UPTIME

In designing an experiment and preparing a schedule, it is important to know at what times each source of interest is visible from the various telescopes. Program UPTIME computes the times at which each source rises and sets at each telescope, and prints the results in diagrammatic form. It can also produce plots of the elevation of each source at each telescope, and of the parallactic angle of each telescope, as a function of time (GST). The parallactic angle is of interest in planning polarization experiments.

UPTIME can also do an LSR Doppler calculation for the center of the Earth for each source for which a velocity is specified in the source catalog. For this, the rest frequency of the line of interest should be given. The final l.o. setting for the line center will be calculated for each station for which a "first l.o." (sum or all other l.o.'s) is given. Half of the bandwidth needs to be added or subtracted from this value, depending on the sideband.

The catalogs are in the new KEYIN free format (see SCHED help file).

Parameters

Parameters are supplied in standard KEYIN format. End the list of parameters with a slash (/) or end-of-file (control-Z in VMS, control-D in Unix).

STAFILE = "file"
the file name of the stations catalog. The default is "VLB_STATIONS" which can be a logical name on a VAX.

SRCFILE = "file"
the file name of the sources catalog. The default is "VLB_SOURCES" which can be a logical name on a VAX.

SOURCES = "source",...
list of source names (up to 100), e.g., SOURCES = "3C273","3C345","0235+164".

ALL
an alternative to SOURCES; the program will compute the rise and set times of all the sources in the catalog.

STATIONS = "station",...
list of station names (up to 15); at least one station name must be provided, e.g., STATIONS = "BONN","NRAO","OVRO".

DATE = yy:mm:dd
date for UT conversion, format yyyy:mm:dd or yy:mm:dd, e.g. DATE = 81:3:21 (March 21, 1981), 2010:4:3 (April 3, 2010). GSTs computed by the program are valid for all dates; UTs are valid only on the date specified. The default date is today's date. If only two digits of year are specified, the year is assumed to be in the range 1951 to 2050.

LISTFILE = "file"
file name for listing. The listing is formatted for printing on the line-printer. The default is the terminal (standard output). e.g., LISTF = "UPTIME.LIS". The file is formatted for a 132-column printer with fixed-width font. Commands for printing it include:
VMS$ psprint/landscape uptime.lis
UNIX% enscript -r -fCourier8 -Pps2 uptime.lis
UNIX% a2ps -nf -nn -w uptime.lis | lpr -Pps2

PLOTFILE = "device/type"
device specification for the plot. If no plotfile is specified, no plot will be produced. Any PGPLOT plot specification can be used, e.g., PLOTF = "/XWIN" or PLOTFIL = "uptime.ps/ps". The plot consists of one page for each source; each graph superimposes the elevation curves for that source for all telescopes.

PARAL
if this keyword is specified (no value), the plot (requested by PLOTFILE) shows both elevation (full line) and parallactic angle (dashed line) as a function of time. The parallactic angle is the angle between the great circle joining the source to the celestial pole and the great circle joining the source to the zenith. This option cannot be used together with AIRMASS.

LSTSTA = "station"
One of the stations specified under STATIONS. If a LSTSTA is chosen, the printer plot will label the time axis in the local sidereal time of that station in addition to GST.

UTLOC = delta-t
If specified (non-zero), the printer plot will show a local time equal to UT-UTLOC in addition to UT. For example, for Eastern Standard Time, specify 5.0, for Pacific Standard Time, specify 8.0, for Mountain Daylight Time, specify 6.0, etc.

LINEFREQ = frequency
The rest frequency of a spectral line for a Doppler calculation in MHz.

LO1 = freq,...
An array containing the first l.o. (or l.o. sum) for each of the stations requested in MHz. This difference between this and the Doppler shifted line center will be listed.

LPP = n
the number of line per page to assume when paginating the list file; default 60.

AIRMASS
When specified, the airmass is plotted instead of the elevation. When AIRMASS is given as a keyword (no value), the default scale is from 1.0 to 3.0, but the highest airmass plotted can be specified as a value (e.g. AIRMASS=10). The simple 1/SIN(el) formula is used. This option cannot be used together with PARAL.

History

Version 1.0: 1981 Mar 6.
Version 1.1: 1981 May 6 - compare names in upper case.
Version 2.1: 1982 May 12 - add plots.
Version 2.2: 1982 Jun 8 - new graphics; no questions.
Version 2.3: 1983 Apr 19 - correct pagination; add UT.
Version 2.4: 1984 Jun 20 - add PARALLAX option to plot parallactic angle.
Version 2.5: 1986 Feb 9 - add day of year to listing.
Version 2.6: 1987 Mar 16 - add a station LST and a local time (RCW).
Version 2.7: 1987 Dec 16 - remove Convex incompatibilities (TJP).
Version 2.8: 1988 Feb 4 - less verbose stations list (TJP).
Version 2.9: 1988 Apr 2 - change list file format for Unix (TJP).
Version 3.0: 1988 Dec 20 - Add Doppler calculation, precession, new catalog formats, and convert for MS Fortran. (RCW)
Version 3.1: 1989 Apr 13 - Add user input of catalog file names (RCW)
Version 3.2: 1990 Apr 10 - Labels for plots, fix use of UTLOC (AKT)
Version 3.3: 1990 Jul 30 - Change sign of UTLOC for consistency with v3.1 (TJP).
Version 3.4: 1990 Aug 18 - Up to 40 stations (TJP).
Version 3.5: 1991 Jan 11 - Changes to catalog include file (RCW/TJP).
Version 3.6: 1991 Jan 23 - Fix pagination; add LPP parameter (TJP).
Version 3.7: 1991 Jun 22 - Correct precession (TJP).
Version 3.8: 1991 Dec 16 - Add AIRMASS option (RCV).
Version 3.9: 1992 Mar 4 - Allow 4-digit year in date.
Version 3.10: 1992 Sep 15 - Default listfile is stdout (TJP).
Version 3.11: 1993 Apr 22 - Correct bug in pagination (TJP).
Version 3.12: 1993 Nov 11 - Increase to 200 sources (TJP).
Version 3.13: 1994 Nov 17 - 12-char source names; aliases (TJP).
Version 3.14: 1995 Jan 30 - use RVLSRK instead or RVLSR (TJP).


Tim Pearson, California Institute of Technology
tjp·astro.caltech.edu