PyWiFeS Documentation

Data reduction is generally run in two steps:

1. Gather Metadata - in the 'scripts/' directory of your PyWiFeS installation directory you will find the script 'generate_metadata_script.py'. Use this to organize your metadata in the following steps:
   1. Run './generate_metadata_script.py /home/mjc/wifes/20120101/raw_data/' from the command line, with the argument being the directory where your raw data is located. This will automatically figure out what type of data each file is and arrange it in the preferred metadata format.
   2. Check the metadata scripts 'save_red_metadata.py' and 'save_blue_metadata.py' which were automatically generated by the previous step. Make sure that the data are arrange correctly! In particular, make sure standard star observations were correctly identified. If changes need to be made, consult the 'Metadata Format' section below for help.
   3. Run 'python save_red_metadata.py' (and similarly for blue) from the command line. This will save your metadata in a python dictionary which gets pickled into a file e.g. 'wifesR_20120101_metadata.pkl'
2. Reduce the Data - again in the 'scripts/' directory you will find 'reduce_red_data.py' (and similarly for blue). It is strongly recommended that the first time you use the reduction script you proceed one step at a time (see the 'Reduction Script' section below). This script is run from the command line with the pickled metadata file passed as argument: './reduce_red_data.py wifesR_20120101_metadata.pkl'

Details on the metadata format…

Layout and details about the reduction script…

Soon we will fill in details on how to use each function in the pywifes module, e.g. pywifes.subtract_overscan…