Hamilton Spectrograph User's Guide

Computers, Data-Reduction, and Storage

3-meter observers run the Hamilton from the "user" account on shanepc.ucolick.org; CAT observers use catpc.ucolick.org. Start the data-taker according to the following table:


3-m ROR
(shanepc.ucolick.org)		 CAT
(catpc.ucolick.org)
Dewar 6hamxhamcat
Dewar 8hizhizcat

Start the spectrograph control program by typing "hamit" in an Xterm hosted by catpc or by finding it on the pulldown menu on catpc.

IRAF, IDL, and Vista are available for data reduction. gorgon.ucolick.org has a 6-user IDL license, catpc and plato@ucolick.org (located in the CAT control room) have single-user licenses. IRAF is installed on most machines, though the installations vary by version and configuration from machine to machine. Data disks (Hamilton data are written to the /data directory on shanepc or catpc) are generally crossmounted between machines. Mountpoints are usually /net or /home.

All Lick images are stored in FITS format. Data may be copied to 8-mm tapes, CD's, and/or FTP'd or scp'd to home institutions. It is strongly recommended that observers make at least one copy of their data apart from transferring them to their home machine.

Lick archives all data from facility instruments on the 3-meter, 1-meter, and CAT. However, the archive should be regarded as a last resort for recovering otherwise irretrievably lost data. Pulling data from the archive is time-consuming, and is not intended as a backup for observers who didn't make their own tape or CD at the telescope.

Data are deleted from disk on the morning following the last day of each run unless a specific request is made by the observer to preserve the data for a limited time beyond the end of the run.

Data moved into subdirectories (i.e. out of /data) may be missed by the archiving program.