POCS Examples for Beginners

This page contains examples to help you learn POCS, from simple CLI commands to interactive exploration using Jupyter Notebooks.

Getting Started: The Command Line

Most users should start with the pocs command line tool - it's simpler and safer than writing Python code.

Quick Start Hardware Check

# 1. Configure your unit (REQUIRED FIRST STEP)
pocs config setup

# 2. Test your hardware
pocs mount search-home
pocs camera take-pics --num-images 1

# 3. Run automated observing
pocs mount park

Full CLI Documentation

For complete CLI documentation, see the CLI Guide.

The CLI guide includes: - All commands (config, run, mount, camera, etc.) - Detailed examples and options - Common workflows - Troubleshooting tips - Advanced usage

Interactive POCS with Jupyter (Advanced)

Once you're comfortable with the CLI, explore POCS interactively using a Jupyter Notebook. This is the best way to learn the Python API and experiment with your observatory.

1. Set Up Environment

First, we need to set up the environment variables that POCS expects. If you're running this in a simulation mode, we'll point it to a temporary directory.

import os
from pathlib import Path

# Set up a directory for POCS data
pandir = Path.home() / "pocs_notebook"
pandir.mkdir(exist_ok=True)
os.environ["PANDIR"] = str(pandir)

print(f"📁 POCS data directory: {pandir}")

2. Start Configuration Service

POCS requires a configuration service to be running. In a notebook, you can start it like this:

from panoptes.utils.config.server import config_server

# Use the default config file from the repository
conf_file = Path.cwd() / "conf_files" / "pocs.yaml"
server = config_server(str(conf_file))

print(f"✅ Config service is running using: {conf_file}")

3. Initialize POCS

Now we can create a POCS instance. We'll use simulators='all' to ensure we can run everything without real hardware.

from panoptes.pocs.core import POCS

# Create POCS with everything simulated
pocs = POCS.from_config(simulators='all')

# Initialize the system
pocs.initialize()

print(f"🔭 Observatory {pocs.name} is ready!")
print(f"Current State: {pocs.state}")

4. Interact with Hardware

You can now interact with the various components of the observatory directly.

Telescope Mount

mount = pocs.observatory.mount

# Unpark the mount so it can move
mount.unpark()

# Slew to a predefined home position
mount.slew_to_home()

print(f"Mount status: {mount.status}")

Cameras

from panoptes.utils.time import current_time

# Take a test exposure on all cameras
now = current_time(flatten=True)

for cam_name, cam in pocs.observatory.cameras.items():
    filename = pandir / f"{cam_name}-{now}.cr2"
    print(f"Taking 2s exposure on {cam_name}...")
    cam.take_exposure(seconds=2, filename=str(filename), blocking=True)
    print(f"Saved to {filename}")

5. Scheduling Observations

You can even ask the scheduler to find a target for you based on the current time and location.

# Get the next best observation from the scheduler
observation = pocs.observatory.get_observation()

if observation:
    print(f"📅 Best target found: {observation.field.name}")
    print(f"Priority: {observation.priority}")

    # Slew the mount to the target
    pocs.observatory.mount.slew_to_target()
else:
    print("🌙 No valid targets found for the current conditions.")

6. Clean Up

When you're done, it's good practice to park the mount.

pocs.observatory.mount.park()
print("💤 Mount parked. Simulation complete!")

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Note: For more advanced notebook examples, check the notebooks/ directory in the POCS repository, such as TestPOCS.ipynb and SchedulerPlayground.ipynb.