4.3 Target Entry

We start by launching the Spitzer Planning Observations Tool (Spot), and entering the target information.

As described in §2.4.1, we first start Spot and bring up the new target window, either by clicking on the target icon (the bulls-eye icon on the taskbar; see Fig. 2.1), or by selecting ``new target'' from the target menu.

In this example, we wish to consider observations of the galaxy clusters listed above, at a single position, with small dithers for cosmic ray rejection, which we will configure in a moment. Hence we choose the ``Fixed Single'' target type. We enter the first target, Abell 2218, and hit the ``Resolve the name'' button. Spot finds the RA/Dec of the cluster center (16:35:53.99, +66:13:00.2, J2000 for Abell 2218. Note that this seems to be somewhat offset from the optical center of the cluster, but we will accept it anyway for the purposes of this example).

Since we will be looking for faint, high-z galaxies, we select also the boxes to avoid bright moving objects during the observations (both the Earth/Moon and `Others', which currently includes Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and the asteroids Vesta, Hebe, Ceres, Iris, and Eunomia). This choice will restrict the observations for scheduling to preclude times when the target coordinates are within $7^\circ$ of the Earth and Moon, or within $30^\prime$ of the objects on the `Others' list). The completed entry dialog is shown in Fig. 4.1.

Figure 4.1: The target entry dialog.

After entering the target name, coordinates, and clicking 'OK', we are returned to the main Spot menu (see Fig. 4.2). A few features to notice: in the bottom banner, the selected target name is displayed ``abell 2218,'' with target type ``Fixed Single.''

Figure 4.2: Spot menu after Abell 2218 target entry.

Repeat this procedure for the other targets in the list.