Optimal Spectrum Extraction Package for IDL
Design, supervision, contact:
Dr. Joseph Harrington
326 Space Sciences Building
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853-6801
jh@oobleck.astro.cornell.edu
Programmers:
John Dermody (Cornell) Version 0.3.0 08 Jul 04
Dara Zeehandelaar (Cornell)
Overview
This package extracts a spectrum from a reduced spectrograph data
frame using the optimal algorithm described in "An Optimal Extraction Algorithm
for CCD Spectroscopy" (K. Horne, 1986, PASP
98:609-617). The initial flattening and bias subtraction are
to be done outside the package, along with any sky subtraction and
calculations of the initial variance estimates. The base procedure
fits the background, generates a profile estimate, masks cosmic rays,
and extracts the optimal spectrum. Extensions to the paper's
algorithm include Gaussian and running average fits for the profile
construction. There is also an option to straighten the data trace
before estimating the profile.
Installation
Copy the optspecextr directory to your IDL function directory, where
it can be seen by the IDL program.
To test your installation, change into a directory where you can write
files and run testoptextr. The following four lines should appear on
your screen if things are working normally:
Creating simple test data
Creating default test data
PASS - Simple Frame
PASS - Default Frame
Package Contents
README - the place to start
doc - directory containing HTML-format documentation
images - directory containing example and test images
*.pro - IDL functions
Algorithm and Function List
Getting Started
Fine-Tuning, Progress Reports, Run-Time Plots
Trace Straightening Tricks
Frequently-Asked Questions