SC/14.2

Starlink Project
Starlink Cookbook 14.2

A.C. Davenhall

11th June 1999

The Fibre Spectroscopy Cookbook


Abstract

This cookbook is an introduction to fibre spectroscopy and, in particular, the techniques and software available for reducing fibre spectroscopy observations. It covers the principal common-user instruments available to UK astronomers: the Anglo-Australian Telescope 2dF, WYFFOS/AUTOFIB2 on the William Herschel Telescope and FLAIR on the UK Schmidt. It is not a manual for any particular package, though it does contain some worked examples.

Who Should Read this Cookbook?

This cookbook is aimed firmly at people who are new to fibre spectroscopy. Typical readers might either be planning or considering their first programme of observations with a fibre-fed spectrograph or have a set of fibre spectroscopy observations to reduce (perhaps observed by a colleague). No prior knowledge of fibre spectroscopy is assumed.

Contents

I  Introductory Material
 1 Introduction
 2 Further Reading
 3 Lexicography
 4 Typographic Conventions
II  Background Material
 5 Fibre-fed Spectrographs
 6 Data Reduction Techniques
  6.1 Bookkeeping
  6.2 Aperture definition or tramlining
  6.3 Extraction
  6.4 Scattered light correction
  6.5 Flat fielding
  6.6 Wavelength calibration
  6.7 Sky subtraction
   6.7.1 Sky emission
   6.7.2 Correction procedure
   6.7.3 Other techniques
 7 Instruments and Software Available
  7.1 2dF
   7.1.1 Software
  7.2 WYFFOS/AUTOFIB2
   7.2.1 Software
  7.3 FLAIR
   7.3.1 Software
  7.4 Additional software
   7.4.1 dofibers
   7.4.2 IRAF
   7.4.3 Using IRAF with fibre spectroscopy data
 8 Generating Target Positions
 9 Comparison With Other Techniques
  9.1 Objective-prism spectroscopy
  9.2 Multi-slit spectroscopy
III  Worked Examples
 10 Introduction
 11 Reducing Hydra Data Using IRAF
 12 Reducing FLAIR Data Using IRAF
  12.1 Setup file customisation
 13 Reducing 2dF Data Using 2dFDR
 Acknowledgements
 References

Revision history

(1)
21st December 1998: Version 1. Original version (ACD).
(2)
11th June 1999: Version 2. Removed the example of reducing FLAIR data with Figaro and also made various minor changes (ACD).