Background
Your starlist file contains the list of targets you plan to
observe during the night at Keck. The file must conform to
certain formatting rules described below in order for the
telescope control software (SKY for NIRC, MAGIQ for other
instruments) to read the file properly. MAGIQ can read all of the
keywords understood by SKY except for
wrap, and adds
some new ones which SKY does not understand.
Formatting Rules
General Rules
- One object per line.
- Blank lines and comment lines are allowed.
- Comment lines begin with # in column 1 and end at the end
of the line.
Required Fields
- First field is the target name in columns 1-16 (tabs
and spaces allowed). Maximum length is 15 characters.
- Next three space-separated tokens (beginning in column 17)
are RA in the form HH MM SS.SS (including an
arbitrary number of decimal places).
- Next three space-separated tokens are Dec in the
form (-)DD MM SS.S (again, to an arbitrary number of
decimal places).
Note: if the Dec is between 0 and -1, the
dd field MUST be -00).
- Next token is equinox in the form YYYY.YY (no
parentheses; arbitrary number of decimal places), with
<=1950 meaning FK4 and 2000 meaning FK5
and APP meaning apparent.
Optional Fields
The following fields are identified by the form
keyword=value.
Note: no spaces are allowed
around either side of the equals sign. As indicated below, most
keywords are accepted by both SKY and MAGIQ, but some are specific
to one or the other.
Starlist Keywords
| Property |
Keyword |
Units or Values |
Accepted by |
| SKY |
MAGIQ |
| RA proper motion |
pmra=s.ssss |
seconds-of-time/year |
X |
X |
| Dec proper motion |
pmdec=a.aaa |
arcsec/year |
X |
X |
| RA differential tracking rate |
dra=s.ssss |
arcsec/hr divided by 15
(positive implies moving east) |
X |
X |
| Dec differential tracking rate |
ddec=a.aaa |
arcsec/hr |
X |
X |
| V magnitude |
vmag=m.m |
mag |
X |
X |
| Rotator mode |
rotmode=nnn |
pa, vertical, or stationary |
|
X |
| Rotator position angle |
rotdest=mmm.mm |
degrees |
|
X |
| Telescope azimuth wrap |
wrap=xxx |
shortest, south, or
north (south is clockwise
with az increasing and north is
counterclockwise with az decreasing) |
X |
|
You may place other comments or notes at the end of the line.
These will be ignored by SKY, but retained in your text file for
your information.
Note: For historic reasons, if the equinox is
APP, either dra/ddec or pmra/pmdec will be interpreted
as differential tracking rates.
Installing Your Starlist File
In order for the Observing Assistant to locate your starlist
file, you must install it in the “starlist
directory” on our network. You can access the starlist
directory
/kroot/starlists from most of our computers
(except certain instrument host computers). The convention we
suggest is to store your starlist in a subdirectory which is
named using the last name of the observing program's PI (e.g.,
copernicus). If needed, you can create the directory
using the command
mkdir -p /kroot/starlists/piname
and then install your starlist using the command
cp starlist /kroot/starlists/piname
You are free to name your starlist file whatever you want.
Sample Starlist File
# basic objectsincluding only required fields
197+17.1 07 29 09.40 +20 54 45.90 2000.0
ring neb 18 53 36.00 +33 02 00.00 2000.0
# star with proper motion
SAO 102961 17 34 24.13 +11 52 28.29 1950.0 pmra=+0.0001 pmdec=-0.007 vmag=9.0
# non-sideral targets
Hale-Bopp 5hr 17 30 6.62 -4 41 58.4 APP dra=0.35 ddec=7.3
Titan 6:00UT 01 05 39.60 +04 00 28.846 APP dra=-0.96 ddec=-4.2
# slitmask with specified rotator position
Cl0024+16-fld 1 00 24 00.00 +16 00 00.00 2000.0 rotdest=123.45 rotmode=pa
# target observed at parallactic angle
Herschel101 12 34 56.78 +01 23 45.67 2000.0 rotdest=0.0 rotmode=vertical
Barbara Schaefer
Last modified: Mon Sep 21 17:14:59 HST 2009
