Nightview's configuration

Both Nightview's daemons, nightviewd and telescoped are meant to use only one configuration file nightview.conf. The configuration file is usually located in /usr/local/etc or /etc directory.

The file can be easily generated by the command:

nightview-conf /usr/local/etc/nightview.conf

A syntax of the file is similar to other configuration files, so all items are in the form:

 key = value

Also, any character following # specify of a comment with no meaning. Every string of characters needs to be enclosed in apostrophes.

Device

The identifier of a device for the CCD (defaults usb).

 Device = usb

The value is directly passed to SBIG's library.

Site

Site is a text identifier of an observation site. The identifier is included in a created header of a FITS file for documentation purposes only. No any other processing is supposed on it.

 Site = "MonteBoo"

Longitude, Latitude and Altitude represents geographical coordinates of the observation site. The values are in degrees with use of the convention: (+east, -west) and (+north, -south). Both Longitude, Latitude parameters are really important for a precise setup of the telescope. If telescoped's daemon is not used, both can be safety omitted. The Altitude is presented for documentation purposes only.

 Longitude = 16.58395
 Latitude = 49.204128
 Altitude = 304.0

Telescope

Telescope is a telescope identifier intended for documentation purposes only. Focus substitutes of a focus lenght of the telescope in meters. A pointing mode of night_control gets Focus as a main parameter.

 Telescope = "0.6m, 1:4.6"
 Focus = 2.75

Filters

The parameter Filter wheel indicate of presence of a filter wheel (carousel). Perhaps, there is no way to derive it by reading from the software driver directly. You can set it for two states: the filter wheel is presented and connected (true) or not (false) (use lower case only).

 Filter wheel = true

If the filter wheel is set to true, the driver read and use some name-set of the filters description. If the parameter is set to false, the filter wheel is simulated only.

An identifier (name) of a filter in a filter wheel is determined by analysis of strings Filter ?, where the note of interrogation subtitutes of a wild sign for numbers 1,2,3,.. The filter names are any strings to be used for documentation purposes only.

 Filter 1 = "B"
 Filter 2 = "V"
 Filter 3 = "R"
 Filter 4 = "I"
 Filter 5 = "clear"

Authentication

Any remote access to local daemons is provided via nighthttpd daemon. It is strongly recommended to use of some kind of an authentication for connection over an unsecure network. Nightview offers basic access authentication, eg. an identical mechanism which is used for http protocol to send a private data throughnout Internet browsers. The parameter AuthKey specify a keyword acquired by use of the base64 algorithm by combination of an username and a password.

 # bash$ python
 # import base64
 # base64.b64encode('kokot:neco')
 AuthKey = a29rb3Q6bmVjbw==

Follow to Tutorial page.

Last modification: 2009-01-22 16:06:10