The MIKE Redux Page

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MIKE bugs (past and present)


MIKE steps (executive summary)

I. Overview of the Code

The MIKE Redux code was built with the IDL software pacakge to reduce single point source objects. The code can work with users that have little IDL experience, but you will struggle at first. I highly recommend you read the Intro to IDL book or some other resource before diving in.
The general approach of the code is as follows:
  • Examine the set of data files to determine image type
  • Notify the user if necessary calibration data (e.g. Milky flats) is missing
  • Process the flats and trace the orders
  • Process the arcs and create 2D wavelength solutions
  • Create a slit profile
  • Process the object frames (flatten, CR reject)
  • Identify and trace the object
  • Sky subtract
  • Extract
  • Flux

II. Installing the Software

The code relies on several IDL packages in addition the routines that were designed specifically for MIKE. These include:
  • The SDSS pipeline (both IDLUTILS and idlspec2d),
  • The MIKE package built by us.
  • The XIDL package built by JXP.

More detailed notes for obtaining and installing these packages can be found here: install notes. We wish to emphasize that the code expects the most up-to-date versions of the Sloan codes. Users with old versions of any of these packages beware!

III. Using the Code

Moderately detailed descriptions of running the code are given in this reduction cookbook. While we try to include a lot of detail here, it still is insufficient. All of the MIKE routines are described in this html file. Experienced IDL users should be able to dig into the codes and follow along.
Hopefully, we will include an example session of running the code in this space before long.

III. Developing the Code + Bug Fixing

We do encourage all users to consider ways to improve the code and to suggest them to us. Of course, we'd also like to hear about bugs. Please do make an effort to verify it is a bug in the code as opposed to 'user error'. Along those lines, if you are a novice to IDL, we suspect you will have many more 'user errors' than bugs to find.
This research is supported, in part, by NSF grant AST 03-07408.
e-mail: mike@horton.mit.edu
last modified 05/04/04