This is some information on how to use the driftmap_planner script to construct an observing script.

The general format of the script is something like:

RECEIVER alfa
LOADIF config_2may05.gui
WAPPCONFIG
EXEC newfits
EXEC fixed_driftmap 298.23109 G37p5_1a298 j 180423 112736 73.313275 truly 540 1 1 loopend-ON+OFF 1 hcal 0 first
.
.
.
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The first four lines are config data
the last lines (there can be many of these lines..) are the information for the 
alfa-drift-and-chase mode.

The format for this is:
EXEC fixed_driftmap AZ object epoch RA(hhmmss) dec(ddmmss) rotang drift_mode secs loops 
loops_per_fil cal_mode cal_time cal_type async_cal which_loop_for_cal.

so the snippet above, will slew to az 298.23 and dec 11:27:36, rotate alfa to 73.3 deg, and 
wait for ra 190423 to transit the beam, before holding and recording data for 540 seconds. 
At the end of that time, hcor is fired for one second, and that file is closed and a new one 
opened.
-------------

The IDL code driftmap_planner writes this file, making calls to 'rotang', the orignal cornell 
effort, which was made useful (and corrected) by Robbie minchin, to calculate the rotation angle 
of alfa for a given ra, dec and LST (or AST).

Note that you still have to excecute @phil and @corinit beforehand.

I've beem making the calls from a little file called inp.yymmdd, e.g. inp.050507 has:

driftmap_planner,obs_date=050507,start_ra=180423,start_dec=112736,obs_time=024200,/ast,number_of_scans=4,drift_time=9,/oplot,extra=['G37p5','j',string(0),'HELIO','VOPT']

in it. 

There are a few important things:
1. the start_ra and start_dec are the STARTING positions of the noth-west corner of the map area.
2. time can be entered as AST or LST, the default is LST.
3. Drift time is the time to drift.. in solar minutes.
4. all these parameters are entered as keywords, because I think it makes it all easier to 
understand, but the script makes no checks to see that they are entered, or correct.

obs_date: the date for which the script will be run.
start_ra: the ra of the north-west corner of the map area
start_dec: the dec of the north-west corner of the map area
obs_time: the time from which the observations will commence. THIS IS IMPORTANT!!
           If the telescope is not at the correct AZ and DEC at the time entered here, 
	   the system will go a bit spastic, and take data anyhow. The rest of the observing
	   session might be out of kilter. If you get this wrong, you should try again.
number_of_scans: This means, how many scans (not including interleaves) should be calculated.
           i.e. 'scans' are paired: the first scan, and the interleave. One scan covers roughly 13 am		in in dec, though that value depends on AZ.
drift_time: Time to spend drifting, in solar minutes
extra: a 5 element string, containing: 
	(source_name, epoch, velocity, velocity system, velocity type)
	These are only strings, the program won't check that they make sense.

The program produces three text files:
	1. command_drift -> the actual observing script
	2. time_list.txt -> a more easily read version of the scans and interleaves
	3. drift.cat -> a catalogue, containing only one position, to be used by command_erik.
---------------
Its a simple function:
1. starting from RA(0) and DEC(0), and time (dt), calculate rotation angle and find beam 
	separation (sep). write it out to a file and schedule file. 
	This is scan 1a: the first scan.
2. knowing the drift time, and estimating the slew (as 0.25 * dt) and incrementing the dec 
	by one half the previous beam separation, re=calculate the rotaion angle for the 
	new position and time. 
	This is scan 1b: the first interleave.
2. From the beam spacing of scan 1a, and adding in the drift (and some slew time), 
	increment the dec from that of scan 1a, by 7* sep (i.e. seven times the beam 
	spacing), now re-calculate the rotation angle, and the beam separation for this 
	new position and time. 
	This is scan 2a, the second scan.
3.increment dec by 0.5 of the beam separation of scan 2b, add in the time, and re-calc...
.
.
and so on, until the requested number of scans.
-------------------

The tracks can be plotted quickly using plot_track.pro, which accepts filenames as an array
of strings, optionally, the xrange and yrange can be specified, and axis labels can be added.


I usually save the inp.yymmdd and time_list.txt files, (and rename them) but write over the command_drift and drift.cat files.

thats all I think.