autotwi.py: script to take automatic twilight sky spectra

repository: ​svn+ssh://cetus.het.astronomy.utexas.edu/svn/astronomy/miscutils

Starting in early 2023, there is finally an automatic script to take twilight sky spectra. It has not been tested for HPF yet, but has been working for LRS2 and VIRUS twilights, both at evening and morning twilights.

The simplest example usage is to run autotwi.py on the workstations, to take LRS2 and VIRUS evening twilights. Other options are described in the help from the script itself (below). You can stop the script at any time if you run touch stop in the directory where you ran it.

[stevenj@zeus ~]$ autotwi.py -h
usage: autotwi.py [-h] [--debug] [-hpf] [-L] [-noL] [-V] [-noV] [-m] [-mL]
                  [-mV] [--llevel [--llevel]] [--llevelm [--llevelm]]
                  [--vlevel [--vlevel]] [--vlevelm [--vlevelm]] [-f]

    Automatically take twilight sky spectra for all HET science instruments

    Will set up, start, and stop the guiders;
    will report flux levels as the sky fades;
    will start all necessary scripts

    Default assumption is evening twilights with:
      -NO HPF twilight
      -YES LRS2 twilights with "lsky" script when GC2:B@0.1s(raw) hits 36k
      -YES VIRUS twilights with "vsky" sript when GC2:B@0.1s(raw) hits 6.6k

    Touch/create a file named "stop" in directory where you ran it to stop it.
    
    Examples:
	  autotwi           (run with default values for evening twilights)
          autotwi --debug   (just setup probes and display values, don't run scripts)
          autotwi -hpf      (take HPF twilight 2min before sunset, in addition to L/V)
          autotwi -noL      (do not take LRS2 evening twilights)
          autotwi -hpf -noV (take HPF and LRS2 evening twilights only, no VIRUS)
          autotwi -m        (take L/V morning twilights)
          autotwi --llevel 39  (use 39k counts as threshold for LRS2 evening sky flats instead of default 36)          
          autotwi --llevelm 11  (use 11k counts as threshold for LRS2 morning sky flats instead of default 12)          

          
    

options:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --debug               Do not execute any science exposures, just monitor and
                        report
  -hpf                  Take HPF evening twilight
  -L                    Take LRS2 evening twilight
  -noL                  Do NOT take LRS2 evening twilight
  -V                    Take VIRUS evening twilight
  -noV                  Do NOT take VIRUS evening twilight
  -m                    Morning VIRUS/LRS2 twilights
  -mL                   Morning LRS2 twilight only (no VIRUS)
  -mV                   Morning VIRUS twilight only (no LRS2)
  --llevel [--llevel]   kilo-counts on GC2 to start LRS2 script in evening
  --llevelm [--llevelm]
                        kilo-counts on GC2 to start LRS2 script in MORNING
  --vlevel [--vlevel]   kilo-counts on GC2 to start VIRUS script in evening
  --vlevelm [--vlevelm]
                        kilo-counts on GC2 to start VIRUS script in MORNING
  -f                    force script to run, without sanity checks based on
                        sunset/sunrise times