Accessing urania and running IDL remotely for AST337

1) Start up an X11-capable and SSH-capable command-line terminal from your home machine:
	- On a Mac (OS X v10.4 or later recommended), start X11 from the Applications or Utilities folder. If you lack X11, see Rob's instructions for obtaining and installing X11 for Mac. Then run Terminal (Also found in the Applications or Utilities folder).
	- On a Microsoft Windows machine (XP SP2 or later or Vista recommended), you'll need an X Windows server application and a UNIX terminal emulator with SSH capability. See Rob's instructions for obtaining installing and using Xming and Xming-PortablePuTTY for these things.
	- On a Linux (any distribution) machine, open any terminal program (Terminal, Konsole, etc.) from the main program menu.

2) Once your terminal is up, type:
%	ssh -Y <username>@urania.ast.smith.edu
	...where "<username>" is your email name on record with us, e.g. for Sophia Smith and her email address, ssmith@email.smith.edu:
%	ssh -Y ssmith@urania.ast.smith.edu
	...and when you are prompted for:
	Password:
	....enter the same password as for the ast337 class account on the classroom computers and hit return.

3) Assuming a successful login to urania, you can now run any linux command, such as:
%	ls	# list files in current directory
%	ls -lt	# list files in current directory, in long format, newest files first
%	ls -lt \| head	# list files in current directory, in long format, newest files first, only top of list
%	pwd	# print working directory (where am I?)
%	mkdir hw	# make a new directory called "hw"
%	cd hw	# change to "hw" directory

4) You'll need a good text editor for this class and many, many other computer uses. On the classroom machines, use "Aquamacs", available from Applications or from the dock (toolbar at bottom of screen). On urania remotely via X Windows, you'll need xemacs, a slightly clumsier version.

5) If you need to transfer text or data files between urania and another computer such as your personal laptop, click here for instructions

6) Back in your terminal, start up the special ast337 IDL:
%	ast337idl

7) In IDL, try some simple data file reading and plotting:
IDL>	$ls	; use linux/unix ls command to list files
IDL>	cd, 'ast337idl'
IDL>	cd, 'examples'	; change directory to examples sub-directory
IDL>	$ls
IDL>	$head isochrone_1Myr.cat	; print first few lines of file, to see what it contains
		; OR: open this file in x-emacs!
IDL>	readcol, 'isochrone_1Myr.cat', mass, temp	; read first 2 columns of a file into variable arrays
IDL>	plot, mass, temp	; simple plot of mass vs. temp

Questions? Email Rob or James, and don't forget to fix these email addresses before you hit send.