Data Set 19 Ready to Go

[Tom Droege <tdroege@veriomail.com>]

I really like my Burn Proof CD with the Nero software.  It is easy to use 
and the menus do the right things.  The HP software was awful and I spent 
much time trying to figure out why it had filled up the directory withe 
duplicates of the files I wanted to burn.  The Nero software does all the 
right things.

I have spent the day in front of two machines just burning CDs.   Of course 
the Windows machine crashes frequently if you try to do anything else.  No, 
I could accept if it blew writing a disk, but it just crashes.

Data Set 19 should make it out in the morning mail.  There is still time to 
ask for a copy.

I plan to make this the basis of the software contest if anyone takes me up 
on it.  So far the response has been underwhelming.  Unless a few of you 
show some interest I will drop the project.

I think there is some misunderstanding about what I want.  This is really a 
project to write scripts that are friendly to use that drive existing 
software.  This could be Michael's code, Arne's code, IRAF, whatever.  But 
I need a friendly package that I can load on an average fast machine and 
process data disks to star lists without knowing how to program in C++ or 
whatever.  I am willing to struggle with minimal instruction by trial and 
error.

A winning package would include:

1) The public domain programs and how to load them on an average 
machine.  DOS, Windows (your choice) or Linux.
2) A script that reduces DS-19 to star lists.  This probably has a bunch of 
sub sections.  Make a dark, make a flat, find stars, do photometric 
corrections, etc..  I will spell this out in a little more detail if 
several of you bite.
3) A script that makes plots when pointed at a directory that contains a 
bunch of measurements of a single star.
4) Enough comments in the scrips to give me a fighting chance.

Some of you might worry that I am a loose canon and will rush off and 
publish data that I don't understand.  Do not fear.  Any publication from 
this will be labeled "preliminary engineering data" or some such.  I have a 
plan for what I want to do with the TOM's and I want to start taking data 
and looking at it to see if my plan is reasonable.  I figure that I am not 
(yet) qualified to really munch data and to be sure that I will get 
everything possible from it.  That is why I will always keep the raw 
data.  Arne may throw away raw data but then he knows enough to do 
this.  Not me, yet.

Tom Droege