Re: Common and uncommon goals and software

[Jure Skvarc <jure.skvarc@ijs.si>]

Hmm, isn't this a bit of overkill?  I imagined that FITS files would be used for
data interchange, eg. Tom reading Arne's measurements with his own set of
software routines.  Now, if the whole coordinate transformation has to be done
by this software, I somehow doubt that many people will be able to read others
people data, unless they use the same software as the person who produces the
data.  I understood that people typically don't want to do this.

And, I remembered another piece of information that might be useful for each
star:  the total intensity in ADU units.

So, if I combine what was said by now and if I dare to keep RA, DEC and airmass
for each star:


Header (obligatory)
JD  Julian Day
FILTER
EXPOSURE exposure time
DATE-OBS start of observing (date + time)
OBSERVER observatory code or information how to get observatory coordinates
RA-CENTER
DEC-CENTER
CRVAL1, CRVAL2, etc..
PLATE constants 
APERTURE_SIZE (diameter in pixels)
PSFFUNCTION ? (I guess this would be needed)


Table (obligatory)
XT, YT image coordinates
RA
DEC
PSFMAG
PSFMAGERR
APERTUREMAG
APERTUREMAGERR
AIRMASS
ROUNDNESS
SHARPNESS  (that is, some additional shape parameters)
PEAK_DN  (I use it when deciding whether a star is saturated, etc.)
SKY_DN
INTENSITY


Table (optional)
XT, YT image coordinates
SXT, SYT error estimates
SRA, SDEC error estimates for ra, dec
CATALOG  if the star is identified, catalog name
CATID     star id, if it is identified



					regards, Jure




aah@nofs.navy.mil wrote:
> 
> Sorry, I'm thinking on my feet here and I *really* have
> to get busy writing software for ASTROCAM.  However, I'd
> like to also suggest that RA,DEC not be part of each star's
> data, just the image x,y.  Then in the table header, place
> the proper coefficients for the astrometric transformation.
> That way the table data does not change if you apply a different
> algorithm and space is saved in any case.  These starlist files
> will not be used by any human for manual merging and so do not need to
> have familiar units.
> Arne