The nerve center of the telescope system is the Control Computer, which sits inside the climate-controlled computer Enclosure with the monitor, keyboard, mouse, and UPS. The computer runs Windows XP and all the Telescope control software, and remains powered on continuously. The computer checks the weather feed at the beginning of each night (one hour before 18 degrees twilight) to decide if operations should take place. If the weather is clear, the computer tells the roof motor to open the roof, and tells the Camera to take a series of dark and bias images.

    At 18 degrees twilight, the computer directs the telescope to observe the first field for the night, and subsequently tile between all the observable fields. Between each exposure, the computer checks the weather feed to be sure the weather is good, checks the computer clock to determine the next field to observe, and checks the roof limit switch to ensure that the roof is open. If any problems occur, the computer closes the roof and shuts down the telescope. All computer operations are saved to a log. At 18 degrees dawn, the computer directs the telescope to take another series of dark and bias images, park the telescope, and close the roof.

    After the night ends, the computer copies all data from the night to the two external hard drives. It then emails the log file and 3 sample images from the night’s observations to the server in Nashville as bandwidth permits. When the hard drives are close to filling up, a technician at Sutherland will replace the drives with empty ones, set aside on drive for storage and mail the other to Nashville. Once the shipped drive arrives in Nashville and the data is copied over and checked, the drive in storage is placed back into rotation for future use.

Red lines mark power connections, Blue lines mark data connections.