COMICS observation planning applet

The COMICS observation planning tool is distributed as a Java applet. In the past, as long as you had Java installed on your computer, your web browser would usually be able to load the applet into this web page. However, for security reasons, current browsers, including Firefox, Chrome, and Microsoft Edge no longer support Java applet plugins. As of June 2017, Internet Explorer 11 still supports Java applets as browser plugins. If a dialog box pops up asking for permission to run the COMICS planning applet or the applet is displayed below, it means your browser supports Java applet plugins, so you can use the applet directly from this page.

=== Your browser could not run the Java applet. ===

If you don't see the COMICS Java applet displayed above, you will have to run it as a Java Web Start applet. With Java Web Start, the applet can be downloaded to your computer and executed even when you are not connected to the Internet: COMICS Web Start Applet. Depending on which version of Java you have installed (e.g., Oracle or IcedTea), you might see a dialog box about creating a "Desktop shortcut". You can either click on the "Allow" button or uncheck the option and click on "Cancel". Either way, the Java applet will run up outside of this browser window. When using the Java Web Start applet, please click on the Exit button button to close the applet because the normal "window close" button doesn't seem to work reliably.

N.B. In a nutshell, you type all the necessary information to carry out a single observation sequence in the spaces provided in each of the five tabs (Target, Telescope, COMICS, Sequence, Comments), and press Save
button which will write what you've just entered into a text file in your home directory on your computer. The name of the text file is displayed in the area just above the Save button. In addition to writing the text file, the same information will also be written into the Output window at the bottom of the Applet. You can change the name of the output file by clicking on Save As button which will bring up a File Dialog window in which you can specify your desired file name. If you have an existing output file from the Applet, you can load it into the Applet with Load button . The Create button button simply writes the configuration information into the Output window if you want to preview it before saving the file. Make sure you have produced all the necessary files (remember, if you are observing an object in three filters, then you'll probably need six files - one file for each filter so three target files plus three standard files) and stored them somewhere handy (i.e. save them somewhere that you can easily access from Subaru) before coming to observe at Subaru Telescope.

For more information and help on how to use this applet, please click here.