## Observation Queues and Starting

In the NCS, all observations are handled through an observation queue. So far this is rather simple, first-in-first-out.

The operator has to set the “current observation queue” to be that of the project account. (Submission from other projects will not be accepted by the NCS).

enter at the prompt PAKO > :

    SET doSubmit yes

to activate submission of observing commands to the NCS observing queue. SET doSubmit no is useful for debugging, so that scripts including START can excute without actually trying to submit observations.

To start any observation in the NCS enter at the prompt PAKO > :

    START

which actually generates an XML file with a full and detailed specification of all subscans that will be excuted by the NCS “coordinator” software. This is done by the “scanAnalyzer”, which is an integral part of the pako software. If you are looking for an adventure, you are encouraged to explore these XML files, e.g., using a recent version of Mozilla, the XML editor oxygen, or emacs.

Several instances of pako should not be run in the same working directory (of the same project account.) Also, at most one instance of pako should try to send observations to the observation queue.