National Radio Astronomy Observatory Tucson, Arizona MEMORANDUM To: 12-m Observers From: P. R. Jewell and T. W. Folkers Subject: Instructions for Remote Observing on the 12-m Last Revised: 28 June 1995 E-mail contact: T. W. Folkers: tfolkers@nrao.edu P. R. Jewell: pjewell@nrao.edu 12-m Operator: oper12m@corona.kp.nrao.edu Telephone: 12-m Operator: 520-318-8670 Electronic Versions of this Document (including updates): Anonymous ftp to heineken.tuc.nrao.edu, Name (xxx): anonymous Password: your id cd observerinfo/remote remote.ps Postcript version of this document: remote.txt ASCII version (sans figures and formatting) CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2. Etiquette and Propriety 3. Quick Startup Instructions 4. Equipment Requirements 5. Steps to Establish Remote Observing 5.1 X Windows Workstations 5.2 Emulation Terminals 6. Making Remote Hardcopies from UniPOPS 6.1 Approach 1 (Simple but Tedious for Many Copies) 6.2 Approach 2 (Automatic but more Involved) 1. Introduction NRAO 12-m observations can be performed from a remote location via the Internet. One can connect to the 12-m telescope computers and establish a remote data reduction session, see the on-line "Status" screen, have a computer "Talk" session with the telescope operator, have a real-time automatic display of incoming data, browse previously recorded data, see weather information, view receiver switched power and total power "chart recorder" output, and view real-time video snap-shots of the 12-m environs. One can also operate the telescope remotely, but this is not yet available to visitors. Requests for remote observing should be coordinated with the 12-m Site Director or Deputy Director. The choice as to whether to observe remotely or on-site is largely the observers', although management may insist on local observing if the observations are deemed particularly complicated or if the observers are unfamiliar with the telescope. Most importantly, observers should understand that remote observing is intended for experienced 12-m users who are very familiar with the facility, the observing modes, and the telescope personnel. The principal assets of remote observing are convenience and access: it reduces travel costs and makes small blocks of telescope time accessible to observers who otherwise might be unable to afford the travel. We think it is most appropriate for short observing runs or for use by a collaborator who is not at the telescope but who wishes to participate in the observing. Most programs benefit from the on-site presence of the observers: communication with the operator and other staff members is more fluid, access to staff advice and other observatory resources is easier, and the confluence of collaborators at the telescope may prove stimulating and beneficial to the scientific program. Nonetheless, the possibilities of remote observing are only starting to be tapped and a number of the traditional objections to it are being eliminated by technological advances. Accordingly, we are continuously enhancing remote observing capabilities to extend it to a wider audience and broaden its power and flexibility. We welcome comments and suggestions from users. 2. Etiquette and Propriety The remote observing package should be used only to monitor your own data, during your own observing time. The package requires both computer cycles and network bandwidth and you should not be competing with the current observer for these resources. In addition, many observers may be (understandably) uncomfortable with their data being monitored by someone who is not part of their group. When you start the remote package the 12-m operator receives a message on his monitor screen that a remote login has occurred. If he is not expecting a remote observing run to commence, he will kill the remote processes. Trial logins before a remote observing run are best done on maintenance and test days. In all cases, you should notify the operator when you are attempting a trial run. Once you have performed the login and checked that all the tasks are working, you should exit as quickly as possible. Simple courtesy and common sense will avoid any conflicts. 3. Quick Startup Instructions If you are familiar with the remote observing package for the 12-m and have a standard X Window system, you can follow these abbreviated instructions to start your session. If you are a first-time user, please read on. On your X Windows workstation, type xhost locura.kp.nrao.edu xhost corona.kp.nrao.edu xhost tecate.kp.nrao.edu Open a shell window of some sort (e.g., cmd-tool or xterm), then type telnet locura.kp.nrao.edu login: obs Password: (call us!) observer initials: (your initials, as established with the operator) Start the remote observing package by typing (at the locura prompt) Xremote your.machines.internet.address Password: (call us!) A control menu will quickly appear on your screen. Click on the "All" box and then the "Start" button. The remote processes will begin to appear. To terminate your session -- and please do this as soon as you are finished with your session -- bring the menu forward and click the "Quit" button. You can stop individual processes by clicking the appropriate check boxes and pressing the "Stop" button. Logout of your session on locura by typing "lo" or "logout". 4. Equipment Requirements: To observe remotely, you must have either a) An X Window system (best configuration), or b) An emulation system (minimum configuration). All of the remote displays will run under Sun's OpenWindows window manager (guaranteed) and several other X Window systems on machines from other vendors and other window managers, including "twm," "Motif," and X11R5. The system is has run on Unix DECStations, Silicon Graphics workstations, various X-Terminals, and PCs running LINUX and PCXware emulation software (the latter is rather slow). If you have an X Window workstation, you will find that it provides the most flexible approach to remote observing displays. The 12-m remote observing package for X Windows is called Xremote. If you do not have access to an X Window system, you can still do remote observing with terminal emulation systems. You will need one Tektronics 4010 terminal or emulator and, if possible, two ANSI compatible terminals, such as a VT100/220 or emulators. The Tektronics screen is for the data reduction session and the ANSI terminals are for displaying the on-line Status screen and for conducting a "Talk" session with the telescope operator. This style of remote observing also works well on any multi-window workstation environment that has Tek 4010 and VT100/220 or ANSI terminal emulators. You can then place the 3 terminal sessions listed above in 3 windows on the workstation. If the workstation supports X Windows, then you should use the full X Window remote package (Xremote), of course. N.B. We recommend that you make a trial run well in advance of your observing time to ensure that you can successfully log in, start the various remote sessions, and produce graphics displays from the data reduction programs. A trial session is particularly essential if you want to use an X Window environment other than Sun's OpenWindows. Sometimes problems arise with font libraries and the like, but solutions to these problems can usually be found given advance notice. Contact the staff to arrange a time for your trial run. In the material below, we describe in detail the steps to follow in establishing a remote observing session. Follow the instructions of Section 5.1 if you have Sun OpenWindows or another X Window system. Follow the instructions in Section 5.2 if you are using emulation terminals (either stand-alone or emulation workstation windows). 5. Steps to Establish Remote Observing 5.1 X Window Workstation [Preferred Configuration] a) By telephone (520-318-8670) or e-mail (oper12m@corona.kp.nrao.edu), have the operator create a data reduction subdirectory with your initials on the analysis workstation, which is named "locura." The operator will need the name of the principal observer, three initials from his name, and the project number of the program. b) Once a directory is established, you may ftp your source catalog to yourself by typing (at your own system prompt) ftp locura.kp.nrao.edu -- or -- ftp 192.68.189.16 To the following prompts, answer Name (xxx): obs Password: (call us!) Then change to your observing directory: ftp> cd ini where "ini" are your three observing initials. To place your catalog on locura, type ftp> put your_catalog_name NOTE: Your catalog name must have the extension .cat to be recognized by the system as a source catalog. To end the ftp session, type ftp> bye You can mail your source catalog to yourself at the address obs12m@nrao.edu -or- obs@locura.kp.nrao.edu If you have done so, enter the 'elm' mail utility, read the mail, and type: s to save the catalog to a file, then mycat.cat when prompted for a file name. where "mycat" can be any name you chose. However, be sure that the extension is ".cat"). You will need to edit the mail header information from the beginning of the file using vi, edt, or emacs. Note that all source catalogs must be in the usual NRAO 12-m format, for example 09:45:14.8 14:30:40.0 B1950.0 IRC+10216 -26.0 LSR RAD (other coordinate and velocity frames are supported -- consult the staff). c) On your Unix X Window workstation, type xhost locura.kp.nrao.edu -- or -- xhost 192.68.189.16 and xhost corona.kp.nrao.edu -- or -- xhost 192.68.189.5 to allow the workstations named locura and corona at the 12 m permission to open windows on your home workstation. If you get errors in creating windows, then type xhost + which will give all outside machines permission to open windows on your workstation. d) Log onto locura (the 12-m analysis workstation) by typing telnet locura.kp.nrao.edu -- or -- telnet 192.68.189.16 Then at the following prompts, type login: obs Password: (call us!) When prompted for initials, give your 3 observing initials as described above. e) At the locura% prompt, type Xremote your.machine.name Password: (call us -- it's different from the obs password). (Note!! upper case 'X,' lower case 'remote' and do NOT include ':0') where "your.machine.name" is the full Internet node name of your machine (e.g., machine.dept.univ.edu) or the Internet address (e.g., 123.45.254.9). Example: Xremote sierra.tuc.nrao.edu The system will first check that your home machine has allowed the 12 meter computer the permission to write to its display, and will print OK if the permissions are correct. If the display permissions are not 'OK', you will be informed and the startup procedure will stop. Go back to Step (c) and make sure that you gave the "xhost" command; try "xhost +" if "xhost locura.kp.nrao.edu" failed. If the permissions are OK, you will then be presented with a menu screen labeled Xremote at the top. The screen contains these items: _ Catalog _ Charts _ Condar _ Dataserv _ Databrowse _ Monitor _ Line _ Oplog _ Weather _ Status _ Xhchat _ Video _ Xgpoint [Set All] [Clear All] [X-Terminal]/[Workstation] [Start] [Stop] [Quit] The items preceeded by the underscore "_" are check boxes that identify the processes you wish to start. The items enclosed in square brackets "[ ]" are push buttons or toggle switches. If you press the [Set All] button, checks will appear in all the boxes except "Databrowse" and "Xgpoint" which must be started explicitly. Conversely, the [Clear All] button removes all the check marks. It is worth starting all the remote processes at least once to familiarize yourself with what is available. You may find that you do not need all of the processes, in which case they can be shut down individually. If the network throughput into your site is sluggish, you may also choose to shut down all but the most essential screens. "[X-Terminal] / [Workstation]" is a toggle switch that you can use to identify your remote console type. By default, the applications will start in "X-Terminal mode" which requires minimal resources from your local server. If you have a full workstation with typical memory available (e.g., >24 MB), the "Workstation" mode will make use of workstation memory to speed some of the displays. Press the "Workstation" or "X-Terminal" button before starting any of the tasks. To start the processes identified by checkmarks in the boxes above, press the [Start] button. If you want to stop some of the processes, first press the [Clear All] button to remove any remaining checks, then check the specific processes you want to stop, and press the [Stop] button. To stop the entire Xremote session, push the [Quit] button, then log out of the locura window by typing "lo" or "logout" Please remember to stop your remote session as soon as you are finished observing. A display of the actual menu is given in the figure. The items that are "starred out" with asterisks are engineering screens that are available only from engineering login accounts. These technical items are not of general interest or use to observers. Depending on your choices, up to 11 windows will begin to appear on your workstation: Catalog Tool This will display the position of sources on various Az/El and time grids. Source catalogs in your directory as well as the NRAO standard catalogs are accessible. You can use this tool to plan your observations and to display when sources are up. The catalog editing feature of this tool is still under development. To bring up the control menu for this tool, move the mouse arrow to the interior of the window, hold down on the right button and pull to the desired menu selection. Receiver Chart Display This is a digital representation of the switched power and total power chart recorders at the telescope. To control the display and the selection of channels to plot, move the mouse arrow to the interior of the window, hold down on the right mouse button and pull to the desired selection. You can also use your mouse to resize the display as desired. Condar Window This is for continuum data analysis. Type condar to start the UniPOPS CONDAR program. Dataserv This window presents a real-time, automatic display of each observing scan within moments of the completion of the scan. Both spectral line and continuum observations are displayed. Utility observations, such as five-points, focus checks, etc., are reduced automatically. The results of the analysis are transmitted to the operator. This window can be resized with the mouse. When Dataserv starts, an additional icon will appear labeled OTF Gridder. This icon will pop open to display on-the-fly images when that observing mode is in use. Do not kill the OTF Gridder window even if you do not plan to make OTF maps; doing so will kill Dataserv altogether. DataBrowse DataBrowse is an off-line version of Dataserv. Where as Dataserv is always attached to the incoming data stream from the telescope, DataBrowse can be used to peruse previously recorded data. It provides a very fast way to review the data on disk. It is particularly useful in displaying spectral line on-the-fly maps. DataBrowse does not provide analysis tools at this time; you must use Line, Condar, or AIPS for that. Line Window This is for spectral line analysis. Within this window, type line to start the UniPOPS LINE program. Monitor Display This shows error and status messages seen by the operator. Operator Log This is a scrolling text file that gives a 7-line summary of observations with similar information to that recorded manually by the telescope operator on his log sheets. Configuration information such as filter bank changes appear as single-line entries in the automated log. Status Display This shows the on-line status monitor (with telescope setup information) as seen on the crt screen at the telescope. The status screen can be refreshed by hitting the 'r' key with the mouse inside the status window. Video Display This window presents real-time video snap shots of various camera displays from the 12-m site. The snap shots are updated automatically every 30 seconds. By clicking the "Props" button on the top panel of the video window, a second screen will appear that will allow the selection of different cameras, the size of the display, brightness, and contrast. You will usually need to adjust the contrast and brightness by dragging the slider bar with your mouse. One color view, two black and white views, and the optical pointing camera are currently supported. The color view is from a camera mounted on the side of the dish looking through the dome slit at the sky. This allows you to see the sky conditions in the approximate direction you are observing. The black and white views are of the telescope from inside the dome, facing south, and from a security camera at the entrance to the dome. If the optical pointing camera is turned on, you can view a 15' x 15' field in the observing direction (night time only). The "Stop" button on the window will hold the current frame (and toggles to "Start"), the "Quit" button terminates video display and closes the window. Weather Chart Display This shows the temperature, barometric pressure, and relative humidity on one screen, the zenith opacity of the 225 GHz tipping radiometer on a second screen, and wind speed, direction, and a rain marker on a third screen. The display cycles automatically among the three screens, or a specific screen can be displayed via a pull-down menu button on the top of the window. Results for the last 24 hours are presented. This window can be resized with the mouse. A second pull-down menu atop the screen allows the display of 3 satellite weather photos from the visual, IR, water vapor-sensitive band, and a surface analysis weather map, which includes a radar precipitation summary. You can kill these windows by hitting a "q" or the spacebar with the mouse arrow inside the map window. Xgpoint This utility is used to display the 12-m pointing correction history. When this task is activated, the control screen will appear. The data to be plotted can be selected on various criteria and several different plots can be generated, such as Az versus Elevation, El versus Elevation, etc. If you wish to print the Xgpoint displays on your local printer, you must set the .rhosts file as described in Section 6.2 below. Xhchat Window Use this to carry on an electronic conversation ("E-Chat") with the telescope operator. f) Stopping an Xremote session. After you have finished your remote observing session, please stop all the remote processes. You have two options here. You can press the "Quit" button on the Xremote menu screen which will stop all processes and remove the control menu. Alternatively, check the 'All' box, then push 'Stop'. This will stop all the remote windows, but leave the menu screen operative. You can kill the Xremote menu using your window manager functions. Please note that killing the menu window by itself using the window manager will not kill the other windows; they run as independent processes. To conclude the remote session, logout of the locura window. 5.2 Emulation Terminals a) Use the instructions described in Section 5.1 (a) and (b) above to establish a data directory and source catalog. b) Log into your data reduction area as follows: Using your Tektronics terminal or emulator, type telnet locura.kp.nrao.edu or telnet 192.68.189.16 The login prompt will appear as: locura login: obs Password: (call us!) and give your observing initials when prompted. You can start using your data reduction sessions as if you were at the telescope (e.g., using line or condar). Line and condar will prompt you to identify the type of terminal you are using, e.g., TEK4010. b-ii) If you have a Sun workstation using OpenWindows Version 3.0, you can manually establish a UniPOPS data reduction system in an X Window environment, although if this is the case, you should normally follow the instructions in Section 5.1. Nevertheless if you need to establish a stand-alone UniPOPS session on your home workstation, type xhost locura.kp.nrao.edu which gives locura (the NRAO machine) permission to make an X-Windows display on your machine. When you are logged into locura (using the instructions in Section 3 above), type (at the locura/obs/ini prompt) setenv DISPLAY your.workstation.name:0 When you start UniPOPS, you should see a plot window icon appear and should *not* be asked a question about what kind of graphics display device you are using. (N.B. We ask that you try this during a pre-arranged maintenance session to avoid interfering with the current observer.) c) Establish a ANSI terminal session on locura following exactly the same instructions as in Section 5b above, but using your ANSI screen or emulator. You can use this session to first retrieve your source catalog, and then to establish a "Talk" session with the operator. Using your ANSI window on locura, retrieve your source catalog from your home institute via ftp or e-mail as described in Section 5b above. Using this same ANSI terminal window on locura, establish a "Talk" session with the operator by typing: talk oper12m@corona.kp.nrao.edu (Note that this must be in an ANSI terminal or emulator.) To terminate a talk session, hit ctrl-c. d) To see the Status screen, use your other ANSI terminal: telnet corona.kp.nrao.edu or telnet 192.68.189.5 You will see the login prompt: corona login: netstat password: (Call us!) The status screen will appear automatically. To end this session, hit "control c" or q to quit: ctrl-c or q The status screen can be refreshed by hitting the 'r' key within the status window. e) Simply log out of the other sessions to terminate remote observing. 6. Making Remote Hardcopies from UniPOPS This section was adapted from a memo prepared by Bob Garwood of NRAO- Charlottesville (bgarwood@nrao.edu). Detailed questions may be addressed to Bob. There are two options for routing UniPOPS hardcopies to your local site. Approach 1 is easy but tedious if you are making a lot of hardcopies. Approach 2 is automatic but requires some UNIX savvy, is a security hole in your account on your remote host, and can tie up the program while the graphics file is being printed. General caveat emptor: This is for Postscript output only (other printers are possible via Approach 2 but a UniPOPS guru may be required). 6.1 Remote Printing Approach 1 ( Easy but tedious if you are making a lot of hardcopies) Before starting up line or condar: Set your popsprinter environment to be "capture". setenv popsprinter capture After starting up line or condar, whenever you request a hardcopy (i.e. via GCOPY or TCOPY or LASER or OUTPUT) the postscript output that would otherwise get sent directly to a printer will be deposited in a file with each hardcopy request going into a new file (i.e. each time you type GCOPY, a new file is generated). The name of the individual files will be capture.file.$$ where $$ will be expanded to a unique number for each file. The name of each file will be echoed to your screen. ftp each file from locura to your remote host and print it out as you would any postscript file (this is the tedious part). Delete the files on locura once you've transferred them to your remote host. You may wish to delete them on your remote host as well once they've been printed. Postscript files can be large so you don't want to get in the habit of letting them pile up. 6.2 Remote Printing Approach 2 (Automatic but more involved) N.B. This (a) requires some UNIX savy; (b) is a security hole in your account on your remote host; and (c) can tie up the program while the graphics file is being printed. Preparation: At the locura% prompt, type setenv popsprinter remote cp ~unipops/remote.print remote.print Using your favorite editor, edit the copy of remote.print in your own obs/ini subdirectory. Here's what the unedited remote.print looks like: #!/bin/csh -f cat - > remote.ps.$$ rcp remote.ps.$$ username@hostname:remote.ps.$$ rsh -l username hostname lpr -Pprinter_name -r -s remote.ps.$$ /bin/rm -f remote.ps.$$ Explanation: The first line merely indicates that the c-shell is to be used. The second line deposits the standard input into a file (this is what the popsprinter=capture does, using a different file name). The standard input is already in postscript so no conversion to postscript is necessary. The next line copies that file to the top level directory of username on hostname. The fourth line remotely prints out the file that was just copied using the printer named "printer_name" and the unix lpr command. The -r flag to lpr removes the file when printing is completed. The final line removes the temporary file on locura. Modifications to the script you should make: You need to change "username" to be your login name on the remote host (username appears twice in remote.print). You need to change "hostname" to the full Internet host name for your remote host (e.g. sngldsh.cv.nrao.edu would be an example of a hostname; hostname appears twice in remote.print). You need to change "printer_name" to the name of the desired postscript printer on hostname (printer_name appears once). It is slightly possible you may need to change the syntax of the lpr command and flags on the fourth line although the above should work on all Suns except those running Solaris. On "hostname" (your remote host) you need to create (or modify if you already have one) a .rhosts file (notice the leading "dot" in the name). See the man page for rhosts as well as rsh for complete information. Entries in an .rhosts file signal the computer that logins from certain users on certain machines are "trusted" and no password is necessary. This is what allows the rcp and rsh commands to work. Without an appropriate .rhosts file, none of this will work. Your .rhosts file should be in your default login directory on "hostname". It should be readable/writable by you (the owner) and read-only for everyone else. Since you want to signal that the "obs" username on locura is "trusted", you want the following line in your .rhosts file: locura.kp.nrao.edu obs That should do it. If everything works as planned you should get a hardcopy out of your remote postscript printer every time you issue a hardcopy request on UniPOPS on locura. Since EVERY observer uses the obs account on locura, it should be obvious what a security hole this is. Therefore, it is important that you remove the line you just entered in your .rhosts file whenever you don't need it (i.e. after each observing run). Otherwise, anyone with access to the obs account on locura will be able to log into your account (username) on your host (hostname). Time: The UniPOPS prompt will not come back until remote.print has finished. If the graphics file is large (and postscript files tend to be large to start with) and the data rate between locura and hostname is slow, this may be an unacceptably long time to wait for the UniPOPS prompt to come back. You may opt for Approach 1 above since you can do the ftp'ing asynchronously (UniPOPS merely has to wait for the file to be copied to the capture file). There is currently NO way to switch printers once the program has started.