obspars

The parameter file obspars allows the astronomer to specify details of how the images will be named, whether or not s/he wishes to set the filter and/or telescope focus for each exposure, details of how focus frames should be taken for direct imaging, and additional comments for the header. A sample obspars can be seen below. An inspection of this figure can be a little misleading---it is not necessary to change any of the first three items in the parameter file, as the user will be prompted for these whenever appropriate. The values listed there at any time are simply the most recent entries, and is what ICE uses to offer as default values when you hit [CR], as you may remember from the previous example of using observe (refer back to Parameters that you may wish to alter:

rootname and sequence: These control what the next picture will be called, e.g., n30001 in this example. You may wish to change the rootname from night-to-night but remember to keep this short---you will have to type this every time you refer to the image. The sequence number allows you to reset the picture counter to whatever number you want, although you must first explicitly get rid of any images with the same name using imdelete.
setfilters These two parameters control whether the user will be prompted for the correct setting of the filter at the beginning of each exposure. The filter parameter has proven to be invaluable for direct imaging; it both reminds the astronomer what filter is currently in place, and offers an opportunity to change it at that time.
observers and propid: These are put in the image headers .
comments and comfile: These two parameters allow you to add even more information to your header. The parameter comments may be edited to contain a single line of additional comment. The parameter comfile may contain a file name that contains multiple lines of comments. Each line of this file is automatically formatted into a FITS COMMENT record. You should not include the COMMENT keyword in this file. Since this file is read at the beginning of the read-out, you may edit this file any time during the exposure. The comfile is automatically set if you are using the automatic logging software
command: This is a very powerful (and potentially dangerous) feature: any IRAF task placed here will be executed immediately after the chip is read-out. The default is to execute the script postproc.cl in background mode. Please do not edit this, as the automatic logging is controlled by this.
longexposuretime: This parameter determines whether the Unix system is controlling the length of the exposure, or whether it is controlled by the CCD controller. This should be set to 10 seconds.