XMM RPS Users' Manual

   
Recommended order of entries

Based on the schematic for an observation suggested in § 3.2 and on the navigation tools provided by XRPS, it is advantageous to insert a proposal by making entries in the following order:

1.

First fill in all details on Co-Investigators.

2.

Once the list of Co-Is is complete, start working on the first planned observation by filling out the Observation page. Time constraints can also be provided at this point, but may also be added later.

3.

On the Observation page the above-mentioned (§ 4.6.1.1) buttons are available to add exposures for the different XMM science instruments.

The SOC strongly suggests to follow your observing schematic (§ 3.2) by rows, i.e., fill in first all exposures for one instrument (say, EPIC MOS-1), then the next (EPIC MOS-2 and EPIC pn), followed by those for RGS-1, RGS-2 and OM. For each of the six science instruments, the exposures should best be sorted chronologically. Exposure details, if any, can be added to exposures at any time. This order of making entries is favourable for various reasons:

• Filling in exposures on a by-instrument basis, it is easiest to ensure that each instrument is used during the entire duration of the observation, thus maximising the efficiency of the instrument use.
• Identifying exposures, when going back to make changes, is easiest when they are sorted first by instrument (Fig. 7).

4.

Only once one observation is completely finished, users should start making entries for the next. In case of similar observations (e.g., when observing a sample of objects with similar properties) it is then possible to copy the first observation and reuse the template created this way and just edit (change) the entries to apply the required adjustments. Adding exposures (at the end of the list) is easy, deleting unwarranted exposures is also possible, using the ``Delete Exposure'' button.

Note: When deleting exposures, XRPS does not automatically rename all others to fill the resulting gap in the numbering scheme. A new exposure, even if it is meant to fill a gap produced by a deletion, will be appended at the end of the exposure list of an observation, with a number 1 higher than that of the last exposure in the existing list. Therefore, if an exposure (or the detailed information associated with it) must be changed, it is much better to edit the entries accordingly instead of deleting and replacing it.

The following chapter (§ 5) is a step-by-step guide through XRPS; examples are provided in § A.