Facilities¶

Facilities are adapters that connect TOM Toolkit to the control systems of individual telescopes. RIA TOM includes two custom implementations in addition to those bundled with TOM Toolkit.

MyObservationFacility¶

File: iac_tom/facilities/myfacility.py

Generic example facility for telescopes without a standard OCS system. Useful as a starting point for integrating new telescopes.

Configured sites:

Site	Location
Itagaki	Japan
Sierra Remote Observatory	Arizona, USA

Behaviour:

submit_observation(): Prints the observation payload to the console. Does not send to any real telescope.
get_observation_status(): Always returns ["In Progress"].
validate_observation(): No validation (accepts any form).

Form: Requires exposure_time (seconds) and exposure_count (number of exposures).

To adapt this facility to a real telescope, override submit_observation() with the communication logic specific to your instrument.

CustomOCSFacility¶

File: iac_tom/facilities/custom_ocs.py

Integration with a standard OCS (Observatory Control System) compatible with the LCO protocol. Suitable for observatories that use OCS as their management system.

Available forms:

Instrument1ObservationForm (Direct imaging)¶

Additional fields on top of the base OCS form:

Field	Description
`defocus`	Defocus in mm (0–10)
`readout_mode`	Detector readout mode

SpectrographObservationForm (Spectroscopy)¶

Additional fields:

Field	Description
`acquisition_mode`	Spectrograph acquisition mode
`acquisition_exposure_time`	Acquisition exposure time (s)
`guide_star_target`	Guide star target (selectable from the same group)

Implementing a new facility¶

from tom_observations.facilities.base import BaseRoboticObservationFacility

class MyFacility(BaseRoboticObservationFacility):
    name = "MY_FACILITY"
    SITES = {
        "ORM": {
            "sitecode": "orm",
            "latitude": 28.762,
            "longitude": -17.879,
            "elevation": 2396,
        }
    }

    def submit_observation(self, observation_payload):
        # Telescope communication logic
        return [observation_id]

    def get_observation_status(self, observation_id):
        return ["PENDING", "IN_PROGRESS", "COMPLETED"]

    def get_observing_sites(self):
        return self.SITES

Register it in settings.py:

TOM_FACILITY_CLASSES = [
    "iac_tom.facilities.myfacility.MyObservationFacility",
    "iac_tom.facilities.custom_ocs.CustomOCSFacility",
    "tom_observations.facilities.lco.LCOFacility",
]