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Z Knight W.M. Keck Observatories Research Supervisor: Al Conrad Home Institution: University of Hawai'i at Hilo. A Graphical User Interface for NIRC2 Asteroid Data Reduction. Akamai Big Island Internship Student Symposium July 29, 2005. The Problem: Lots of Data. Hundreds of asteroid images
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Z KnightW.M. Keck ObservatoriesResearch Supervisor: Al ConradHome Institution: University of Hawai'i at Hilo A Graphical User Interface for NIRC2 Asteroid Data Reduction Akamai Big Island Internship Student Symposium July 29, 2005
The Problem: Lots of Data • Hundreds of asteroid images • Data needs to be reduced • Remove Instrument Systematics • Remove Background • Data Reduction • Divide by Flat Field • Subtract Background • Remove hot pixels • Deconvolve
How to Reduce Data IDL : Interactive Data Language • Asteroid = readfits(‘n0002.fits’) • Sky = readfits(‘sky.fits’) • Asteroid = Asteroid - Sky • Surface, Asteroid • Surf = tvrd() • Write_jpeg, ‘surface.jpeg’, Surf
A Faster Way: GUI • A Graphical User Interface (GUI) is easier to use than text commands. • NRX Asteroid is a program for reduction of NIRC2 images of asteroids
Design Considerations • Automatic processing and modular functionality • Multi-platform support: Windows & UNIX • How to create a Background Sky frame? • What to do with Hot pixels? • Create FITS files of reduced data • Generate Web pages with surface plots
NRX Asteroid • Build a Background Sky • Divide by Flat • Subtract Sky • Smooth Hot Pixels • Save FITS • Shift and Add • Create surface plot • Create Web Page • Make a Movie
Conclusions • Reducing data with text commands takes too long. • NRX Asteroid is a quick and easy way to reduce NIRC2 asteroid data and share it with others. • Thanks to: • Center for Adaptive Optics • Al Conrad • W.M. Keck Observatories • University of Hawai’i at Hilo • Acknowledgement: This project is supported by the National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center for Adaptive Optics, managed by the University of California at Santa Cruz under cooperative agreement No. AST - 9876783.