Program schedule generator was developed by Marcin Sokolowski

The main goal of the "Pi of the Sky" experiment is observation of GRB optical counterparts. The night observation program is ruled by pointing of the GRB detecting satellites.  The system architecture allows to create night program in form of the pish script. This script is automatically every evening just before start of night observations.  In the previous version of the night schedule generator pointing information of SWIFT, INTEGRAL and HETE satellites was retrieved from the web pages : swift pointing, integral pointing. The script was generated and loaded by piman in the beginning of the night, example of such old fashion script is given here. The program contains all position which will be followed during a night. In the evening and in the morning all sky scan is performed ( scan_evening.pish , scan_morning.pish ) . In case system receives GRB alert with known position from the GCN network, current program is ignored. Piman program decides to point mount to the position of GRB and system observes this field for half an hour, after this time mount is moved to the position observed just before the alert.
Since the 2006-12-20 the script generator was changed, the telescope pointing is now performed dynamically during the night. The pointing procedure was developed and is called by piman program in 15 minutes intervals. Satellites pointing information is obtained from the GCN network by tcp/ip socket connection. The primary target is the SWIFT satellite's Field Of View ( FOV ) in case information about change of SWIFT pointing position is obtained from the GCN network piman automatically calls pointing procedure and in case new position is above the horizon it is observed. In case SWIFT satellite cannot be observed pointing procedure checks if INTEGRAL satellite's FOV can observed, if not object from list of GTN or WEBT objects is used as target. In case position to be observed is to close to the Moon, an alternative position in the satellite's FOV range is chosen or alternative object is used. Table below contains currently used list of targets in  order of priority :

OBJECT
 COORDINATES
 FOV
SWIFT satellite
 changing
 2srad
INTEGRAL satellite
 changing 16o
PKS 2155-304 215852-301332.0 -
AO 0235+164 023838+163659.0 -
4C 29.45
115931+291444.0 -
OI 158
073807+174219.0 -
OJ 287 085448+200629.0
-
3C 273 122906+020307.0 -
OR -017 151250-090558.0
-
W Com 122131+281358.0 -
J0210-5055 
021046-510100.0 -
OJ 049 083148+042939.0 -
GeV J1832-2128 183300-213600.0
-
OP 151 133335+164904.0 -
PKS 0537-441 053850-440508.0 -
Mrk 501  
165352+394535.0 -
Mrk 421 110427+381230.0 -
QQ Vul
200541+223959.0
-
RR Aqr (D) 211843-020812.0 -
RR Aqr      
211501-025344.0 -
RR Aqr (C) 211917-014609.0 -
VV Pup   
081506-190315.0
-
EF Eri   
031413-223540.0
-
V834 Cen 140907-451717.0 -
V2214 Oph 171201-293732.0 -
J0458-4635 045550-461557.0 -
BL Hyi 
014100-675326.0 -
MR Ser
155247+185626.0
-
4C 11.69 223236+114350.0
-
OS 319 161341+341247.0 -
3C 279
125611-054721.0 -
V347 Pav
184448-741833.0 -
GQ Mus 115202-671220.0 -
RR Aqr (G) 
211622-023914.0
-
PKS 1229-021 123159-022405.0 -


Example of new night script can be seen here. It is very simple, now. In the beginning dynamic pointing procedure is called and scheduled re-pointing is enabled to be performed every 15 minutes. In case new position of highest priority target was not changed since last pointing, the mount position remains unchanged

mail Marcin Sokolowski 05.03.2007