Schedule the observations

From the Edit Lists Page select from the top panel:

Schedule --> Compute Observing schedule

check start/stop times by looking at the Scheduling Page of individual scans in the Observe List. NOTE: in calculating stop times, JObserve can be off by at much as the integration time + 10 seconds. In the case of a 60 second integration on source, the extra time (70 sec) can seriously eat into the following calibrator scan. You may therefore want to increase the time on scans immediately following a scan using a long integration time

if Dwell, Duration, or Stop LST are changed in a scan in the Observe List the schedule of the whole Observe List can be updated by selecting Reschedule on the Scheduling Page

after the Observe List has been scheduled, Display Shadowing on the Scheduling Page will show the extent to which antennas in the array may be shadowed for a given scan

A note on the Wrap of the VLA: the azimuth track of the VLA antennas runs from -85 to 445 degrees, and when moving from sources in the overlap region, -85 to 85 degrees (or 275 to 445 degrees), to sources in the south, the antennas may have to unwind depending on their starting wrap (Left/Right). Since the starting position and wrap for a given observation is not always known before making the observe file it is worth (1) adding extra time to the Duration of first scan in your observe file (on the Scheduling Page), in case the antennas have to unwind to get to your first source, and (2) checking whether the first scan in your observe file will start in this overlap region. If the latter is the case, try both Left and Right Wraps for the first scan in the Observe List on the Scheduling Page, and check whether the antennas will have to unwind during your observation (this will be indicated by a long Move time on the Scheduling Page of a scan, and a large difference between the Starting Azimuth and Begin Azimuth on the Scheduling Page). If you find that the antennas will have to unwind in the middle of your observations, select the opposite wrap, and make the Duration of the first scan equal to the Dwell time plus 10 minutes. Further information on the wrap may be found here.

Once the Observe List has been scheduled several different types of report can be produced to aid in checking the details of an observation. These are created by selecting the Reports menu from the top panel on the Edit Lists Page, and are saved to the directory from where JObserve was started. When satisfied with the details of your Observe List, from the Edit Lists Page select from the top panel:

File --> Save working environment

File --> Write Observe File

File --> Exit from Observe