http://www.ucalgary.ca/

Background

• The Rothney Astrophysical Observatory (RAO) is operated by the Department of Physics & Astronomy of the University of Calgary

• The RAO was inaugurated on Jan. 7, 1972 • 0.4, 0.5 and 1.8 meter optical telescopes• The RAO is located near Priddis (Alberta), about

30km southwest of the Calgary city center• Current control software is broken

http://www.ucalgary.ca/

Overall Status

• Decision to use ACS

• U of C grad student hired

• Began porting RAO control software ~May 2005

• Upgrade plagued by numerous problems:

– Lack of Linux Port IO driver

– Kernel module problems with OSes supported by ACS

– Infrastructure and sys admin issues

– Not enough man-power

• Still, we are making progress

Why Use ACS?

• Existing control system coupled too tightly with the Windows-only GUI

• A very strong desire to control the telescope(s) remotely

• Need to have semi-permanent support

Planned Usage of ACS

• Present control system being converted from Windows-only GUI to (non-ACS) C++ classes

• 3rd party libraries distributed with ACS will be used by these classes

• Eventually ACSComponent-derived components will use these platform independent C++ objects as proxies to control the telescope

• Extensive usage of the CDB

Usage to Date

• 3rd party libraries distributed with ACS• ACS logging system• Tool for Automated Tests

Contributions to ACS

• Kernel module to control Linux ports (September)• Security mechanism (sometime in the near future?)

Questions???