[evlatests] Adventures from last night

[David Harland]

Rick Perley wrote:
> [snip]
>
>     2) A more subtle problem is the lack of visibility data from both 
> polarization calibrators, 3C286 and J1504+1029.  Observations of these 
> sources required moderate to large slews.  It is clear after careful 
> examination that the system greatly underestimated slew times.  I 
> utilized the 'on source' timing in the OPT -- this worked beautifully 
> for the massive 'flux densities' run, but has failed in the Herc A run.  
>
> [snip]

Rick,

If you used the model-to-script test program to generate the script+vci, 
chose the starting time of the SB, then actually ran the script at that 
time, then we have a problem not previously known. Let me know if that's 
the case.

If instead you downloaded the script+vci directly from the OPT, then the 
script was set to run using "array.time()". If you used a version of the 
OPT prior to 2 weeks ago (vers 1.07 or earlier), then the slew times 
would have been based on the wall clock at the time the script was 
generated. If you used the latest version of OPT, then the logic should 
have assumed the center of the SB's preferred LST range (that's a change 
i made after the last time you had this problem). In either case, unless 
you ran such as script at the same LST assumed in the build of the 
script, out-of-sync slew times is what you'll get.

As a forensic aid, scripts now have text like the following at the top:

# SOFTWARE INFORMATION
# Created by Program: m2sStable version 1.08.00
# SSS Model Version: 1.08.00
# WIDAR Library Version: 3.8.0

# MODEL-TO-SCRIPT INITIAL CONDITIONS
# Assumed Telescope Pointing (degrees): AZ 180, EL 45
# Assumed Script Start: 2011-03-07 23:09:12 UTC (62352 LST 03:00:00, MJD 
55627.96472459)
# This File Created at: 2011-03-07 22:01:24 UTC (62352 LST 01:52:01, MJD 
55627.91764373)

David