<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN"> <!--Converted with LaTeX2HTML 98.1p1 release (March 2nd, 1998) originally by Nikos Drakos (nikos@cbl.leeds.ac.uk), CBLU, University of Leeds * revised and updated by: Marcus Hennecke, Ross Moore, Herb Swan * with significant contributions from: Jens Lippmann, Marek Rouchal, Martin Wilck and others --> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE>Observational data</TITLE> <META NAME="description" CONTENT="Observational data"> <META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="vol2"> <META NAME="resource-type" CONTENT="document"> <META NAME="distribution" CONTENT="global"> <META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <LINK REL="STYLESHEET" HREF="vol2.css"> <LINK REL="previous" HREF="node605.html"> <LINK REL="up" HREF="node547.html"> <LINK REL="next" HREF="node634.html"> </HEAD> <BODY > <!--Navigation Panel--> <A NAME="tex2html9406" HREF="node634.html"> <IMG WIDTH="37" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="next" SRC="icons.gif/next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html9403" HREF="node547.html"> <IMG WIDTH="26" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="up" SRC="icons.gif/up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html9399" HREF="node632.html"> <IMG WIDTH="63" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="previous" SRC="icons.gif/previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html9405" HREF="node1.html"> <IMG WIDTH="65" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="contents" SRC="icons.gif/contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR> <B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html9407" HREF="node634.html">Required observational data</A> <B> Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html9404" HREF="node547.html">File Formats Required for</A> <B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html9400" HREF="node632.html">CCD photometry</A> <BR> <BR> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <H1><A NAME="SECTION003260000000000000000"> </A> <A NAME="sect-data"> </A> <BR> Observational data </H1> Every instrument seems to produce its data in a different format. However, it is relatively simple to re-format the data to a standard form; MIDAS table files are the obvious standard form to use. Usually the conversion is done in two steps: first reformat the existing data as an ASCII file with all records in the same format, and then convert this ASCII file to MIDAS table format. <P> The ASCII re-formatting can be done by a user-written program, or by using UNIX tools such as the stream editor (<B>sed</B>) and the table-oriented programming language <B>awk</B>. While the UNIX manual pages provide little useful information on these tools, there are some excellent books available, such as [<A HREF="node649.html#SED">4</A>] and [<A HREF="node649.html#AWK">1</A>]. <P> Often, much of the work has already been done. If a program exists that reads the current instrumental data, it can readily be modified to read the data and then reproduce them as an ASCII file, suitable for conversion to MIDAS table format. The data-reading part of the existing program is adaptable as the front end of the reformatter. To simplify the conversion, FORTRAN routines will be made available to handle the back end. Thus, very little work really has to be done. In any case, the reformatting program only has to be written once for a given instrument. <P> ESO telescopes provide relatively clean data files, but these files contain more than one kind of record. Thus, even these data files must be reformatted before they can be converted to MIDAS tables by the CREATE/TABLE command. Programs will be provided to convert data from ESO telescopes to the standard table format. <P> <BR><HR> <!--Table of Child-Links--> <A NAME="CHILD_LINKS"> </A> <UL> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9408" HREF="node634.html">Required observational data</A> <UL> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9409" HREF="node635.html">What was the measurement?</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9410" HREF="node636.html">What was measured?</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9411" HREF="node637.html">Bandpass and detector identification</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9412" HREF="node638.html">Timing information</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9413" HREF="node639.html">Comment field</A> </UL> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9414" HREF="node640.html">Additional information</A> <UL> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9415" HREF="node641.html">Temperature and humidity data</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9416" HREF="node642.html">Pressure</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9417" HREF="node643.html">Measuring aperture</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9418" HREF="node644.html">PMT Voltage</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9419" HREF="node645.html">Gain steps</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9420" HREF="node646.html">Geneva parameters</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9421" HREF="node647.html">Seeing</A> <LI><A NAME="tex2html9422" HREF="node648.html">Error estimates</A> </UL></UL> <!--End of Table of Child-Links--> <HR> <!--Navigation Panel--> <A NAME="tex2html9406" HREF="node634.html"> <IMG WIDTH="37" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="next" SRC="icons.gif/next_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html9403" HREF="node547.html"> <IMG WIDTH="26" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="up" SRC="icons.gif/up_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html9399" HREF="node632.html"> <IMG WIDTH="63" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="previous" SRC="icons.gif/previous_motif.gif"></A> <A NAME="tex2html9405" HREF="node1.html"> <IMG WIDTH="65" HEIGHT="24" ALIGN="BOTTOM" BORDER="0" ALT="contents" SRC="icons.gif/contents_motif.gif"></A> <BR> <B> Next:</B> <A NAME="tex2html9407" HREF="node634.html">Required observational data</A> <B> Up:</B> <A NAME="tex2html9404" HREF="node547.html">File Formats Required for</A> <B> Previous:</B> <A NAME="tex2html9400" HREF="node632.html">CCD photometry</A> <!--End of Navigation Panel--> <ADDRESS> <I>Petra Nass</I> <BR><I>1999-06-15</I> </ADDRESS> </BODY> </HTML>
