ASPRO2 A2P2 Tutorial

ASPRO2 & A2P2 Tutorial

Updated:

• 2018.12.18 - first tutorial for VLTI use case

Prerequisites

• Install or launch ASPRO2, see ASPRO2 documentation for more details

• Install A2P2 using pip (recommended): pip install --upgrade [--user] a2p2

Note: JMMC recommends using the latest ASPRO2 Beta with A2P2: http://jmmc.fr/~betaswmgr/Aspro2/

Prepare your observation in ASPRO2

• Start ASPRO2 using Java Web Start (javaws) or using the downloaded Aspro2-x.y.z.jar file, see Up-to-date instructions;
• Define your setup (interferometer, period, configuration, instrument setup...);
• Define your targets (SCIENCE, CALIBRATORS) as usual;
• Eventually, add Adaptive Optics (AO), Fringe Tracker (FT) and/or Guide Stars in the list, then place them in the AO, FT or GUIDE "group" using the new Group panel of Aspro's Target Editor:

One can associate an AO, FT or Guide star to each SCIENCE or CALIBRATOR object. This ancillary information will be propagated in the ESO Observing Block (OB) by a2p2.

Notes:

• to mark a target as AO / FT / GUIDE stars, just select it and either click on the corresponding Group(s) (AO star, FT star, Guide star) or use Drag & Drop from the tree on the left (SCIENCE / CALIBRATOR targets) to the Group in the tree on the middle (Target groups with their associated targets).
• to associate an AO / FT / GUIDE star to your SCIENCE / CALIBRATOR targets, use Drag & Drop from the AO / FT / Guide star to the corresponding SCIENCE / CALIBRATOR target.

For example, you can download the ASPRO2 sample file and use the File / Load Observation action, that illustrates Sirius B observed using Sirius A as its AO star:

Note: the Status messages gives observation details (AO in use with the proper AO target).

Start A2P2

Just type a2p2 and the A2P2 GUI should be displayed:

At startup, A2P2 will connect to ASPRO2 SAMP Hub (interoperability enabled). It is indicated in the bottom right corner by 'SAMP: connected'.

Send OB from ASPRO2 to A2P2

In ASPRO2, select the target you want to send to A2P2 (SCIENCE or CALIBRATOR stars) and use the Interop | Send Obs. block(s) to A2p2 action to let ASPRO 2 send a message to A2P2 with all your target information (OB):

A2P2 Login

When A2P2 receives an OB for the first time, A2P2 will detect which interferometer is used: VLTI or CHARA. For VLTI, A2P2 must connect to the ESO P2 (REST API) with the user credentials.

To log in P2, just enter your user name & password (never stored or shared by A2P2):

Note: for demonstration purposes, use the ESO P2 demo account:

• user name: 52052
• password: tutorial

A2P2 VLTI: Select Instrument & folder

Once logged into ESO P2, A2P2 displays your offered instruments & folders (depending on your accepted Call for Proposals) to select the appropriate instrument (and period):

You can (optionally) select a child folder to classify your OBs:

Send OB (2nd attempt)

• In ASPRO2, use the Interop | Send Obs. block(s) to A2p2 action again.
• A2P2 handles the SAMP OB message, performs its validation (advanced ESO rules) and creates Observing Blocks (OB) in ESO P2 (via REST API).

There are 2 cases:

• P2 returns an Error: For example, "the magnitude -1.09" (Sirius A is the AO star) is invalid as P2 only accepts AO stars in [0..25] range: (To check further the example, pretend that Sirius A has magnitude 0 in all bands and submit again.)

• P2 OB submitted: P2 validated the submitted OB and has saved it successfully:

A2P2 Log

Click on the LOG tabbed pane to show the complete log with detailed ESO P2 messages. In this screenshot, you can see all detailed GRAVITY setup (NDIT, polarization ...):

PS: ESO P2 reports several warnings on seeing, CAL-SCI-CAL sequences ...) that are features not yet implemented either in A2P2 or P2 API (future improvements)

P2 Web UI

Finally you can open a web browser to open the ESO P2 web interface:

• ESO P2: https://www.eso.org/p2/login
• ESO P2 DEMO: https://www.eso.org/p2demo/login

You can search for your OB and edit all its detailed or advanced settings to fix warnings & errors.

In conclusion:

• Please check that your observing blocks conform to the ESO Call for Proposal (object magnitudes, instrument & observation constraints ...)
• ASPRO2 & A2P2 software generated Observing Blocks to ESO P2 without any warranty: OBs must be corrected before final submission to ESO Phase 2
• Please submit issues on this GitHub page if you find a bug!

The End

That's all folks !