Michael F. Sterzik" 
Wed, 28 Feb 2007 17:57:25 -0300


Ladies and gentlemen,

I want to clarify our internal handling procedures of the different  flavors of service programs in LSO, in particular DDT 
and pre-imaging  programs. We have/had confusion.

In principle, we have two workflow procedures embedded within the  Remedy system: LTOO (LaSilla Target of Opportunity) tickets, 
and LSM  (LaSilla Service Mode) tickets. I will remind you the concepts of  LTOO and LSM first, before discussing DDT and pre-imaging.
In principle, the following is valid for all telescopes and instruments.


TOO
===

ToOs are OPC pre-approved programs.

The list of approved ToOs is kept up-to-date by VISAS, see
http://www.eso.org/observing/visas/too/current_too.html
or per period, e.g.:
http://www.eso.org/observing/visas/too/too79.html
At the beginning of each period, the program IDs, names, and assigned  telescope/instrument combination are entered in a 
Remedy database by  DHA (Jose). Once this is prepared, it allows the user to use a WEB  form to validate, and submit a trigger 
(see http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/sciops/ToO/ToOForm_cgi.php )

Our internal handling procedure within Remedy (LTOO) is explained in  detail here:
http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/sciops/esoonly/ToO_Procedures.html

Within this scheme, data can be transferred in quasi-real time to the  user, by an ftp procedure. This is necessary, as users should 
access  their data asap.

Normal Service Mode (only 3.6m and NTT)
===================

Again, these are OPC pre-approved programs.

NOTE: we refer only to 3.6m and NTT normal service mode programs. At  the 2.2m these programs are fully supported by USD and the Quality  Control group in Garching, and therefore do not require the "LaSilla  handling scheme".

Our SciOps sheriff (Ivo) maintains for every period one page, that  lists, and assigns the programs to support astronomers, see: http:// www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/sciops/esoonly/service/P79/

In principle, instructions how to handle and process normal SM  observations should be here
http://www.ls.eso.org/lasilla/sciops/esoonly/service/GUS.html
but it needs to be updated.
For each program, a "LSM" service mode tickets must be created within  Remedy.
Logging, documentation and user communication are similar to those in  the ToO scheme.

There is ONE big difference: while ToO observations are transferred  via ftp to Garching, LSM observations are packed and shipped in  Garching, in particular by John. John automatically receives an email  once a LSM ticket is closed. This is the trigger for him to start  packing, and shipping.

DDT
===

During the period, DDT programs may get approved by the DG. These are  executed by us in normal service mode.

I therefore suggest to use the SAME procedure as for SM observations,  i.e. logging via LSM.
*One* (and only one) LSM ticket is created by the shift leader, once  a DDT has been approved.
Data delivery in these cases is normally not time critical and data  packing and shipment is then done via John/QC/Garching, once the  trigger signal (close of the corresponding LSM ticket) has been  received by him.

Pre-imaging
===========

Pre-imaging programs  are sometimes requested during the period, for  subsequent EMMI and EFOSC spectroscopy. They refer to OPC approved  *visitor programs*, but are, obviously, executed in service mode by  us. They do not have a special program ID, but refer to the program  ID of the main visitor program itself.
As timely data delivery might be critical in some of these cases, I  suggest to use the LTOO handling scheme for logging, documentation,  user communication AND data delivery. It means that John/QC/Garching  is *NOT* involved in the process of packing/shipping for pre-imaging  data, but us. LTOO tickets are created by the shiftleader, resp. the  astronomer that executes the pre-imaging observations at a given  instrument.