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Quickstart for MAKI

When using the tool, you can always get instructions by clicking on "Help" at the top of the screen, then reading the "Intro" section. There are three primary steps with investigating the roll and visibility of a target: load the target ("Create an Image"), select your choice of mission and instrument ("Lay down FOVs") and manipulate them, then check out when the target is visible ("Visibility of Target").

1) Create an Image

Either load a FITS image, or enter an RA and Declination and then click the "New Graph" button. Presto! You now have an image upon which you can start laying down field-of-views (FOVs).

2) Lay down FOVs

Next,lay down instrument Fields of View (FOVs). The "Mission and Roll Selector" (in the upper right of the display) has a gadget for selecting different instruments from different missions. After selecting the one you want, just click with the Right Mouse Button (for Macs, Option+Mouse button) and *poof* a FOV will appear on your image. You can then rotate that FOV by using the "Roll angle" slider bar.

3) Visibility of target

At the bottom of the screen are Mission Visibility displays. You have to first click on "Show Mission Visibilities" to see the possibilities. Select a mission, and it will display when the target is visible for it. In addition, the top black bar ("Total Visibility") shows the overlap of all selected missions. And, you can also add phase windows with the "Add Phase Constraint" gadget.

4) Expert Details

The roll angle slider bar changes color to indicate whether a given roll angle is good or bad. Note there are time gadgets below that; a roll that is 'good' at one time of the year may be 'bad' at a different date. The roll angle display is red when there isn't a legal roll angle for that date-- indicating you have to change viewing dates. It's yellow when there is a legal roll angle possible, and green when you actually select that legal roll angle. So adjust the date and roll until you get green.

You can lay down labels and points on the plot using the "Plot Point" buttons. You can save FOVs files using the "Save/Load" gadgets on the right, below the "List of FOVs". You can load FITS files or URLs to FITS files on the web using the "Load File or URL:" box in the middle of the screen. And, of course, you can use the Zoom gadgets below the main plotting window to zoom in and out of the display, and use the "Print" gadget to save the plot as PostScript to a file or printer.

When showing visibilities, if you use the "Ignore" button by a given visibility plot, it will remain on-screen but not be factored into the "Total Visibility" black barplot. And, of course, the "Kill" gadget will delete a visibility plot. For the plots, the ones labeled "best" (i.e. "Astro-E (best)", "Asca (best)") use the more restrictive sun angle limits requested by the mission teams. All the rest use the more liberal hard limits for the platform. So if there is a 'best' option available, you should try to use it as it makes the operations more likely to succeed.

There are many little adjustments you can make to the display. Near the top, you can switch to a larger font, or change the overall color scheme. Near the Target Visibilities, you can switch the bar graphs between displaying MJDs and displaying Calendar Dates with the "Show MJD" button. When doing date selection, you have your choice of typing in new dates or MJDs, or using the arrows to select new dates. And there is of course the Help menus at the very top.

Version 1.2 of MAKI has been released.

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    Sandy Antunes
    Dr. Lawrence Brown
    Last modified: Tue Nov 16 12:15:59 EST 1999