MUSE instrument software

MUSE Instrumentation Software is the software devoted to the control of the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE), a second-generation VLT panoramic integral-field spectrograph instrument, installed at Paranal in January 2014. It includes an advanced and user-friendly GUI to display the raw data of the 24 detectors, as well as the on-line reconstructed images of the field of view allowing users to assess the quality of the data in quasi-real time. Furthermore, it implements the slow guiding system used to remove effects of possible differential drifts between the telescope guide probe and the instrument, and reach high image stability (<0.03 arcsec RMS stability). In this paper we report about the software design and describe the developed tools that efficiently support astronomers while operating this complex instrument at the telescope.