nirc2: an IDL package to reduce and coadd Keck NIRC2 images

written by H.Fu around 2012

References

• 2012ApJ...745...67F: The Nature of Double-peaked [O III] Active Galactic Nuclei
• 2012ApJ...753..134F: A Comprehensive View of a Strongly Lensed Planck-Associated Submillimeter Galaxy

Demo Example

An example with raw data, the reduced image, and the reduction script are provided for in the example folder. Once you have followed the steps below to install the code, you can do the following commands to test your installation:

cd ~/idl/nirc2/example/
gunzip cal/*.gz
gunzip cosmos01_ks/*.gz
nirc2
NIRC2> .r redux.idlsrc

The script takes about 5 min to complete the full reduction of the data set and generates a new output FITS file.

Installation Guide

1. Download source code

cd ~/idl
git clone https://github.com/fuhaiastro/nirc2.git

2. Assume you use bash, set environmental variables and define start-up command to launch nirc2`.

vi ~/.bash_profile
# add the following line in .bash_profile
alias nirc2='source ~/idl/nirc2/setup.sh; /Applications/harris/idl/bin/idl -IDL_PROMPT "NIRC2>"'

3. Make sure the appropriate paths are set correctly for your host.

vi ~/idl/nirc2/setup.sh

Below is the content of the setup file:

# Bash shell commands to define IDL environment variables and aliases.
. /Applications/harris/idl/bin/idl_setup.bash

# start up IDL path
export IDL_PATH=+$IDL_DIR/examples:+$IDL_DIR/lib

# local user's IDL folder
export IDL=$HOME/idl

# NIRC2_IDL - NIRC2 data reduction & analysis
export NIRC2_DIR=$IDL/pipelines/nirc2
export IDL_PATH=${IDL_PATH}:+$NIRC2_DIR/pro

# IDLUTILS (which includes Astrolib, Coyote, & MPFIT)
export IDLUTILS_DIR=$IDL/idlutils
export IDL_PATH=${IDL_PATH}:+$IDLUTILS_DIR/goddard/pro:+$IDLUTILS_DIR/pro
export PATH=$IDLUTILS_DIR/bin:$PATH

# Other useful IDL programs
export IDL_PATH=${IDL_PATH}:+$NIRC2_DIR/utilities

4. Install IDLUTILS

cd ~/idl
mkdir idlutils
cd idlutils
svn co https://svn.sdss.org/public/repo/sdss/idlutils/trunk .
export IDL_DIR=/Applications/harris/idl
export IDL=$HOME/idl
export IDLUTILS_DIR=$IDL/idlutils
$IDLUTILS_DIR/bin/evilmake clean
$IDLUTILS_DIR/bin/evilmake

Routines for Observation Preparation

• nirc2findtt

  • finds NIRC2 tip-tilt stars for a list of targets given RA & Dec
  • uses both SDSS and USNO-B from QueryVizier

• nirc2fchart

  • Makes finder charts to prepare for NIRC2 observations.
  • Uses SDSS color image as the background
  • Overlay tip-tilt reference star patrol field

• nirc2_obs_manual.txt

  • some notes for observers

Routines for Near-IR Imaging Data Reduction

• nirc2dark

  • median combine dark fields

• nirc2flat

  • generates flat-field using lamp-on and lamp-off images

• nirc2redux

  • A simple data reduction pipeline to reduce NIRC2 and OSIRIS near-IR imaging data

• nirc2_wide_X_distortion.fits, nirc2_wide_X_distortion.fits

  • NIRC2 wide camera distortion solution derived from M92. The solution maps the image to a grid defined by the nominal pixel size and the NIRC2 PA = ROTPOSN - INSTANGL - 0.252 degrees.

• nirc2distort

  • uses the distortion solution to correct the images. To apply within IRAF drizzle, follow the same procedure on AstroBetter.

• nirc2ast

  • Calibrate the astrometry of reduced NIRC2 images against SDSS or DSS catalogs.