The UCSCLRIS Package -- Top Level

Working Draft!

Overview

The top-level package contains a variety of tasks for observing with LRIS, notably to aid in slitmask alignment.

Tasks

uc> autorfits   maskalign   mshift      qbox        
    l2process   mboxfind    prep

autorfits -- script task to read FITS files as they appear
mshift -- derive translation to move a star onto a given position
mboxfind -- find centers for the alignment boxes and stars
maskalign -- use the star-box differences to derive needed offsets
qbox -- script task for calling mboxfind and maskalign
prep -- load the prep package
l2process -- a "quick-and-dirty" bias/trim/flat-field operation (old)

autorfits:

This script task reads FITS images into IRAF images as they appear from LRIS. It should be run in background. This is the parameter file:

        nfile =              starting file # to look for
   (fits_root = "")          FITS directory/root
  (image_root = "")          image direcory/root
   (sleeptime = )            time to sleep (sec)
       (tarry = )            time to delay before file read (sec)
        (mode = "q")

fits_root is the path and root to the FITS files (on honolii); it usually looks like "/data/sdata22/lris7/n1/lris". image_root is what the IRAF images should be called; it usually looks like "/data/sdata2/lris7/n1/lris". sleeptime is how often the task should check to see if the expected FITS file has appeared; 2 or 3 seconds are good values. tarry should be set to 1; it is the time to pause following the appearance of the file before attempting an rfits.

If the first file you'd like to start reading at is lris0011.fits, then you would execute:

uc>  autorfits 11 &

The task would check to see if "/data/sdata22/lris7/n1/lris0011.fits" existed, and would read it into "/data/sdata2/lris7/n1/lris0011.imh" if it did. Otherwise, it would wake up every 2 seconds (sleeptime) to check again. After finding/reading lris0011.fits, it would then look for lris0012.fits, etc.

Two comments on data management:

No checking is done for remaining disk space. Use the df command periodically. It's especially painful to run out of disk space during alignments! (Also, if the data disk fills up during an LRIS CCD readout, the data will be lost.)
You want to read .fits files from honolii and store the .imh files on a disk physically attached to lanakai. Otherwise there is horrible disk thrashing and network traffic, that can results in 3-4 minutes needed to read a sincle 2K x 2K image.

Be sure to kill off the autorfits background job at the end of each night.

qbox:

See slitmask alignment.

(others to be written)

Standard Disclaimer

This software was written by Drew Phillips at Lick observatory for the private use of the DEEP team at UCSC. It is available for other users on a "use-at-your-own-risk" basis. It is not official Keck software nor is it supported by them, so don't bother them with questions/complaints. Send comments to phillips@ucolick.org.

Andrew C. Phillips / Lick Observatory

Last modified: 06 may 96

phillips@ucolick.org