The Kast Shiv

This is the Shivvers version of the Flipper group's Kast/Shane reduction pipeline.

This version of the code is designed to be used on data obtained after September 2016 with the Kast spectrograph on the Shane telescope at Lick Observatory. (Using the Fairchild CCD on the blue side and the Hamamatsu on the red.)

For data obtained before that date, see v1.0 of this code.

goals of this code

• as automated as is reasonable
• cuts no corners
• does not require a complicated user environment
• lots of documentation
• every decision about reduction parameters is explicit
• keeps detailed logs of actions taken during reduction
• easy to start/stop/resume at any point in the reduction

Getting it running

First, install the Ureka Python/IRAF system. Or, if you're feeling very brave, install Python, IRAF, and pyraf yourself, and get them to all cooperate.

Second, make sure you have a working installation of IDL on your machine. This is only required for the flux calibration and atmospheric absorption correction step, taken near the end of the reduction, which has not yet been translated into Python.

There are some additional Python packages required too: Python will notify you the first time it's run. Install them using 'pip install' from within the Ureka environment.

run setup.py

The setup.py code inserts appropriate paths into files where needed. (Note that this is not a normal python setup script.) You should place the code into its permanent home and then run this script. The script must be run every time the code is moved.

# from inside the KastShiv root folder:
python setup.py

include path in environment variables

The Python and IDL interpreters need to know where to find the KastShiv codes.
If you use the bash shell, you can include the following commands in your bash login file (e.g., ~/.bashrc):

export IDL_PATH=$IDL_PATH:+<KAST_SHIV_DIRECTORY>/tools
export PYTHONPATH=$PYTHONPATH:<KAST_SHIV_DIRECTORY>

create the credentials.py file

There must exist a file named credentials.py in the KastShiv/tools folder, and in that file there must live the credentials for logging into the Kast data repository and the flipperwiki. For example:

>$ echo credentials.py
wiki_un = 'USERNAME'
wiki_pw = 'PASSWORD'
repository_un = 'USERNAME'
repository_pw = 'PASSWORD'