Instructions for Visiting Astronomers

Informations about Visitor Mode Observation Runs

SINFONI is offered for the first time in period 75. You will find all required informations about visitor mode observations runs on the pages of the Paranal Science Operations team:

Data Cookbook for Visiting Astronomers

Where to find the data?

Visiting astronomers will work on the astuser4 account on wgsoff4. The data is sorted into directories named by the date with the data taken from 12:00 to 11:59 UT: 

/data-ut4/raw/20XX-XX-XX/
/data-ut4/reduced/20XX-XX-XX/

The science and calibration data frames of SINFONI are automatically reduced by the pipeline, but the science data is processed with old calibration files. The reduced data is not included into the data package provided to the visiting astronomers at the end of the run.

How to get an overview of the data with gasgano?

The gasgano browser can be used to assoziate the files with the respective observation blocks. Gasgano displays some important fits header keywords together with the file names. The data can be sorted by directories or by OBs:

gasgano ~astro4/gasgano.prefs.SINFONI        (to start it from wgsoff4 with SINFONI preferences)

in gasgano:
   File -> Add/Remove Files... -> Add File
      Up One Level                           (search the symbols with the mini-help text) 
         data-ut4/reduced/20XX-XX-XX
      Add
      Up One Level
         data-ut4/raw/20XX-XX-XX
      Add
      ...
Once you select a OB with the left mouse button you will get the files taken with the OB and the important fits keywords displayed. If you highlight a file and press the External View button (upper left on gasgano) then the file will be displayed on a skycat tool. This is only possible for 2D images but not for image cubes! Gasgano can be also used to select files to be copied or moved to other directories.

How to find informations about the data reduction pipeline?

The pipeline reduction and the respective output files of the pipeline are described on the pages of the Quality Control Group. There are for the science data reduction 3 important types of output files. The type of output file is described in keyword PRO.CATG: 
PRO.CATG = OBS_OBJ         sky subtracted image cubes of single exposures   (image cube)
         = COADD_OBJ       co-added image cube of all files taken in an OB  (image cube)
         = MED_COADD_OBJ   median over all wavelengths of COADD_OBJ         (image)

How to display image cubes with XFitsView?

QFitsView provides many options to display and manipulate image cubes interactively. It can be started from the wgsoff4 with typing QFitsView (optionally with the file name of the image cuve). 
in QFitsView
   File -> Open                             (select file)
try for example:
   OPTIONS -> CUBE DISPLAY -> LINE MAP      (select wavelength)

Try also to toggle the Auto Scale button on the bottom to select the cuts of the plot interactively.

The look up table can be manipulated with the left mouse button moved over the field of view. The zoom and other options should be easy to find. It is to some extend required to play with the software before the beginner will have an overview about the main options of QFitsView.