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Paper: Automated Observing at the UKIRT
Volume: 61, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems III
Page: 457
Authors: Daly, P. N.; Bridger, A.; Krisciunas, K. L.
Abstract: The cooled grating spectrometer, CGS4, is an advanced infra-red spectrometer operating in the 1 -- 5 microns region at resolving powers of 300 < lamb/del(lamb) < 20000. The power of the instrument, the demands of the data reduction system and the quantity of data it can produce have led to the development of a sophisticated software system that can automatically configure the instrument and telescope, maximise the source signal, take and archive the data, and reduce the observations in real-time. The combined software system has an `uptime' at the telescope of >99.5%. After the successful commissioning of this instrument during 1991 and 1992, a programme to upgrade the system has been implemented which will extend and adapt the CGS4 software to control and reduce data from UKIRT's near infra-red camera IRCAM. This new single automated system will be capable of controlling both instruments and will lead to better support and maintenance. The upgrade of both instruments to arrays within the next year relies on this system being operational. We will review the four elements of the system ( data acquisition, data reduction, auto-archiving and auto-peakup ) and report the latest developments.
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