abscal.common.standard_stars

This module includes a list of standard stars used by STScI/ABSCAL for flux calibration, along with their canonical names and, for each, a set of names that are known to be used by PIs when filling in the target name in APT (and thus may be present in the TARGNAME field). In addition, the list contains the RA and DEC values for the standard stars, along with their proper motion data.

Authors

  • Brian York

Use

This module is intended to be imported if you need to get information about a particular standard star, and have its name (or the value in the TARGNAME field):

from abscal.common.standard_stars import find_star_by_name

You can also import starlist directly if you have some other need for the ABSCAL standard star list:

from abscal.common.standard_stars import starlist

Module Contents

Functions

find_star_by_name(name)

Finds the standard star with a matching name.

find_closest_star(ra, dec[, max_distance])

Finds the closest standard star on the sky.

Attributes

starlist_data

starlist

abscal.common.standard_stars.starlist_data
abscal.common.standard_stars.starlist
abscal.common.standard_stars.find_star_by_name(name)

Finds the standard star with a matching name.

Goes through the list of standard stars, looking for one with the same name as was provided. If it finds one, returns it. If not, returns None.

Parameters:

name (str) – The name to look for

Returns:

star – The found star (or None if none was found)

Return type:

dict

abscal.common.standard_stars.find_closest_star(ra, dec, max_distance=None)

Finds the closest standard star on the sky.

Goes through the list of standard stars, looking for the closest co-ordinate match, and returning that standard (or, optionally, if max_distance is set to a positive value, returning None if no star in the list is within max_distance).

Parameters:
  • ra (float) – RA in decimal degrees

  • dec (float) – DEC in decimal degrees

  • max_distance (float, default None) – If set, the maximum distance (in arcseconds) for a match to be valid.

Returns:

star – The found star (or None if none is found)

Return type:

dict