Design of the OmegaCAM Instrument Software

OmegaCAM is a wide field optical imager that is expected to start its operations towards the end of 2003, at the VLT Survey Telescope (VST), part of the VLT Observatory, operated in Paranal (Chile) by the European Southern Observatory (ESO). OmegaCAM will almost completely fill VST one squared degree field of view with a CCD imaging mosaic 16k x 16k pixels in size. In addition to the scientific array, four auxiliary CCDs will be used for autoguiding and image analysis. Despite its conceptual simplicity and due to the large size of the CCD mosaic, OmegaCAM posed several challenges in the design of its mechanics, electronics, cryogenics and software. In this paper we report on the design of the OmegaCAM Instrument Software (INS), which is in charge of the control and operations of the instrument. We first introduce the instrument control system characteristics and the INS software development process. We then describe the main characteristics of the INS subsystems in charge of instrument functions control, autoguiding, image analysis and operations coordination. Finally, we discuss the performances expected from the software in the acquisition and storage of the large amount of data that will come from the scientific array.© (2002) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.