ListOfUseCases - NewtonFund/NewTCS GitHub Wiki

See also RJS's first attempt at UseCaseImplementations

Science Driven

1. Can I track the comet tail at 10 comet radii from the nucleus (in a time-dependent direction)?

  • Desired Results
    • Tracking a position that is a given physics distance trailing the nucleus
  • Why is it desirable
    • To study the spectral variation of the coma/tail (with long slit spectrograph)
  • Constraints:
    • The angular separation/"position angle" vary rapidly when it is close to the Earth (geometric effect) and the Sun (change of tail direction)
    • Require good (or constantly updating) knowledge on the physical distance, size and orbit of the comet

2. Can I have [source position] centred on pixel (x, y)?

  • Desired Results
    • A series of acquisition images taken to align the telescope perfectly to single pixel precision
  • Why is it desirable
    • Allow the understanding of instrumental noise down to pixel-level, which can be useful for precise relative photometry
  • Constraints:
    • If it is not always achievable, it wastes a lot of acquisition time
    • rotation angle of the telescope

3. Can I have the image taken defocused?

  • Desired Results
    • Having images taken slightly out of focus.
  • Why is it desirable
    • Defocused observations are standard in transit observations of exoplanets in order to avoid saturation and maximise photometric precision
  • Constraints:
    • How defocused does an observer need?

4. Can I coordinate simultaneous observations with other telescopes?

  • Desired Results
    • Coordinated observations with other telescope facilities.
  • Why is it desirable
    • For simultaneous observation of multi-wavelength seconds to minutes scale variation (e.g. Astroseismology, exoplanet atmospheric system)
  • Constraints: *

5. Can I track the Sun/Lagrange point objects/man-made objects/NEOs/satellites of solar system objects?

  • Desired Results
    • Non-sidereal tracking in any given rate and direction are possible.
  • Why is it desirable
    • This is necessary to study targets in the terrestrial neighbourhood.
  • Constraints: *

6. (Imaging only) Can the telescope decide the most optimal tessellation for mosaic imaging?

  • Desired Results
    • Return an imaged area with close to 100% fill factor
  • Why is it desirable
    • Imperfect fill factor on the focal plan lead to loss of science data, a "perfect" knowledge of the instrument condition is needed to produce a complete mosaic.
  • Constraints: *

7. Can it slew to any named object?

  • Desired Results
    • Named object resolver would be available (probably at a higher level program?)
  • Why is it desirable *
  • Constraints: *

8. Can I supply my own user-defined co-ordinate system

  • Desired Results *
  • Why is it desirable
    • An observer can define their coordinate system with the 'equator' aligning with a tidal stream
    • Easy to repeat observations performed on e.g. SDSS
    • B1950, J2050 system?
  • Constraints: *

9. I want to measure the parallax of a number of objects.

  • Desired Results
    • Decide what is the maximum parallactic factor the telescope can offer, which is of particular importance to relatively southern objects
    • Decide when to take the exposure such that the maximum parallactic factor is at least, say, 0.75
    • Higher chance to be scheduled on the days with the parallactic factor close to 1.0
  • Why is it desirable
    • Ground-based telescope will outperform Gaia below V~19-20 (depending on spectral type)
    • Surveys by LSST and Pan-STARRS have blind spots where the maximum parallactic factors of some objects can be smaller than 0.5 due to other science requirement and weather
  • Constraints:
    • It requires multi-semester observations (ideally spanning over 1.5 years)
    • Require very good seeing
    • High orders field corrections for accurate relative astrometry

. ...?

  • Desired Results *
  • Why is it desirable *
  • Constraints: *

10. I want to offset the telescope in the XY coordinate system of my instrument.

11. I want to offset the telescope in the RA/DEC coordinate system.

12. I want to offset the telescope in the ALT/AZ coordinate system.

13. How long until I hit an axis limit?

14. Should I unwrap a limit when a slew is requested?

15. I have two auto guiders. Can I improve my auto guiding (e.g. by correcting rotator errors?)

16. I have a tip-tilt secondary mirror. How do I use it?

17. To acquire an IR only target, I want to use the autoguider to acquire on a nearby visible target and then do an offset to put the IR target at a position on the instrument (not autoguider) focal plane.

18. How do I get out of an axis limit?

19. How do I acquire pointing model data?

20. There has been an earthquake. Do I have to do a whole new pointing model or is there a simpler calibration I can do?

21. To acquire a faint target, I want to point the instrument to a nearby bright target and then do a blind offset

22. I want to offset the telescope in the instrument XY focal plane while maintaining auto guiding.

Engineering Driven

1. (Imaging only) Is there a drift scan mode (in any direction? at varying rate?)?

  • Desired Results
    • Allow drift scanning in any requested direction
  • Why is it desirable
    • Test the tracking stability
  • Constraints: *

2. The autoguider is not working, is the telescope blind pointing + blind tracking good enough for short exposures?

  • Desired Results
    • Allow job allocation when the autoguider is down
  • Why is it desirable
    • Maximise telescope "up" time
  • Constraints:
    • Extra iterations in setting up the pointing model during twilight(?)

3. Do you accept visitor instruments (Coronographer, MOS, Lucky Imaging? etc..)?

  • Desired Results *
  • Why is it desirable *
  • Constraints: *

4. (During day time) can I re-run the operations on a specified night?

  • Desired Results *
  • Why is it desirable
    • Diagnosis of an unknown source of error, which may be identified by a (different) staff on site
    • Testing the stability of the system
    • As a dummy run after bug fixes
  • Constraints:
    • Is a full run necessary?

5. Is it possible to use reduced accuracy in certain aspect (mostly higher order correction terms)?

  • Desired Results *
  • Why is it desirable
    • Computation of all correction terms is limited by the computing power available at the telescope
  • Constraints: *

6. Is it portable to a Coelostat telescope (or other special purpose telescope e.g. Large Zenith Telescope)?

  • Desired Results *
  • Why is it desirable *
  • Constraints: *

Integration with Scheduler and Archive

1. An observer collected all the required data with an hour to spare. Can the telescope enter service mode that collects data for the previously failed observation (or other known timed event, e.g. occultation, transit, asteroid/dwarf planets)

  • Desired Results *
  • Why is it desirable *
  • Constraints: *

2. (Imaging only) The field of view can cover another interesting object, is it possible to prompt the observer requesting to move the pointing slightly off the target to include the second target for legacy science?

  • Desired Results *
  • Why is it desirable *
  • Constraints: *

3. Prompt the observer if objects within a certain radius (e.g. 5 arcminutes) were observed in the past.

  • Desired Results *
  • Why is it desirable *
  • Constraints: *

**4. Support Astronomer should be able to add new avoidance zone easily for certain instrument, for example, stray light is particularly bad when it is 80-100 degrees from the Moon, fire escape light etc.