removing EQUINOX and PMEPOCH keywords from TSL

[Steven Janowiecki]

Hi HET users,

After some deep exploration of the codes that process your targets into the HET queue, I've learned two things about how our system works:

 1. we always use EQUINOX=2000.0 no matter what the user submits in their TSL file

 2. we always use PMEPOCH=2000.0 no matter what the user submits in their TSL file

Given our success over many years observing in this mode I am not proposing any changes to our code or queue software. However, we will plan to remove these non-functional keywords from TSL in the 22-2 trimester (starting 1 Apr 2022), and you will need to update your TSL files accordingly.

If we receive requests in the future to observe targets with something other than EQUINOX=2000 and PMEPOCH=2000, we will then consider how to add that functionality into our software. For now we will update the TSL parser to be consistent with the way we have been observing targets in the years since the upgrade.

I've updated the documentation on Hydra to reflect this change, in particular the sections on:

EQUINOX

and

PMEPOCH

and the example TSL files here:

https://hydra.as.utexas.edu/?a=help&h=76

and these changes will go into effect in the TSL parser in March to be prepared for the beginning of the 22-2 trimester on 1 April.

Let us know if you have any questions about this change, thanks,

Steven

[Steven Janowiecki]

Dear HET PIs,

I wanted to let you know that these planned changes to TSL are now in place on Hydra. EQUINOX and PMEPOCH are no longer accepted as keywords and you will need to remove them from your Phase II TSL files when you upload new targets.

Ever since the wide-field upgrade our system has been hard-coding the values:

   EQUINOX=2000

   PMEPOCH=2000

no matter what the PI actually submitted. Removing these keywords avoids further confusion in case anyone tries to use values other than 2000.

Steven