Creating Scripts

From TzecMaun

You can use the scripting features of Astronomy Studio to create a repeating series of steps. This is useful for such things as asteroid detection, supernova searching, photometery of asteroids and variable stars, exoplanet detection, etc.

[edit] List Processor

The List Processor is available on the advanced telescopes. Click the thumbnail at right to see what the web page looks like. You enter a series of commands on the left; the available commands and their arguments (parameters) are shown on the right of the screen capture.

You can access the List Processor once you are logged in to one of the advanced telescopes. Look for the link below the Sky Chart.

Type the commands into the box at left, or build the list of commands in a simple text application such as Notepad or Text Edit.

Here is a simple script that sets up the telescope and camera, and takes an image:

 SLEW M31
 FILTER 2
 BIN 2
 FRAME light
 IMAGE 120
 LOGOFF

 Note that the FILTER command will select different filters depending on the camera installed on the telescope you are using.

Here is a more complex script, which slews to a series of RA/DEC locations to take images for asteroid detection, and repeats the slews 4 times to create five 4-image sets. (The RA/DEC coordinates were created in TheSky 6 using the Mosaic tool, then copied to the clipboard and pasted into the script.)

 FILTER 4
 BIN 2
 FRAME light
 AUTODARK on
 -LOOPSTART 4
 PREFIX field01
 SLEW 22.80346556, -20.26654164
 IMAGE 120
 PREFIX field02
 SLEW 22.84823775, -20.27037901
 IMAGE 120
 PREFIX field03
 SLEW 22.89300600, -20.27165800
 IMAGE 120
 PREFIX field04
 SLEW 22.93777425, -20.27037901
 IMAGE 120
 PREFIX field05
 SLEW 22.98254644, -20.26654164
 IMAGE 120
 -LOOPEND
 EMAIL me@myaddress.com
 LOGOFF

Images are saved to your working directory on the telescope control computer (e.g., http://bigmak.tzecmaun.org/tmp/username), and are uploaded to the FITS server the following morning in a ZIP file.