FLAMES P2PP Tutorial

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions on how to prepare a correct set of Observation Blocks (OBs) for observations to be executed with the Fibre Large Array Multi Element Spectrograph (FLAMES), the new multi-fibre facility mounted on the platform Nasmyth A at the ESO VLT Unit Telescope #2 (Kueyen).

To follow it, it is recommended to be already familiar with the basic concepts and features of P2PP and to have it installed on your local computer. Please refer to the P2PP Web page for detailed instructions on the installation, and to the P2PP User Manual for a general overview on the preparation of Observation Blocks.

Getting Started

If you are reading this page, it is very likely that your program has been allocated time with FLAMES. Because of its 30 different setups (22 in high resolution and 8 in low resolution) and 3 different instrument modes (GIRAFFE, UVES, and the combined mode GIRAFFE+UVES), this tutorial will not be able to cover all the possible combinations: it is meant to give you a general overview and get you started with the Phase2 preparation.

For the purpose of our exercise, and inspired by the programs carried out during the FLAMES dry-runs (Jan 24 - Feb 3, 2003) we have chosen to prepare some example OBs for two science cases: Case A is a study of chemical abundances in the open cluster M67 using the combined mode GIRAFFE Medusa+UVES (it will use two of the high-res Medusa settings and one UVES setup); Case B aims at studying velocity fields and rotation curves of a cluster of galaxies using the Giraffe Integral Field Unit (IFU) in one of the low-res settings.

If you are now ready to prepare your Observation Blocks means that you are familiar with the following documentation:

• The FLAMES User's Manual
• The FLAMES Template Reference Guide
• The FPOSS User's Manual

More details on the instrument status and on FPOSS can be found respectively on the FLAMES Web pages and on the FPOSS tool Web page. Further useful information and tools for the OB preparation can be found on the User Support Services and Tools Web pages.

This tutorial has been prepared with the P2PP version currently available to Period 78 users (V. 2.10). In the future, text and figures will be updated only when major changes in the instrument package and/or in P2PP have been included.

For this tutorial, we will use a special P2PP account that ESO has set up for testing purposes (e.g. to prepare example OBs even if one does not have an approved observing program):

• P2PP ID: 52052
• password: tutorial

After logging in using the tutorial account, the P2PP main GUI will appear. Runs for a number of instruments appear in the Folders area, since the same tutorial account is used for all VLT instruments. Similarly, if you log in with your own P2PP ID, you will get the list of all the runs of which you are PI.

Selecting the folder corresponding to the FLAMES Tutorial run, i.e. 60.A-9252(I), this will be highlighted. For the purpose of this exercise, let's assume that time was allocated to this program in Service Mode, as indicated by the SM letters that appear next to the Run ID.

In order to start with the preparation of our OBs, click on the New icon in the upper left corner of the P2PP main GUI. This will make the first dummy OB to appear in the Summaries area. The red dot next to the OB Name means that the OB failed to pass some fundamental verification criteria, which is indeed our case as the OB does not contain any information yet.

With the OB highlighted, click on the View icon in order to open the ObsBlock window from where we will define our observations.

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Case A: a study of chemical abundances in the open cluster M67

The purpose of this observational project is to observe a large number of stars in the open cluster M67 in order to derive its iron content and other elemental abundances. The observing strategy we want to implement is to observe a minimum of hundred stars with Medusa fibres, and assign UVES fibres to the brightest objects in the field in order to achieve higher resolution and a larger spectral coverage. From the M67 test-catalog included in the test directory of the FPOSS installation, we were able to prepare one satisfactory configuration that we will now use to prepare our OBs.

First of all, we need a template that defines how to acquire the object, followed by one or more templates defining the exposure time and the instrument setups of our science observations.

Let's start by assigning a Name to our first OB, M67com, and to the OD (Observation Description), M67comh14h15u580. It is quite important to give meaningful labels because it is very likely that your program will include several OBs, as an Observation Block is by definition the minimum schedulable unit.

In the upper right part of the ObsBlock window (cf below), you can see that there are three main Template Type we can choose from: one for acquisitions, one for the science exposures, and one for calibrations (the test type is for maintenance only). Selecting any of these will update the listing in Template to reflect the different instrument modes available. For FLAMES there are only three different Templates corresponding to the three instrument modes GIRAFFE-only, UVES-only, and the GIRAFFE+UVES combined mode. Note that starting with Period 73 there are two templates for the GIRAFFE-only mode: the FLAMES_giraf_acq_argfast is to be used for the ARGUS fast acquisition mode, which is offered only in Visitor Mode.

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Defining the acquisition template

This must be the first step, always. From the Template Type list, let's select acquisition (the entry must appear highlighted) and subsequently FLAMES_com_acq from the Template list. Once both are highlighted, let's click the Add button next to it, which adds the acquisition template to the main central part of the window (so far empty).

There are three fields that need to be edited: GIRAFFE config. wavelength, UVES config. wavelength, and FPOSS target setup file. For the configuration wavelengths we must specify the wavelengths which our field(s) will be configured for, usually the wavelengths at which we will be observing. Please note that the telescope will track on the GIRAFFE configuration wavelength. Depending on the target you are observing, the time at which the OB is executed and its total execution time, the difference between the Medusa and UVES configuration wavelengths (if any) may lead to increased fibre losses. This apply also to IFU+UVES combined mode. In the FPOSS target setup file field we need to read in the target setup file we have previously prepared with FPOSS (the *.ins file).

Our strategy is to use two GIRAFFE Medusa settings, HR #14A and #15, together with UVES Red_580. From the pull-down-menu corresponding to GIRAFFE config. wavelength let's start by selecting H651.5A (which corresponds to the central wavelength of setting HR#14A - please note that the default value of this field is always L385.7). As you may have noticed, there are some settings that appear to be double in the list and that can be distinguished only by a final A or B (or N, in case of HR#15). These settings have the same central wavelength, but are characterized by different spectral coverages and resolving powers. Please take a look at the table summarising all the high resolution settings of GIRAFFE. For the UVES part, we do not need to update the UVES config. wavelength because this value is defaulted to 580, which is exactly what we want.

Clicking on the FPOSS target setup file field, a dialog window pops up from which we can select the configuration file (the *.ins file) corresponding to this program.

Once loaded, the field will be updated with the name of the selected file (but without the .ins extension) and the Target package at the bottom of the window will be automatically updated with the Name, Right Ascension and Declination (see next Figure). These values are read in directly from the .ins file, and they correspond respectively to the name of the target field and the coordinates of its center as specified in the header of the catalog file (the input file of our FPOSS session).

The only field in the Target package you may still want to update is the Class of the object, which is another pull-down menu, from which one can choose the category of the target to be observed (useful for archival purposes). In our case, we select OpCl. The acquisition template can then be considered completed.

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Defining the Observation Template

The selection of our science template is done very similarly to what we have done for the acquisition. We just need to select science as our Template Type, then FLAMES_com_obs_exp from the Template list, and press the Add button. As before, this will add the selected template to the central part of this window.

We can now edit the FLAMES_com_obs_exp template by specifying the number of exposures (in our case, 1 GIRAFFE and 2 UVES), the exposure times, the central wavelength of our settings (651.5 nm and 580 nm respectively), and if we want to take a simultaneous thorium-argon calibration frame while integrating on our targets (ON or OFF - in our case set to OFF, because strong Argon lines at wavelengths greater than 650 nm may affect the science spectra, as it is documented here).

Since we are interested in observing the same field also with the setting HR#15, we have now two possibilities: to attach a second science template to this OB, or to build a second separate OB for the HR#15 setting. Since our exposures are well below the 1 hour limit, and the two chosen settings are very close in wavelength, for the purpose of this tutorial, we have decided to attach a second science template to our current OB. Following the same procedure outlined above, we select a second science template with the Add button and we edit the fields accordingly.

This almost completes our first OB! What we are still missing is to specify the constraints under which our observations will be carried out (mandatory in Service Mode), to fill out the Instrument Comments field (which is now mandatory!) and to compute/update the OB total execution time.

Setting the constraints is an important step that, in the case of FLAMES, you may forget to do because the Target package, usually the first one to be filled in, is automatically updated when the configuration file is loaded in the acquisition template. As you can see from the values displayed in the above panel, our science project is not very demanding: Transparency = Thin, Seeing = 1.3, Airmass = 1.5, Fractional Lunar Illumination (FLI) = 1.0, and Moon Distance = 45 degrees.

Please note that in your Phase I proposal you have already specified some of these constraints (lunar illumination, seeing, transparency). You must make sure that none of the constraints specified in Phase II is more stringent than the corresponding ones specified at Phase I.

For the Instrument Comments field, we need to provide the magnitudes of the VLT Guide Star and of the 4 FACB stars we have selected and used in our Target Setup file, the hour angle interval over which our fibre configuration(s) is valid, and the targeted S/N ratio at a reference wavelength (of our choice). To ease the task, one can just follow the reported syntax.

In order to determine the total execution time of the OB, we just need to click the Recalc Exec Time button in the upper right corner of the ObsBlock window: by doing this, the field Execution Time in the upper left corner is automatically updated. This number includes all the instrument overheads associated to the execution of a given Observation Block. However, please note that any time you make a change to your OB, you must recalculate its total execution time. This is how our ObsBlock window looks like, after this step is completed:

Our first OB is now ready. We can close the ObsBlock panel and complete the last steps. First, we need to attach a finding chart. Since P73 this is the only way of submitting your finding charts to ESO. By clicking Attach FC, a new pop-up window will let you select the finding chart corresponding to this OB (in this case, it is called fc1.jpg), which will then appear in the main P2PP GUI window. Please check the Finding Chart tutorial for more detailed instructions.Secondly, we now need to verify that our Observation Block can be indeed executed. From the P2PP main GUI window, with the M67com OB highlighted, let's select Reports > Verify and then All or Selected.

This step runs a Verification Module checking that the structure and all the parameters we have specified are compliant with the instrument specifications. The Verification Message report appears in a pop-up window:

In this particular case, it tells us that the OB we have just prepared has been successfully verified, despite some warning messages, which one needs to evaluate on a case-by-case basis. For our purposes, the OB is OK. Please note that should you obtain error messages (compared to only warnings), you will not be able to Check-In your OBs to the ESO Database before having solved the errors.

Since we want to prepare one more OB, we will postpone the Check-In procedure, which requires the preparation and submission of a README file (now also to be done via P2PP), to the very end of this exercise.

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Case B: Kinematics of Distant Galaxies

The goal of this project is to study the kinematics of 10-15 galaxies selected in the high-redshift cluster N3201-00 at z=0.8, with the GIRAFFE Integral Field Unit (IFU) and the low-res setting LR#6.

Please note that the target here selected, N3201-00, is not a cluster of galaxies in reality, but for the purpose of this tutorial, we wanted to make use of the second test-catalog that is distributed together with FPOSS (in the test directory, once FPOSS has been installed).

Since the construction of any OB is very similar to what we have already done for Case A, in this second part of our tutorial we will skip the most repetitive steps of the exercise, and focus only on the most significant differences. In short, we must create a New OB, open the ObsBlock window by selecting View from the P2PP main GUI. Once there, we can start by naming our new OB and OD, and by adding our acquisition template. Since for this second project we will be using only the GIRAFFE IFU mode, we must select the FLAMES_giraf_acq template and then press Add. Following the same steps as in Case A, we can now edit the fields in the acquisition template. Our ObsBlock window looks like this:

We have set the Config. wavelength to 682.2 nm, which is the central wavelength of the low-res setting LR#6, and we have loaded our new configuration file created with FPOSS. Once again, this has also updated some of the fields of the Target package. We can now Add the science template FLAMES_giraf_obs_exp and define the setting and exposure times we have chosen and computed.

Note that in this case we have set once again the Simultaneous Th-Ar calib. lamp to OFF, as we are again observing at wavelengths larger than 650 nm.

Once again, after having specified our set of constraints, and filled out the Instrument Comments field, we can check the total execution time of our OB by clicking the Recalc Exec Time. Please note that in this specific case, the total execution time for this OB exceeds the 1 hour rule, for which one needs to submit a Waiver Request to p2pp-waiver@eso.org.

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The last steps: verification, README file and OBs submission

With the completion of the two OBs above, we consider this tutorial terminated. As already mentioned, it has certainly not covered all the observing strategies you may have foreseen for your program, but it has shown how to prepare OBs for two representative cases: one combined-mode (GIRAFFE Medusa + UVES) and one single-mode (GIRAFFE IFU only). Also, you may have noticed that none of our OBs has made use of the three remaining packages at the bottom of the ObsBlock window, but you may need to use them for your own program. They are: Time Intervals, in case you need to specify during which time windows your observations should be carried out; User Comments, in case you wish to provide some extra information about, e.g., your target; Calibration Requirements, in case you wish to comment on possible calibrations attached to your science template or on possible special calibration needs your program may have. In order to select them, just click on them.

The P2PP main GUI displays now the two OBs we have prepared. Before submitting them to the ESO Database, we still need to attach a finding chart to the last OB we have prepared (fc2.jpg, following the same procedure as for Case 1), to compute the Total execution time of our entire program and to fill out the associated Readme file. First, let's make sure that the execution of our program will not oversubscribe the OPC allocated time, by selecting Reports > Execution Time. The number we obtain here needs to be specified in the Readme file.

And now the Readmefile, which needs to be Checked-In before the OBs. For this purpose, let us assume that the 2 OBs we have prepared belong to the same observing project, hence we need to prepare only one Readme file. By clicking on the Readme button, a new pop-up window appears, where we need to fill out the various fields (by clicking on each of them, one by one, the corresponding text window will appear) and to answer some easy questions (YES or N/A). Please, see the README tutorial for more detailed instructions.

Once the Readme file is completed, it can be submitted to the ESO Database (from the pull-down menu Readme > Check-In).

Once this last step has been performed, and once we have re-verified all our OBs (from Reports > Verify > All) to make sure that they are error-free, we are finally ready to submit the OBs to the ESO Database: let's select them in the Summaries list, and choose File > Check-In in the P2PP main GUI. A dialog box will appear asking for confirmation and, if we click OK, the selected OBs will be saved in the ESO Database.

The success of this step can be easily verified: if our OBs have been successfully transfered to the ESO Database, they will appear with a lock-symbol in the Summaries panel of our P2PP main GUI.

Please remember when submitting the final OBs for your own run, for which you got the time allocated by the OPC, to press the P2PP-SUBMIT button in order to give a signal to the Support Astronomer that your Phase II submission is complete.

As a courtesy to the next user who follows this tutorial, we would like to ask you to finish this exercise by removing the OBs you have created from the ESO Database. The P2PP User Manual gives you detailed instructions on how to do this. In short,

• select File > Check-out... from the P2PP main GUI;

• in the Database Browser window that opens soon after, type 60.A-9252(I) in the Prog ID field, select 60 as the corresponding Period and tick how many Selected Columns you prefer (note that now you can also display which finding charts have been attached to each OB);

• click on the Query button at the lower left corner: the OBs you have saved in the ESO Database will appear in the display area;

• select all the OBs (normally there should be only the ones you have submitted, but if another user has submitted OBs from the same tutorial account without removing them afterward you will see them as well);

• selecting File > Check-out will remove your OBs from the ESO Database, the lock symbol will disappear from the Summaries area of your P2PP main GUI, and the two OBs will now be present only in your Local Cache. Should you prefer to delete them after this tutorial, select them once more and choose File > Delete from the same window.