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Sac Peak ESF Computer Retired (1Jun94) (from NSO, NOAO Newsletter No. 38, 1 June 1994) The SP Evans Solar Facility Perkin-Elmer 3220 computer was officially finally disconnected on 8 April. This computer had served the facility well for a decade, but was hopelessly outdated. All observing programs have been successfully transitioned to the new control system called ESFICC. The control system has been in operation at the SP/VTT since July 1992, and at the ESF since October 1993. The control system provides new capabilities for the ESF. Observations can be made with a flexible configuration of instruments, telescopes, film cameras, CCD cameras, photo-diodes, and photomultipliers. The coronagraph pointing uses solar coordinates, which allows sophisticated region scanning. The coelostat has limited pointing ability which also uses solar coordinates. Other features are that observations can be monitored remotely, an accurate time base locked to IRIG drives the experiments, and detailed information for the observations is recorded and saved for future reference. Another new feature is that the documentation and system capabilities are available electronically with a World Wide Web server at SP. The address is http://www.sunspot.noao.edu, and then select the "John W. Evans Solar Facility." We all wish ESFICC a long and happy life. Fritz Stauffer
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