p2 - Help
In the following we provide some key definitions which will help the users to familiarize with the ESO Phase 2 basic concepts.
We recommend our users to refer to the instrument user’s manuals or template manuals for an extensive description of the templates of a specific VLT instrument. All manuals available for downloads from the ESO web pages. Moreover, we recommend users to check the documentation available on the ESO web pages or a full description of the functionality of P2PP.
Before starting to use p2 to design your Phase 2 material please have a look at the new features implemented and benefits introduced with p2 with respect to P2PP3.
Please see the 2 minutes video showing the basic concept of OB preparation and notification report.
ESO Phase 2 observing material
OBs and scheduling container status
Please check here for a legend explaining the meaning of OB icons used in p2 and the meaning of different OBs and scheduling container status flags.
The p2 web tool
Folders
You can structure the contents of your observing run by creating folders under it. Folders can contain observing blocks (OBs), calibration blocks (CBs), Group/Time-link/Concatenation Containers (G/T/C) and sub-folders (Fld). Please see above for specific definition of these items.
Creating an item: OB, CB, G, T, C or Fld

Expand an observing run or folder by clicking its icon, then press the button labelled OB, CB, Fld (for Folder), G/T/C (for group/time-link/concatenation) at the bottom of the expanded items. The new item is appended and selected.
Defining an OB - Add/remove templates

Select an Acquisition Template (AT) from a pull-down menu in the lower part of the Observing Description tab. Click on “add template” to add the selected AT to the OB. Once an AT is added to an OB, one or more Science Templates (ST) can be appended to the same OB. Any template can be removed by clicking on the “remove” icon inside each template.
Changing order of items

Within the same run or folder, you can change the order of its contained items by dragging a single OB, CB, container or folder and dropping it at the desired position.
Selecting several items

Within the same container (run, folder or scheduling container), you can select several consecutive items by clicking on one item to start a selection and then Shift+Click another item to select all consecutive items from the first one to the second one clicked. Additionally, you can Ctrl+Click (Cmd+Click on MacOS) to add/remove single items to/from a selection.
The action of Check, Certify and Revise can be done on multiple selected items. It is also possible to estimate the total exposure time of the selected items.
Moving and/or Copying items
Select one or several items, then press Ctrl+X (Cmd+X on MacOS) to cut or Ctrl+C (Cmd+C on MacOS) to copy them to the clipboard. Select a destination run or folder and press Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on MacOS) to paste them. The items will be duplicated (in case of copying) and appended to the existing content.
Visitor Execution Sequence (VES)
p2 provides the user with the possibility to create a visitor execution sequence. The latter hence allows any observer to create via the web interface, a sequence of OBs that should be executed at the telescope. The VES is instrument and user dependent. This means that a designated user will not see a VES created by the PI and vice versa.
Add an OB to the VES
Once a given instrument for which the VES should be created is selected, the list of runs associated or delegated to the user for that particular instrument are listed on the left hand section under Your Observing Runs. Please notice that only OBs that have been certified (i.e. are in status ‘+’) can be added to the VES. The same OB can be added multiple times to the VES. Once one or more OBs are added to the VES, they can be executed. The OB will be executed following the numerical order. The order of the OBs in a VES can be changed via simple Drag&Drop action.