Introduction

JObserve is an interactive schedule editor for scheduling observations using an astronomical telescope. Schedules are organized into "scans" which describes pointing and the data to be collected. A schedule consists of a set of global information and a list of scans. Scans can be manipulated using the List Editor and the contents of scans are manipulated by a telescope dependent Scan editor Once generated, a schedule can be converted into a file containing the instructions needed by the telescope and a number of different reports may be generated.

JObserve has a number of command line options that allow overriding the standard defaults for calibrator, NRAO and User Default files, online documentation, input and output text files and report generation. It is also possible to control the colors of the display. The form of the command line is:

java JObserve.Observe options input_text_file

The command line options are described in the following:

-h give this help information
-H Help_File; Help navigation file name
-t Help_html_base_directory_name
-d directory; default directory for JObserve files
-i input_Obs_file_name
if this option is given then input_text_file is ignored
-u User_Default_list_file_name; default is none
-n NRAO_default_list_file_name; default: use standard
-s Setup_file; giving initial conditions
-c Calibrator_list_file_name; default: use standard
-o output Obs_file_name; default is none
-r report_file_name; MUST be given if -R specified
-R report_type; one of :
Summary, Full, Scheduling, Frequency, TimeOnSource, Analysts
default is no report.
-bg background_color; one of:
white, lightGray, gray, darkGray, black, red, pink, orange
yellow, green, magenta, cyan, blue
-fg foreground_color; (see bg for choices)
-at autosave time interval (sec). def. 120, neg => no autosave
-af autosave filename root, def. JOrecover

Many (but not all) of these options are also available using the File menu and Reports Menu.

Saving and restoring working schedules or individual lists are controled by items in the File menu. The items in the Options menu control global values. The Edit menu contains items for editing lists; the Database menu controls the display of the calibrator list. The items in the Reports Menu run a number of report generators; the Schedule menu controls linking the scans into an observing schedule and the Help menu gives this online documentation.