With version 2 of PyWiFeS, baseline calibrations are not provided, but should be available from the WiFeS data archive under the automated 2.3m telescope operations. However, the general principles below still hold. In addition, note that dark frames are not recommended because the dark current in the detectors (as of 2025 and going back to at least 2013) are below 1 ADU/hour.
This page will ultimately be a repository of baseline calibration files to be used in circumstances where observers were unable to obtain those data during their run. The file formats changed in v0.5.0 so previous calibration files were removed. An update email will be sent when these files are available again. (MC: 2015-Apr-28)
The calibration files needed to fully process the data are:
Bias frames - should always be taken, no baseline files provided here.
Quartz flats - for correcting pixel quantum efficiency variations, as well as dichroic “wiggles”.
Sky flats - critical for spatial flat-fielding. The internal quartz lamp it not spatially flat. We believe this should not vary much over time (or with grating), so baseline spatial flatfield solutions (i.e. illumination correction, in 2D) should be sufficient.
Wire frames - for spatial alignment as a function of wavelength and slitlet.
Arc lamps - for deriving the wavelength solution. The baseline wavelength solution for each grating is known, so here we provide those wavelength solutions in the format used as input for pywifes functions.
Standard stars - used to correct the wavelength-dependent throughput of the instrument. Baseline values do not change much from night-to-night, so those are provided here.
Suppose you did not take any calibrations at all, or someone else took a single observation for you using a setup different from their own. Here are the items you will need:
Flatfield response function
Wavelength solution
Wire (spatial) solution
Calibration (sensitivity) function
Telluric correction (red side)