plan importer will recognize and import #nosolve directives in the imported plan. To suppress plate solving on an ImageSet, put the following into its Description field:
#nosolve
The generation of the small thumbnail and larger preview images for the web System Status display can take significant time, especially for large images (over 2k x 2k). Included in this processing are several compute-intensive operations to make the image more pleasing. If you are doing high-cadence work, such as survey imaging or high speed photometric series you may wish to suppress this time-consuming operation for increased observing efficiency. The desktop Schedule Browser's ACP Plan importer will recognize and import #nopreview directives in the imported plan. To suppress web preview generation on an ImageSet, put the following anywhere into its Description field:
#nopreview
If you want to use an alternative script to execute Scheduler observing requests, as opposed to AcquireScheduler.vbs, you can do this by putting the following into the Description field of an Observation:
> SpecialScript.xxx
where SpecialScript.xxx is the observing logic script you want Scheduler to start. This script must make changes to the Plan, Observation, and ImageSets in the database as expected of the sequencer as it progresses through acquisition. Both VBScript and JScript are supported. It's suggested that you modify AcquireScheduler and rename the modified version, using the new name in the above.
RTML 2.3 does not support Monitor Mode. To specify Monitor Mode in RTML, In the Request.Reason field, put
monitor=n
where n is the monitor interval in days. The word "monitor" can be in any mix of lower and upper case letters.