The FIMS Tool

What is FIMS?

The FORS Instrumental Mask Simulator (FIMS) is a SkyCat plugin to specify the FORS instrumental setup (e.g. the 19 slit positions in MOS) during Phase II Proposal Preparation. FIMS creates and manages the instrumental setup by Target Setup Files (TSFs). These TSFs can be loaded by the P2PP tool to become part of an Observation Block (OB) for FORS. For further information, see the FIMS Users' Manual.

Important Note concerning Releases

For P71 there is only one version of fims for both FORS

The latest release of FIMS is Version 2.37 to be used during period 71.

Version 2.37 will require Skycat version 2.6.5 for HP 11.00, SUN OS and Linux, respectively. Only for HP 10.20 Skycat version 2.6.1 has to be used.

FIMS will only work with the supported SkyCat versions (see above). If you experience problems running FIMS, please first check that you are using a supported SkyCat version. You can download old versions of SkyCat at ftp://ftp.eso.org/pub/archive/skycat/old/

Supported Platforms

The lastest version of the FORS Instrumental Mask Simulator (FIMS) is available for all operating systems for which the ESO SkyCat Tool is also available:

HP-UX-B 10.20
HP-UX-B 11.00
Linux (Suse and RedHat)
SunOS

If you do not have access to a workstation running one of these operating systems, please contact the USG for assistance.

FIMS Distribution

The FIMS can be retrieved via anonymous FTP. The FTP server contains the following files.

NOTE: Version 2.37 shall be only used for Period 71 Programmes starting April 2003. (see Important Notes concerning Releases).

FIMS Retrieval and Installation Instructions for Version 2.37 (FIMS for period 71)

A FORS1 FITS image that can be used for practising with FIMS (gz file; size is 5.9 Mbyte).

How to Use FIMS

The use of FIMS is described in the FORS User Manual. A FITS image taken with FORS1 (gz file; 5.9 Mbytes) is available for practising with FIMS.

Problem and Bug Reports

Please report all FIMS problems and bugs to the ESO User Support Group (USG).