Arizona Robotic Telescope Network Observation Request Portal

Welcome to the Arizona Robotic Telescope Network Observation Request Portal (ARTN ORP) which is a Flask front end to a database for astronomers, scientists and engineers to request observations on the diversity of telescopes within the network. Users must be authorized and accredited to use the system.

Pre-Requisites

• Linux (we use Ubuntu 18.04 LTS)
• Python 3.7 (it will not work with Python < 3.6)
• PostGreSQL 12.x (but will probably work with earlier versions)
• wkhtmltopdf (if you want to generate PDF night logs)

Get The Software

• Obtain a copy of the software from GitHub.

• Install dependencies:

  % pip3 install --upgrade pip
  % pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Create and Populate The Database and Tables

NB: All utility bash-shell scripts in ${ORP_BIN} support the --help argument for further information and the --dry-run option to show executable commands without invoking them. You would be well-advised to use them!

• Create the artn database

  To create a database called artn with username artn and password my_secret (using the PostGreSQL server defaults of localhost:5432), execute:

  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/artn.database.sh --database=artn --password=my_secret --username=artn --dry-run
  % cat /tmp/artn.database.sh
  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/artn.database.sh --database=artn --password=my_secret --username=artn

• Create the users table

  If you choose to leave the ${ARTN_BIN}/artn.users.sh script as-is, the accounts created are:

  Username	Password	Is Admin?	Is Disabled?
  artn	secretsanta	Yes	No
  Demo1	FooBar1	No	No
  Demo2	FooBar2	No	No
  Demo3	FooBar3	No	No
  Demo4	FooBar4	No	No
  Demo5	FooBar5	No	No

  NB: You are, however, advised to edit the ${ORP_BIN}/artn.users.sh script and change these defaults!

  To create a users table within the artn database created above (using credentials artn:my_secret on the PostGreSQL server of localhost:5432), execute:

  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/artn.users.sh --database=artn --password=my_secret --username=artn --dry-run
  % cat /tmp/artn.users.sh
  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/artn.users.sh --database=artn --password=my_secret --username=artn

  Once you have regular, registered, users we suggest you disable all Demo[1-5] accounts!

• Create the obsreqs table

  Assuming you created the users table as above, to create an obsreqs table within the artn database created above (using credentials artn:my_secret on the PostGreSQL server of localhost:5432), execute:

  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/artn.obsreqs.sh --database=artn --password=my_secret --username=artn --dry-run
  % cat /tmp/artn.obsreqs.sh
  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/artn.obsreqs.sh --database=artn --password=my_secret --username=artn

• Database entity-relationship diagram

  An entity-relationship diagram can be generated:

  % apt install libgraphviz-dev
  % python3 -m pip install pygraphviz
  % python3 -m pip install eralchemy
  % eralchemy -i "postgresql+psycopg2://${ARTN_DB_USER}:${ARTN_DB_PASS}@${ARTN_DB_HOST}:${ARTN_DB_PORT}/${ARTN_DB_NAME}" -o ${ARTN_DB_NAME}.pdf

• Database utilities

  We provide the following, generic, utilities for database manipulation:

  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/psql.size.sh --help
  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/psql.backup.sh --help
  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/psql.restore.sh --help

• Docker

  We dockerize the database, so a utility is also provided for that:

  % bash ${ARTN_DOCKER}/artn.docker.sh --help

  This script is based upon ${ARTN_DOCKER}/artn.docker.template.sh which contains dummy credentials. Edit as you see fit.

  If you decide to use Docker, remember to restart the container after a reboot via root's crontab (and, of course, replace <path_to_shell_script> with your installation path in the following):

  @reboot bash <path_to_shell_script>/artn.docker.sh --command=start --name=artn

  NB: We use a standard PostGres docker container with no extensions. In another project, we utilize the PostGIS and Q3C spatial indexing extensions. The file ${ARTN_DOCKER}/Dockerfile.artn shows how to build a new image with these extensions. If such a new image is created, the ${ARTN_DOCKER}/artn.docker.sh script would have to be edited to reflect the correct image.

Configure For Local Site

You should now copy ${ORP_BIN}/ORP.template.sh, ${ORP_ETC}/ARTN.template.sh and ${ORP_ETC}/ORP.template.sh and edit the copies to suit your site and change:

• local installation directory
• database server and credentials
• mail server and credentials
• rts2 server (if using RTS2, otherwise ignore this setting)

% cp ${ORP_BIN}/ORP.template.sh ${ORP_BIN}/ORP.sh
% vi ${ORP_BIN}/ORP.sh
% cp ${ORP_ETC}/ARTN.template.sh ${ORP_ETC}/ARTN.sh
% vi ${ORP_ETC}/ARTN.sh
% cp ${ORP_ETC}/ORP.template.sh ${ORP_ETC}/ORP.sh
% vi ${ORP_ETC}/ORP.sh

Quick Start Guide

If you carried out the above, and assuming the codebase is in /home/artn/ARTN-ORP, you can start the application:

• Local development server

  % cd /home/artn/ARTN-ORP
  % source etc/ARTN.sh
  % source etc/ORP.sh `pwd` localhost 5000
  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/ORP.sh --type=dev --source=/home/artn/ARTN-ORP --command=start --dry-run
  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/ORP.sh --type=dev --source=/home/artn/ARTN-ORP --command=start

  then point a browser to the local ORP development server.

• Local production server

  % cd /home/artn/ARTN-ORP
  % source etc/ARTN.sh
  % source etc/ORP.sh `pwd` `hostname -i` 7500
  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/ORP.sh --type=prod --source=/home/artn/ARTN-ORP --command=start --dry-run
  % bash ${ORP_BIN}/ORP.sh --type=prod --source=/home/artn/ARTN-ORP --command=start

  then point a browser to the local ORP production server.

• WSGI

  If you wish to run a WSGI-based server, we provide:

  • ${ARTN_HOME}/orp.wsgi file which should work as-is
  • ${ARTN_HOME}/orp.conf which should be edited: % sed 's/__myhost__/127\.0\.0\.1/g' >> /etc/apache2/sites-available/orp.conf (or whatever IP address you have)
  • Enable the site via Apache2 in the usual way

IERS Updates

Sometime during 2019 astropy/astroplan broke due to the IERS ephemeris server at USNO going offline. To fix this, we provide a cron job that updates the ephemeris from another source. The file ${ARTN_CRON}/iers.update.sh contains the crontab entry to show how to do this or the file can be run directly. We find that once per week is sufficient.

RTS2 Users Only

You should copy ${ORP_SRC}/telescopes/rts2_config.template.json and edit the copy to suit your site:

% cp ${ORP_SRC}/telescopes/rts2_config.template.json ${ORP_SRC}/telelscopes/rts2_config.json
% vi ${ORP_SRC}/telescopes/rts2_config.json

The rts2_config.json file contains the JSON snippet { "rts2url": "http://localhost:8889" } for which we have to create an SSH tunnel. To do this, execute (eg on the Kuiper telescope):

% xterm -e ssh -X -L 8889:localhost:8889 -p 42022 rts2obs@kuiper.as.arizona.edu &

Last Updated: 2020207