"Calibs"


Introduction
"Calibs" provides you with a set of calibrators around a given position within a given distance. It is intended to help you decide whether a calibrator can be used or not. The output file contains a list of calibrators and their properties. These include:
  • Name
  • Position
  • Separation
  • Diameter
  • Spectral type
  • V-band magnitude
  • H-band magnitude
  • N-band flux
  • Simbad Remark
  • Hipparcos Remarks
  • Bright Star Catalogue Remarks
  • User Comment
"Calibs" is written in IDL an thus executable on every computer system providing this environment. The current version has been tested under Solaris.

Tutorial

Input

Assume one wants to observe Betelgeuse (Alpha Ori) and therefore wants a calibrator within a distance of 5 deg. All you have to know are the coordinates of the target:

05 55 10.31 +07 24 25.4


Start IDL in the folder containing calibs.pro and compile it by typing  .r calibs.pro

Then start "Calibs" by typing  calibs

You will be asked for the right ascension, enter  05 55 10.31

You will be asked for the declination, enter  +07 24 25.4

You will be asked for the acceptable separation in deg, enter  5

Command line options
If you like "Calibs" to write the output file not into the directory ./Output, but into a different folder, the command sequence is:

calibs, /path

You will be asked to specify the path, so enter e.g.  /disk-b/moster/calibs/. Do not forget the slashes at the beginning and the end! If you like an unformated output (e.g. for a printout) the command sequence is:

calibs, /unformat

This results "Calibs" in writing an output text which is not auto-wrapped. Alternatively, you can specify a certain HD-Number, and thus get the information of that star. The command sequence is:

calibs, /star

You will be asked to specify the HD-Number, enter e.g.  HD402. The output format is the same as standard format except, that you only get a single calibrator. The Command line options can be combined, e.g.   calibs, /unformat, /path, /star

Output

So, if all went well, you will get the following output

HD37160:
Position = 5 36 54.3900 9 17 26.4000
Distance = 4.85825 deg
Diameter = 2.02000 +- 0.0200000 marcsec
Spectral Type: K0IIIb
Vmag = 4.09000 mag
Hmag = 1.77000 mag
N (Iras) = 6.47000 Jy
Simbad Remark: High proper-motion Star
Spectrophotometric Star

Hipparcos-defined type of variability: no variability detected ("constant")
Hipparcos Double/Multiple Systems flag: acceleration or higher order terms

 Additionally, you will get the same list as an ASCII file located in the Output subdirectory. "Calibs" auto-wraps the output text.

As you can see, the list contains only one calibrator within a separation of 5 deg. If you choose a larger separation in order to get more calibrators, they will be listed below each other and are separated by dashed lines.

Addding a User Comment

User Comments for calibrators can be entered in the file usercomment.txt which has to be located in the same directory as calibs.pro.

The format of this file is specified as follows:

first 8 characters:reserved for the HD-Number, e.g. HD123456 or HD1234
next 5 characters:blank
next 80 characters: reserved for the comment.

If you need more space use the next line but do not forget to enter the HD-Number again. Please state date and name in the first line, e.g. 07.28.05, Benjamin Moster

HD123456     07.28.05, Benjamin Moster: for long comments please break line like follows: xxx
HD123456     xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
HD1234       These were exactly 80 characters each...

The user comment will appear at the bottom of each calibrator entry in the output.

Download
calibs.tar.gz the IDL-script and the empty file  usercomment.txt (76 kByte)

Please execute after the download has been completed

gunzip -c calibs.tar.gz | tar -xvf -

to unpack the tar ball.

usercomment.txt  most recent update of  usercomment.txt (default)