The online help documents (in HTML Help and Acrobat formats) are available for download here.
The engineering white paper Dispatch Scheduling of Automated Telescopes is available for your review. This paper was originally presented at the Society of Astronomical Sciences conference in Big Bear CA, on May 26, 2004. It was revised in 2006 to reflect changes in Scheduler 2.0.
With its connection to the VOEvent Network, Scheduler can respond to transient astronomical events such as Gamma Ray Bursts, Supernovae, Cataclysmic Variable outbursts, etc., and provide automated followup observations.
The paper Transient Astronomy With ACP Scheduler (newly revised for 2011) is available for your review. This gives details on VOEvent and how it is supported by ACPS and its VOEvent Receiver.
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This is the web site for ACP Scheduler, a companion program to ACP Observatory Control Software (ACP). Scheduler is a "just in time" scheduler, able to cope with varying observing conditions and requests added during a run. With Scheduler, you no longer have to "plan" your observing runs.
Observing requests and their constraints are entered into a database via a web interface, a schedule browser (shown above) or RTML batch import. Version 3 advances ACPS to the forefront of dispatch schedulers; its "rising plan delay" algorithm solves a major problem shared by all others, including those used in large professional observatories. Plus its VOEvent capability (see sidebar on the left) makes it capable of providing followup observations of transient astronomical events.
The scheduler engine dequeues requests and feeds them to ACP Observatory Control Software for data acquisition. The combination of ACP and ACPS run autonomously, starting and stopping observing at astronomical twilight, doing dusk and dawn flats, and post-dawn dark/bias acquisition.
Scheduler requires ACP Observatory Control Software (V6.0 SP4 or later only!) and MaxIm DL/CCD V5.12 or later . Both are available for free evaluation. If you don't already have ACP running at your observatory, you probably should hold off on Scheduler until you have ACP running smoothly.
In addition, you will need the the following Microsoft update (if you are receiving automatic updates you won't need to manually install these on XP, Vista or Windows 7). Windows 2000 is no longer officially supported by Scheduler.
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1
Once you have verified or installed the required components (see above) you can download and install the ACP Scheduler package. This is a 60 day trial package which can be unlocked by purchasing a license. The ACP Scheduler installer requires Windows Installer, which you should already have.
Please direct all questions to the DC-3 Dreams Communication Center in the Pre-Sales area. Here is the download link for Scheduler:
Scheduler is the heart of the data acquisition engine for the AAVSO Photometric All-Sky Survey. Each station acquires about 400 images per night. As of Feb 2012, 18.9 million stars were photometrically calibrated in 5 filters. The AAVSO Bright Star Monitor also uses ACP Scheduler. Neither program would have been practical without a hands-off dispatch-scheduled observatory.
The Sonoita Research Observatory, using Scheduler and its VOEvent Receiver, captured data on Gamma Ray Burst 090423 (see this GCN Circular). This was the second GRB for which SRO captured data during that week. GRB 090423 is noteworthy in that it turned out to be the most distant object ever observed in the universe.
ACPS was put to the test with the Messier Marathon 2004. It got all 110 targets. Here are the details.