In this section, LRS SPE observation setups¹ are managed. All data corresponding to the observation setup are inserted in SerPICo by means of a text (ASCII) file. In this file the following information has² to be included. Fields can be separated by one or more spaces.

• Block name: Name of the observation setup. This name must be unique³, and cannot contain spaces⁴. The use of the character "_" (underscore) is restricted. This can be used only when several observing setups have to be linked⁵ together:
  setupname_01
  setupname_02
  setupname_NN
  All setups with the same name root (in italics in the above example) will be linked together. If you link together observation setups, one of them must have the _01 extension in its name. If no setup setupname_01 is present, FLEX will not be able to link anything and an error message will be issued. It is possible to link together setups of different instruments (or different observing modes).
• Target name: in this field goes the name of the object to be observed. An object with this name must be already present in the SerPICo catalog, or FLEX will issue an error message. Please check the list of objects in your catalog (Add button in the Catalog section).
• Slit: slit to be used for the observations. In Table 1 the available slits are listed.
• Grism: name of the grism to be used for the observation, according to the naming rules shown in Table 1.

  Table 1. LRS slits and grisms

  FLEX name	Slit		FLEX name	Grism		FLEX name	Grism
  1.0	1.0" slit		LR-B	Low Resolution B		V860	V860
  1.5	1.5" slit		MR-B	Medium Resolution B		VHR-V	VHR-V
  2.0	2.0" slit		LR-R	Low Resolution R		VHR-R	VHR-R
  5.0	5.0" slit		V486	V486		VHR-I	VHR-I
  0.7	0.7" slit		V510	V510
  			V656	V656

  
  Warning: FLEX is case sensitive. It may give an error if you do not pay attention to uppercase/lowercase characters.
  For more information on grisms, please see the corresponding web page

• Position Angle: position angle of the slit, measured from North to East, in degrees (one decimal digit allowed). The value must lie between 0.0° and 360.0°. FLEX will issue an error message for values outside these boundaries. It is also possible to give these special values:
  • Parang corresponding to the parallactic angle
  • Any indicating any ⁶ angle
• Exposure Time: exposure time is expressed in seconds; must be an integer number between 1 and 3600. Negative values are treated as errors, while values larger than 3600 seconds (60 minutes) are indicated as a warning by FLEX⁷
• Number of exposures: number of consecutive exposures to be executed. An integer number between 1 and 999 is expected. A negative number is treated as error, while a number larger than 999 is indicated as a format⁸ error.
  FLEX also checks the total time (without overheads) of the observation setup⁹. If this is larger than 3 hours, a warning¹⁰ is issued.
• Exposure type: you can choose between SCI e CAL (recall that FLEX is case sensitive), indicating that you are dealing with a scientific or calibration exposure, respectively.
• Bin & Box: CCD binning and window. Please check both the LRS and the available CCDs at TNG web pages.

  Here summarize the available information:

  Table 2. Dimensions of the Loral array at various binnings BIN X-range Y-range 1x1 1-2100 1-2100 1x2 1-2100 1-1050 2x2 1-1050 1-1050

  Bin & box must be expressed in the following format: n1,n2,bn1,bn2 or n1,n2,bn, where n1 and n2 indicate the X and Y binning, respectively, while bn1 and bn2 indicate the window (box) dimension in the X and Y axis. The value bn needs a more detailed explanation: FLEX checks whether the chosen value is compatible with the selected binning (see Table 2). If the value exceeds the dimension of the array for that binning, an error will be caused. it is assumed that the center of the CCD box coincides with the center of the CCD array. If you have chosen another center, please write it in the comments to the block FLEX accepts the special value full, indicating the maximum dimension (for the chosen binning) if you omit the bn2 value (Y box dimension), FLEX will assume a full dimension; it is mandatory to indicate the X box dimension

• Constraints: four constraints have to be declared (a fifth constraint will be detailed later):
  1. lunar phase: indicate the maximum days from new moon for your observation. When the moon is below the horizon¹¹ we assume it is dark time, whatever the lunar phase. Integer numbers between 0 and 14 are accepted.
  2. maximum seeing: indicate the maximum seeing value accepted, with the format d.d. A value of 2.5 indicates that no constraint has been set on the seeing (i.e. ANY seeing is accepted). A value greater than 2.5 (or negative) is treated as an error.
  3. Sky conditions : you can choose between PHO and CLR. PHO indicates photometric night, while CLR indicates any other condition (light clouds, cirrus, dust, etc...)
  4. airmass: indicate the maximum air mass value, with the format d.dd. A value greater than 3.0, or less than 1.01 is considered as an error. The value 3.0 indicates that no constraints have been set on the airmass (i.e. ANY¹² airmass).
• Notes: indicate a filename (or URL), containing all the useful information for a correct execution of the observations¹³. This file will be uploaded later¹⁴. If you have no information to attach, write none. If you leave this column blank, FLEX will indicate a format error
• Time constraint: this is the only optional field of the setup. An y, added at the end of a line, will label the corresponding block as time dependent. Please detail the time constraints (fixed dates, or after a certain time from the execution of another setup) in an attached document (or note)¹⁵
• Comments: the comments to the observing setup are visualized by SerPICo together with the main parameters (while notes are in a different page). FLEX accepts no more than 512 characters as comments. A comment line starts with the character "!" and must follow the block that you want to comment. You can write several lines, all starting with "!". Comments are not mandatory. FLEX will give an error in case a comment cannot be associated to any block.

#NAME  OBJECT   SLIT   GRISM  P_ANGLE EXP   NEX  TYPE BIN_BOX      MOON SEEING SKY AIRMASS NOTES    TIME
#
V39    IC1613   1.0    LR-B   -85.3   1800  2    SCI  1,1,full,500 14   1.5    CLR 3.00    v39.txt  y
!In case of seeing higher than 1", use the 1.5 slit
!Make calibrations with the some configuration (slit, box)
IC03   IC1613   MASK_3 VPH    0.0     2700  2    SCI  1,1,full     14   1.2    CLR 3.00    none
IC01   IC1613   MASK_4 VPH    0.0     2700  2    SCI  1,1,full     14   1.2    CLR 3.00    none
IC03   IC1613   MASK_1 VPH    0.0     2700  2    SCI  1,1,full     14   1.2    CLR 3.00    none

In case of errors in the format of the file, objects not present in the catalog, repeated setup names, FLEX does NOT send any data to SerPICo! The whole file has to be resubmitted, after error correction.
In case of no errors (or only warnings), FLEX will send all data to SerPICo, updating your account.
The menu on the left changes automatically, according to the status of the procedure. After your first successful input of an observation setup (block), in the LRS SPE menu section, two new buttons will appear: Add and Mod. In the Info File section will appear the button Add ¹⁶.

Add one or more observation setups

Clicking the button Add in the LRS SPE section, you will call the interface to add new observation setups for LRS in spectroscopic mode. The submission requires again an ASCII file, similar to the one used for the first submission. You will see the status of all the submitted blocks. The status can be:

• Active: block not yet observed
• Observed on ...: block observed in the date shown (note: time here is approximate).
• Deactivated by the contact astronomer: block temporarily made "invisible" to the observers by the staff astronomer in charge of your program
• Sleeping: block temporarily made "invisible" to the observers by yourself¹⁷

Modify the observation setups

Clicking the button Mod in the LRS SPE section, you will call the interface to modify LRS SPE blocks. This page is shown every time you have successfully inserted a file for LRS SPE¹⁸. The table lists the LRS SPE observation setups still active or sleeping¹⁷, while it does not show the blocks already observed or deactivated from the TNG astronomer.
With this interface you can modify the inserted data in the archive of SerPICo. Please be careful, and do not modify anything during the TNG nighttime, since you could damage the SerPICo archive¹⁹. It is possible to modify a block at a time, changing all the parameters you need, following conventions and numerical ranges detailed above in this page. Please pay particular attention to these three fields:

• Block name: In case the name of the setup is changed, FLEX performs a series of controls²⁰. As explained above, the block name is used also to link together several observation setups. In this case, it is sufficient to change the name of a block to unlink it and then link it to other setups, according to the syntax detailed above.
  If the unlinked setup is a parent setup (i.e. setupname_01), FLEX will rename the second block
  setupname_02 as setupname_01 and will update²¹ the SerPICo archive.
• Object name: also in this case FLEX performs a series of controls²² in the case the object has been changed. A change of object name corresponds to a change of target. As a safety check, in the table the coordinates of the target are always shown.
• Status: You may set the status of your observation setup. You can switch between active or sleeping. Setting a block as sleeping makes it invisible to SerPICo, i.e. to the staff observers. You can switch status as many times as you want, before the block is observed.

FLEX checks all the new input. If an error is found, nothing will be updated. On the contrary, or in presence of warnings only, the SerPICo archive and the ASCII files you uploaded will be updated.