                                              September 1998 (S.Josephine Chan)

CIRSI Data Reduction System (CIRDR) news

  CIRDR has been fixed on as the name of this package finally.

******************* Last words from Editor ************************************

  Sorry to delay to release this version because a lot of unexpected events
were happened to me. This is the last CIRDR newsletter to be edited by me. 
I hope all of you will continue to enjoy to use my programs. 

   During the past 15 months, I tried to use all of my effects to create and
to build the functionality of this data reduction package on a 
"Solid Ground". Once this "base" of this package has been built, the 
enhancement will be considered. This is the first principal of my software 
development. It will eliminate the chance of the collapse of the package any
time especially this package is mainly writting by IRAF-CL, weak high level 
language.

  Good luck for your CIRSI data reduction.

CIRDR Newsletter Editor (Sept98)
S. Josephine Chan

******************** Last words from Editor ***********************************

(A) General

  The CIRSI Data Reduction System (CIRDR) is released as a test version 0.0.3. 
There are at least four main packages in CIRDR, which are CQLOOK, CPLINE, 
CIRUTIL and CIRCONTRIB. The package structure of CIRDR is similar to IRAF,
STSDAS or any of large external packages which run under IRAF environment. Any 
scientific data analysis packages related to CIRSI data will be subpackages in
CIRDR. 
 

(B) What's new! 


(1) Support Temporary Bad Pixel Maps:

    Several bad pixels maps in chips (1st approximation only) have been made 
based on the domeflat data obtained from May 1998. Users may use these maps as
a reference for the "primary" bad pixels. These bad pixel maps are located in
cirdr$data/ directory.

There are three sets: (bad pixel = 1, good pixel = 0)

 (a) non-transpose case: 
     bp_c1.pl, bp_c2.pl, bp_c3.pl, and bp_c4.pl

 (b) INT-transpose case:
     bp_int_c1.pl, bp_int_c2.pl, bp_int_c3.pl, and bp_int_c4.pl

 (c) WHT-transpose case:
     bp_wht_c1.pl, bp_wht_c2.pl, bp_wht_c3.pl, and bp_wht_c4.pl


(2) Pset v.s. IMCOMBINE

    An option is added to the following tasks which  "call" IMCOMBINE in order
      to let users input their OWN parameters. These tasks are:
       CMKSKY, CMKQSKY and CDOSSKY (parameter = useropt; pset = mkskypar)
       CMKDNFLAT, CMKQDNFLAT, CMKMSNFLAT, CMKQMSNFLAT (parameter = useropt;
                      	                                    pset = mkflatpar)
       CMKDARK, CMKQDARK (parameter = userop;, pset = mkdarkpar)
       CMKOBJ, CMKQOBJ (parameter = useropt; pset = mkobjpar)
       CIRMOS, CIRDITHER (parameter = useropt;  pset = mkmospar)	


(3) Help Facility

    All the "help" facility is available in all the active subtasks, 
CIRUTIL, CIRCONTRIB, CPLINE.C2RED, CQLOOK.CPREPROC and CQOOK.CREDUCT.


(4) New/modified tasks

    CNEWS - display the content of newsletter.
      An option is added in order to read preivous newsletter.
      (hidden parameter = docnew)
      (e.g.: July Newsletter location: cirdr$doc/cirsi_news_july98)


In CIRCONTRIB:

    CIRCONTRIB is a new subpackage of CIRDR. It is a contribution 
package in which tasks are contributed by other sites or users. Currently, it 
only contains a task called IMAGE_FOCUS contributed by ING. 


In CQLOOK:
 
  In CQLOOK.CPREPROC:

  The following tasks are modified:

    CNDRPROC  - to perform the basic preprocessing, basic processing
                 if the readout mode is NDR.
       Several options have been added to the task CNDRPROC. More changes will
         be done in the coming months. 

    CRRRPROC - to perform the basic preprocessing, basic processing
                 if the readout mode is RRR. 

       Similar options have been added to the task CRRRPROC.
       
         The following new/modified options are available: 

      (a) All of the required parameters have been changed to "hidden" 
             parameters except "rnorange". 
       
      (b)  Using commas "," and dash "-" as delimiters in order to produce a
             list of non consecutive run numbers. User can also provide the 
             name of a file (@filename) containing a list of run numbers (one
             run number per line).
                 (parameter = rnorange)

      (c) to perform noise correction. The options are the following:
               (hidden parameters = dostripe, stripe)
               index = MB/B/C/R 
          Please see CDESTRIPE section for the detailed usage.

      (d) to process data from a selected chip. (hidden parameter = quadnos)

      (e) to process data from a selected quadrant (i.e.: not assemble from
             quadrants to chips).
               (hidden parameters = quadnos)

      (f) to preform dark correction.
               (hidden parameters =   darkcorr,  scalfac,  darklist)

      (g) to preform flat-fielding
               (hidden parameters = flatcorr, flatlist, delskyfl)

      (h) to stop after RC-correction
               (hidden parameter = stoprc)

      (i) to stop after assembling from quadrants to chips
               (hidden parameter = stopass)

      (j) to turn off the scaling quadrants during assembling
           quadrants to chips.
               (hidden parameter = doscaleq)

      (k)  to stop after making sky images
               (hidden parameter = subsky)

      (l) to support users to supply a directory where the
           raw data are kept.
               (hidden parameter = datapath)

      (m)  to support users input their own parameters in order to make sky
              images.
               (hidden parameter = usrskyopt, pset = mkskypar)

      (n)  to support to use bad pixels if the BPM keyword is in header.
               (hidden parameter =  usebpm)

      (o)  The following input parmeters are removed:
            It is assumed that they can be obtained from headers
                 parameters          Keyword in the headers
                 prefiximg                  OBJECT
                 tquad                      NFRAMES 
                                 (assuming NRAMES is total number of quadrants)
                 tndr                       TOTALNDR or NLOOPS

   WARNING: It was found that the keyword of NFRAME = TOTALNDR * TOT_QUAD in
              some data such as the data from the first WHT RUN (Jan98) just
              a few days ago before this newsletter was written. I am not sure
              whether "NFRAMES" will have another meaning other than the above
              which were mentioned.
  
    CMKIMG - to make NDR-RC-quadrant-images from a set NDR-quadrant-image with
                   same run number providing the upper and lower value of NDR
                   number. It also has an option to descripe the "stripe" noise
           A function was added in order to "pick up" the right files to
             perform RC correction. Users only need to provide the correct
             the selected upper of NDR number and lower value of NDR number
             based on their own "interest".

    CDESTRIPE - to destripe the "uniform stripe" noise from a set of adjacent 
               pairs of RC-quadrant-images.
       An option was added in order to drive an external task contributed
               by Dr. Mike Irwin. This program was also modified by
               Dr. Richard McMachon in order to fix the header truncation 
               problem. The name of this program is called "fdraft" which
               is installed as "a foreign task" under IRAF.
                  (parameter = index)  index = MB
       
      In order to use this option, one must put the following lines in your
.tcshrc (NOT .mytcshrc).

----------------------cut here-------------------------------

# define path for CIRDR foreign commands
if ( -e /home/cirsi/cirdr_setup) then
  source /home/cirsi/cirdr_setup
else
  echo 'Warning: cirdr_setup is missing'
endif

-------------------- cut here -------------------------------

    CASSQUAD - to assemble a set of 4n quadrant-images with size 512x512 into
                    n chip-images with size 1024x1024. 
    CMKCHIP - to assemble m sets of 4n quadrant-images with size 512x512 into
                    mxn chip-images withsize 1024x1024.
       An option was added in order to turn off the option for scaling the 
            quadrants.
              (parameter = doscale)


    CQTRANS - to transpose the orientaton of each quadrant to face north 
                   from a list of lists of object quadrant-images.
                    (north - up: seen in Ximtool)
          This is a new task!



  In CQLOOK.CREDUCT:

   The following are new/modified tasks:

   CMKDNFLAT   - to make a normalized flat frame from a list of domeflat frames
                    and domedark frames.
   CMKMSNFLAT  - to make a normalized flat frame using from a list of skyframes
                    obtaining from moving-sky flat method.
   CMKQDNFLAT  - to make a list of "normalized-flat" quadrant-images
                    (or chip-images) from a list of lists of domeflat 
                    quadrant-images (or chip-images) and a list of lists of
                    dome dark frames.
   CMKQMSNFLAT - to make a list of "normalized-flat" quadrant-images
                    (or chip-images) from a list of lists of sky frames
                    quadrant-images (or chip-images) obtaining from
                    moving-sky flat method.
         An option is also added to the above tasks in order to let users
            input their OWN parameters for making FLAT images. 

  CMKDARK  - to make a dark frame from a list of dark frames
  CMKQDARK - to make a list combined dark quadrant-images (or chip-images)
                 from a list of lists of dark quadrant-images (or chip-images).
        Two options are added:
           (a) to make a normalized dark (parameter = scalfac)
           (b) to let users input their own parameters in order to make
                 combined DARK images (parameter = useropt; pset = mkdarkpar)
           
  CSUBDARK  - to perform dark correction given a combined dark frame
  CSUBQDARK - to perform dark correction given a list of combined dark frames

   CMKSKY   - to make an infrared sky frame
   CMKQSKY  - to make a list of sky quadrant-images (or chip-images) from a
                  list of lists quadrant-images (or chip-images)
       An option is also added to CMKSKY and CMKQSKY in order to let users 
            to input their OWN parameters for making SKY images

   CDOSSKY  - to make sky images (quadrants or chips) which 
                   are subtracted from a list of lists of object images
                   (quadrants or chips)
             Two optionsis are added:
                  (a) to make sky images only (parameter = subsky)
                  (b) to let users input their own parameters.
                     (parameter = useropt; pset = mkskypar)

In CIRUTIL:

  The following are new tasks:

  CSPLATNDR  - to plot average (mean, median and mode) of pixel values as 
                  function of observing time. There is also an option
                  to plot variance as function of average of pixel values.
                  It is useful for estimating the saturation level.

  CADDQBPM   - to add the keyword BPM to the headers of a list of lists
                  images.

  The following is modified tasks:

  CIRMOS     -  to mosaic (dithering mosaic and adjacent frame mosaic)a set 
                    images.

  CIRDITHER  - to mosaic a list of images in a given dithering pattern 
                   based on the information from headers or a given file.

               An option is added to CIRMOS and CIRDITHER in order to 
                 let users to input its own parameters
                   (parameter = useropt; pset = mkmospar)


In CIRCONTRIB:
 
     image_focus - find the optimum telescope focus for an imaging system.
                   (contributed by ING)


(D) Basic requirement to use CIRDR

CIRDR is written under IRAF environment. Therefore. it is strongly
recommended to know the basic of IRAF in order to use the package effectively.
The following is the information:

       A Beginner' Guide to Using IRAF Version 2.10 (Jeannette Barnes) : A 
good IRAF manual for IRAF users, not just only for beginners. 



(E) Other information about CIRDR 
    There is a Web site for CIRDR version 0.0.3. The address of the master
 web page is

  http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~sjchan/cirsi/local/data_reduction/cirdr/cirdr.html
  
    It can be accessed by local site users (Cambridge) and "registered" 
external site users.





