PANOPTES is an open source citizen science project designed to find transiting exoplanets with digital cameras. The goal of PANOPTES is to establish a global network of of robotic cameras run by amateur astronomers and schools (or anyone!) in order to monitor, as continuously as possible, a very large number of stars. For more general information about the project, including the science case and resources for interested individuals, see the project overview.
POCS (PANOPTES Observatory Control System) is the main software driver for a PANOPTES unit, responsible for high-level control of the unit.
For more information, see the full documentation at: https://pocs.readthedocs.io.
If you are running a PANOPTES unit then you will most likely want an entire PANOPTES environment, which includes the necessary tools for operation of a complete unit.
There is a bash shell script that will install an entire working POCS system on your computer. Some folks even report that it works on a Mac.
To install POCS via the script, open a terminal and enter (you may be prompted for your sudo password):
curl -fsSL https://install.projectpanoptes.org > install.sh
bash install.shOr using wget:
wget -qO- https://install.projectpanoptes.org > install.sh
bash install.shThe install script will ask a few questions at the beginning of the process. If you are unsure of the answer the default is probably okay.
In addition to installing POCS, the install script will create the Config Server
and Power Monitor services, which will automatically be restarted upon reboot of the computer.
If you want just the POCS module, for instance if you want to override it in
your own OCS (see Huntsman-POCS
for an example), then install via pip:
pip install panoptes-pocsIf you want the extra features, such as Google Cloud Platform connectivity, then use the extras options:
pip install "panoptes-pocs[google,focuser,testing]"POCS requires a few things to properly run:
- A
panoptes-utilsconfig-serverrunning to provide dynamic configuration. - An
Observatoryinstance that has details about the location of a POCS unit (real or simulated), which hardware is available, etc.
A minimal working example with a simulated Observatory would be:
import os
from panoptes.utils.config.server import config_server
from panoptes.pocs.core import POCS
os.environ['PANDIR'] = '/var/panoptes'
conf_server = config_server('conf_files/pocs.yaml')
I 01-20 01:01:10.886 Starting panoptes-config-server with config_file='conf_files/pocs.yaml'
S 01-20 01:01:10.926 Config server Loaded 17 top-level items
I 01-20 01:01:10.928 Config items saved to flask config-server
I 01-20 01:01:10.934 Starting panoptes config server with localhost:6563
pocs = POCS.from_config(simulators=['all'])
I 01-20 01:01:20.408 Initializing PANOPTES unit - Generic PANOPTES Unit - Mauna Loa Observatory
I 01-20 01:01:20.419 Making a POCS state machine from panoptes
I 01-20 01:01:20.420 Loading state table: panoptes
S 01-20 01:01:20.485 Unit says: Hi there!
W 01-20 01:01:20.494 Scheduler not present
W 01-20 01:01:20.495 Cameras not present
W 01-20 01:01:20.496 Mount not present
I 01-20 01:01:20.497 Scheduler not present, cannot get current observation.
pocs.initialize()
W 01-20 01:01:28.386 Scheduler not present
W 01-20 01:01:28.388 Cameras not present
W 01-20 01:01:28.389 Mount not present
S 01-20 01:01:28.390 Unit says: Looks like we're missing some required hardware.
Out[10]: FalseFor a more realistic usage, see the full documentation at: https://pocs.readthedocs.io.
For actually deploying a PANOPTES unit, refer to the Operating Guider.
To test the software, you can use the standard pytest tool from the root of the directory.
By default all tests will be run. If you want to run one specific test, give the specific filename as an argument to pytest:
pytest tests/test_mount.py- PANOPTES Homepage: https://www.projectpanoptes.org
- Forum: https://forum.projectpanoptes.org
- Documentation: https://pocs.readthedocs.io
- Source Code: https://github.com/panoptes/POCS