Using the MMTCam Observation Submission Tool (MOST)

Problems with this tool? Please email amatthews at cfa.harvard.edu.

Overview:

Fill in the data fields to identify your MMTCam observing targets. You can cut and paste from another catalog into the data fields as needed. Most of the data fields will immediately let you know if the wrong kind of characters are entered (for example, letters in fields which require numbers.)

Click "Submit" for each target to send the information to CfA. You will get a popup error message if any of the data is invalid.

Once you click "Submit", your submission will be sent to the Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge for checking. If all goes well, a MMT-format observing catalog will be created for your targets and sent to the MMT when your plan is checked at CfA. You do not need to create your own MMT observing catalog(s) for MMTCam observations.

About the data fields:

All the data fields must be filled in.

NOTE:You can specify multiple filters and the corresponding exposure times and number of exposures for a target by separating the values by exactly one space in those fields. For convenience, if you enter a single value for nexp and/or exptime when you have multiple filters, that value will be applied to all the filters.

• PI/Program: Select the PI/observing program from the pulldown menu.
  
  
• ObjID: Enter the ID for this object. NOTE:This object name will be prepended with the name of the observing program to ensure uniqueness in the trimester; this is needed for the MMT observing catalog for MMTCam. If you use the same ObjID again, it will overwrite the previous submission automatically. Alphanumeric and ._+- data only; also, the ObjID may not begin with . or -, and may not end with a period., because it will be used internally as a file name.
  
  
• RA, Dec: Enter the RA and Dec of your target, in HH:MM:SS.SS/DD:MM:SS.SS format. Only numbers and :+-. are permitted in these fields.
  
  
• PA: The position angle is usually 0, but you can enter a value here if you wish to specify one. It is preferred that Mike/Perry compute the position angle at the time of the observation and then communicate that to the MMT telescope operator. Signed decimal data only.
  
  
• Moon: Select the desired moon phase (Bright, Grey, Dark) from the pulldown menu.
  
  
• Exp Time: Enter the desired exposure time in seconds for this target with this filter. Integer data only.
  
  
• Num Exps: Enter the desired number of exposures for this target with this filter. Integer data only.
  
  
• Visits: Enter the desired number of times to repeat the exposure sequence for this target. Integer data only.
  
  
• 1 per: Change to 1 if you wish to spread the visits across more than one night; otherwise leave this as 0.
  
  
• Pri: Enter an integer corresponding to the priority of the observation.
  
  
• Bin: Select desired binning (1x1 or 2x2) for the data.
  
  
• Filter: Enter u, g, r, i, or z (which is really now an Halpha filter, but please continue to request it as z). If you wish to specify multiple filters for this object, you can do so by separating them with a space. In this case you must also specify the corresponding number of exposures and exposure times, by separating those with a space in the Exp Time and Num Exps fields. If you wish to specify multiple exposure times for the same filter, you'll need to use a new ObjID.
  
• Epoch: Default is J2000.0, but you can select B1950.0 if needed.
  
  
• Dither Size: Enter dither step offset size in arc minutes. Default is 0.25' (= 15").
  
  
• Seeing: Enter maximum allowable seeing.
  
  
• P?: Change to Y if photometric conditions are required (default is N).
  
  
• Preflash: Change to N if you wish to turn the MMTCam pre-flash off for the observation (default is Y).