How to do data reduction like mxt using STARLINK

STARLINK's url is http://www.starlink.rl.ac.uk/

A:

B:

C:(observing notes)

When naming filters, easiest to name things like Ha6563 Ha6571, etc - all starting with Ha.

Best to have about 10,000 counts / exposure.
Try for exposure times greater than 2 seconds.

D:

CCDPACK

KAPPA

ESP

GAIA

PISA

DAOPHOT

to extract a subframe:

E:

First, put data on disk on COREF. This is the only machine I have access to that runs the starlink software.

Then invoke the packages needed:

starlink
ccdpack
kappa
convert

Convert to files that starlink can look at:

FITSDIN auto, fmtcnv, out, files
	 |      |      |    | single or list of files to convert
         |      |      | what to call the converted files
         |      | put in real fmt immediatly
         | don't ask me every time I use it 

ccdsetup prompt
CCDSETUP is the package that you use to define how you used the chip. It creates a file that can be used and/or modified. You need to know what chip was used for this observation, and where the bias strip(s) are. The last can be determined by examining an image gaia, for example. RNOISE comes from your camera manual. Saturate is the highest value to be considered as good data. 30,000 is current value. Once you have made the setup file, examine it in the editor. The "bounds" parameter is often written wrong in the file.

If you have questions, a "?" at the prompt will give you help.
Example setup file:

/nedproc>more pal_ccd_apr00.setup
#
#   CCDPACK - Restoration file
#
#   Written by rosalie on Wed Apr 19 15:39:07 2000.
#
 ADC = 4.5  ! electrons/ADU
 RNOISE = 13  ! Nominal readout noise in ADUs
 EXTENT = 2, 2047, 2, 2047  ! Extent of useful CCD area
 BOUNDS =  2050, 2096
 DIRECTION = X  ! Readout direction
 DEFERRED = 0  ! Deferred charge in ADUs
 SATURATE = TRUE  ! Look for saturated pixels
 SATURATION = 30000 ! Saturation value
 SETSAT = FALSE ! Set saturated pixels to saturation value
 PRESERVE = FALSE  ! Preserve data types
 GENVAR = FALSE  ! Generate data variances
 NDFNAMES = TRUE  ! Position lists associated with NDFs
 LOGTO = Both  ! Log file information to
 LOGFILE = CCDPACK.log  ! Name of logfile

makebias prompt

debias prompt
debias is the routine to apply the debiasing. Set the "keep" parameter to false. Don't scale. Set "offset" to false.

makeflat
remember to specify the frames of the same color that go into each flat

flatcor
have to do this by color

Now you have potentially several frames per field. They need to be coadded (that's why you took them, right?)
Collect the relavant images in a subdirectory. Only copy the flat-correctect images - they are the best corrected. In the subdirectory, excute these commands. They are examples taken from the current (may 2000) STARLINK website. For closer tailoring or more info, see the url at the top of this page. Watch out, some of these will ask questions, so pay attention!

findobj in='s*' minpix=10 outlist='*.find'
In this example FINDOBJ processes all the images in the current directory locating objects with connected pixel groups which have more than 9 pixels above the threshold.

findoff inlist='s*' error=1 outlist='*.off'
findoff inlist='s*' error=10 outlist='*.off'
In this example all the images in the current directory are accessed and their associated position lists are used. The matched positions are named *.off. The method used is to try the FAST algorithm, switching to SLOW if FAST fails. The completeness measure is used when forming the spanning tree. Matches with completenesses less than 0.5 and with less than three positions are rejected. Ideally, error=1 is used, but if no registration occurs, use error=10.

register inlist='s*' fittype=1
In this example all the images in the current directory are accessed and their associated position lists are opened. A global fit between all the datasets is then performed which results in estimates for the offsets from the first input image's position. The results are then coded as transform structures in the CCDPACK extensions of the images (under the item TRANSFORM). The transform structures are arranged so that the forward transformation maps current positions into the reference coordinate system.

tranndf 's*' '*-trn' reset
This transforms all the images in the current directory if they contain suitable transformation structures in their extensions. It uses nearest-neighbour resampling and conserves the flux levels. The output images are of a size such that all the input pixels have contributed.

makemos '*trn' mymos
Combines the set of images matching the wild-card "*" into a single mosaic called mymos. By default, no normalisation corrections are applied to the input data, which are combined by taking the median in regions where several input images overlap.

ndf2fits
Converts ndf format to fits format. If done as part of the reduction, all the proper names and attributes are applied.