IRAF help page for package noao.digiphot.photcal, program mkcatalog

• catalog
• review = no
• verify = no
• edit = yes

a standard star catalog

mkcatalog catalog

catalog

review = no

verify = no

edit = yes

MKCATALOG is a script task which permits the user to create or edit the catalog catalog, usually but not necessarily, a standard star catalog. MKCATALOG has two modes of operation, entry mode and edit mode. In entry mode MKCATALOG prompts the user for input. In edit mode MKCATALOG calls up the default editor specified by the IRAF environment variable editor.

If catalog is a new catalog, MKCATALOG prompts the user for the name of the object id column, the names of the data columns, the names of the error columns (these are optional), and the widths of the columns. Typing the end-of-file character , usually ^Z or ^D, terminates column definition and places the user in entry mode. In entry mode MKCATALOG prompts the user for the object ids and data values. Entering carriage return, , after MKCATALOG prompts for a new object id writes a blank line to the output catalog. Entering after MKCATALOG prompts for any other column value writes INDEF (the IRAF undefined value) in that column of the output catalog. Entry mode is terminated by typing in response to a query for a new object id. The user may verify each new entry by setting the parameter verify to "yes".

Each new catalog created by MKCATALOG has an associated format description file listing the column names and numbers associations defined by the user. This file, referenced by its parent catalog name, can be used as input to the MKCONFIG task. The actual name of the format description file on disk is constructed by prepending the catalog name catalog with the string "f" and appending the string ".dat". For example if a new catalog called "UBVcat" is created by MKCATALOG, a format description file called "fUBVcat.dat" will also be created. Any pre-existing format description file of that name, which does not have an associated catalog file, will be deleted.

If the catalog catalog exists and was created with MKCATALOG, MKCATALOG reads the number of columns, the column names, and column widths from the header of the catalog, and enters entry mode positioned at the end of the file. If the parameter review = "yes", then the user can review and verify existing catalog entries before entering new ones. When entry mode is terminated MKCATALOG enters edit mode in the usual way.

If catalog exists but was not created with MKCATALOG, MKCATALOG enters edit mode immediately.

If catalog is a standard star catalog, the user should be aware that the object ids he/she has typed in, are those against which the object ids in the standard star observations files will be matched by the fitting task FITPARAMS. Normally the user is expected to edit the object ids in the standard star observations files to match those in the standard star catalog. For example, the PHOTCAL APPHOT/DAOPHOT pre-processor tasks MKNOBSFILE and MKOBSFILE, produce observations files whose object ids are of the form "field-#", where "field" is the name of the observed field and "#" is a sequence number, which is defined only if there is more than one observed star in the field. In this scheme the id of the the fourth observed star in the field "M92" is "M92-4". If this star is actually the standard star "IX-10" in catalog, the user must change the object id in the observations file to "IX-10". Alternatively the user can set up the naming convention in catalog itself, to match the naming convention of MKNOBSFILE or MKOBSFILE by assigning the standard stars names like "field-#" and subsequently measuring the standard stars in the same order as they appear in the catalog. In this scheme star, "M92-4" in the observations file would also be "M92-4" in the standard star catalog, and no editing would be required. This technique is most useful for standard sequences in clusters.

THE MKCATALOG TASK AND THE ENTIRE PHOTCAL PACKAGE IMPOSE THE FOLLOWING RESTRICTIONS ON BOTH STAR ID NAMES AND THE COLUMN ID NAMES THAT MAY BE ASSIGNED, AND ON THE FORMAT OF EACH FIELD.

Object id names must be composed of characters in the set [a-z,A-Z,0-9,+,-,_]. Other characters may be included as part of the user id, but will be ignored by the PHOTCAL id matching code. Object id names are case insensitive. To the id matching code the name "BD+61_305" is the same as "bd+61_305".

Column names must be composed of characters in the set [a-z,A-Z,0-9] and the first character of the column name must be a letter of the alphabet. This means for example, that an individual column cannot be assigned the name "B-V", since "B-V" will be interpreted as an arithmetic expression not as a variable, by the PHOTCAL equation parsing routines. "B-V" may be replaced with something like "BV" or "BMV". MKCATALOG will complain if the user tries to enter an illegal column name. Column names are case sensitive. Column "BV" is not the same as column "bv".

Whitesapce is not permitted in either the object ids or in the column values. MKCATALOG will truncate any id or column value at the first whitespace encountered. The column widths entered by the user are used solely to determine the maximum width of each field (excess characters will be truncated) and to align the columns for ease of visual inspection by the user. The column widths are not used by the PHOTCAL catalog reading code.

1. Create a new standard star catalog containing the 3 photometric indices V, B-V, and U-B and their respective errors. Note that MKCATALOG supplies default names of the form "error(name)" for the error columns where "name" is the name of the previous column. Users are strongly urged to use the default names since they simplify the use of the statistical weighting scheme in the FITPARAMS task. If no error information is available error column entry can be skipped by typing <-> in response to the query for an error column name.

ph> mkcatalog UBVcat
... enter the column names, error column names and widths as prompted
    and shown below, note that the end-of-file character  is
    actually ^Z in this case
Enter the id column name (name, =ID, =quit entry): 
    Enter width of id column (width, =15): 
Enter a name for column 2 (name, =COL2, =quit entry): V
    Enter width of column 2 (width, =10): 
Enter a name for error column 3 (name, =error(V), <->=skip): 
    Enter width of column 3 (width, =10): 
Enter a name for column 4 (name, =COL4, =quit entry): BV
    Enter width of column 4 (width, =10): 
Enter a name for error column 5 (name, =error(BV), <->=skip): 
    Enter width of column 5 (width, =10): 
Enter a name for column 6 (name, =COL6, =quit entry): UB
    Enter width of column 6 (width, =10): 
Enter a name for error column 7 (name, =error(UB), <->=skip): 
    Enter width of column 7 (width, =10): 
Enter a name for column 8 (name, =COL8, =quit entry): ^Z
Catalog UBVcat in file UBVcat has 7 columns
	Column 1:  ID             
	Column 2:  V         
	Column 3:  error(V)  
	Column 4:  BV        
	Column 5:  error(BV) 
	Column 6:  UB        
	Column 7:  error(UB) 
... note that the  character terminates column definition
... enter values for each defined column as prompted
... type  to terminate entry mode
... review the entries with the editor

2. Add new entries to the file created in example 1.

ph> mkcatalog UBVcat
... enter new values as prompted
... type  to terminate entry mode
... review the catalog with the editor

3. Edit an existing catalog created with a foreign program.

ph> mkcatalog VRI.usr
... review the catalog with the editor

The longest line permitted by an editor varies from editor to editor. Users should be aware that it may not be possible to use edit mode on very long text lines.

photcal$catalogs/README, mknobsfile, mkobsfile, mkconfig,