To follow this tutorial you should have familiarity with p2: the web-based tool for the preparation of Phase 2 materials.  Please refer to the main p2 webpage (and the items in the menu bar on the left of that page) for a general overview of p2 and generic instructions on the preparation of Observing Blocks (OB).  Screenshots for this tutorial were made using the demo mode of p2, but should not differ in any way from one's experience in preparing your own OBs under your run.

In case you wish to produce many similar OBs, for which only target information is different, it is convenient to use the Import Target List option from the p2 UI.

First prepare an OB (so-called master OB) that contains the instrument setup, and all the other parameters, except target information. Highlight this master OB and select the Import Target List option under the Import/Export menu on the p2 UI. A window will pop up allowing you to navigate your local folders and select the appropriate file. After selecting the file containing a target list in ascii format, press the open button to automatically replicate the master OB into as many copies as targets there are in the file, assigning a different target to each new copy.

You can upload an ASCII text file with one target per line and comma separated properties. Target name, RA and Dec are mandatory:

• Target Name

  Target name can include any alphanumeric character, and space, dot, plus or minus signs [a-z][A-Z][0-9][.+- ]
  

• RA

  Right ascension in hours, minutes, seconds format HH:MM:SS.SSS, with 0 <= HH < 24. Seconds allow up to 3 decimal places (optional)
  

• Dec

  Declination in sign (optional), degrees, minutes, seconds format [+|-]DD:MM:SS.SSS, with -90 <= DD <= 90. Seconds allow up to 3 decimal places (optional)
  

• Equinox (optional)

  Equinox expressed as the year including the reference (optional), Julian or Besselian, [J|B]YYYY.YY. The year allows up to 2 decimal places (optional). Default value = J2000
  

• Epoch (optional)

  Epoch of the coordinates YYYY.Y. The year allows up to 4 digits and up to 1 decimal place (optional). Default value = 2000

• Prop. Motion RA (optional)

  Proper motion in right ascension in arcseconds per year (μ_α cos δ). Default value = 0
  

• Prop. Motion Dec (optional)

  Proper motion in declination in arcseconds per year. Default value = 0
  

• Diff. RA (optional)

  Differential tracking velocity in RA in arcseconds per second. Default value = 0
  

• Diff. Dec (optional)

  Differential tracking velocity in Dec in arcseconds per second. Default value = 0                                 

Please see the following example of a valid target list:

Sz100, 16:08:25.8, -39:06:01, J2000, 2013.5, +0.100, -0.231, 0.002530, 0.000310
Sz102, 16:08:29.7, -39:03:11, J2000, 2013.5
Sz108A, 16:08:42.7, -39:06:17
Sz108B, 16:08:42.8, -39:06:14.3, , , +0.087, -0.198
Sz113, 16:08:57, -39:02:22, 2000, 2013.5, +0.089, -0.289
Meritxe, 16:06:07, -39:00:19, B1950, 2013.5, +0.201, -0.208, 0.001260, -0.000256
Par-Lup, 16:08:15.9, -39:03:01, J2000, 2013.5, +0.132, -0.253

This page is valid for all instruments