Long-term Scheduling

This section presents the long-term scheduling module of SPOCK.

The long-term scheduler is designed to optimize the planning of targets on the SPECULOOS telescopes (SSO, SNO, Saint-Ex, TS, TN), while following the observing strategy defined by the consortium.

Note: Before inserting new observations and uploading them, please make sure that the SPECULOOS consortium has been informed.

Making schedules

To create night blocks for a given date range, the following information is required:

• Observatory name, for example: obs_name = "SSO"
• Telescope name, for example: telescope = "Io"
• Date range, provided as a list: date_range = ["2021-08-01 15:00:00", "2021-08-02 15:00:00"]

Example

import SPOCK.long_term_scheduler as SPOCKLT
from astropy.time import Time

schedule = SPOCKLT.Schedules()
schedule.observatory_name = "SSO"
schedule.telescope = "Io"
schedule.load_parameters(
    date_range=["2021-08-01 15:00:00", "2021-08-02 15:00:00"]
    )

schedule.make_schedule(
    Altitude_constraint=28,
    Moon_constraint=30
    )

To inspect the night blocks for a given day:

display(schedule.night_block_by_day[0])

Saving schedules

To save the schedules that have just been created, use the save_schedule function. You must specify the telescope name and the date range to be saved.

SPOCKLT.save_schedule(
    save=True,
    over_write=True,
    date_range=schedule.date_range,
    telescope=schedule.telescope
    )

Making plans

ACP and Astra plans can be generated directly from the saved night blocks:

SPOCKLT.make_plans(
    day=schedule.date_range[0],
    nb_days=schedule.date_range_in_days,
    telescope=schedule.telescope
    )

Uploading plans

Once the plans are generated, they can be uploaded to both the telescope control computer and the Cambridge archive:

SPOCKLT.upload_plans(
    day=schedule.date_range[0],
    nb_days=schedule.date_range_in_days,
    telescope=schedule.telescope
    )

This completes the long-term scheduling workflow.