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2.8.3 Script with pointing simulation steps so far ¶

In Preparing input and generating exposure map and Area of non-blank pixels on sky, the basic steps to simulate a pointing pattern’s exposure map and measure the final output area on the sky where described in detail. From this point on in the tutorial, we will be experimenting with the shell variables that were set above, but the actual commands will not be changed regularly. If a change is necessary in a command, it is clearly mentioned in the text.

Therefore, it is better to write the steps above (after downloading the reference image) as a script. In this way, you can simply change those variables and see the final result fast by running your script. For more on writing scripts, see as described in Writing scripts to automate the steps.

Here is a summary of some points to remember when transferring the code in the sections before into a script:

• Where the commands are edited/changed, please also update them in your script.
• Keep all the variables at the top, even if they are used later. This allows to easily view or changed them without digging into the script.
• You do not need to include visual check commands like the astscript-fits-view or cat commands above. Those can be run interactively after your script is finished; recall that a script is for batch (non-interactive) processing.
• Put all your intermediate products inside a “build” directory.

Here is the script that summarizes the steps in Preparing input and generating exposure map (after download) and Area of non-blank pixels on sky:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Copyright (C) 2024-2024 Mohammad Akhlaghi <mohammad@akhlaghi.org>
#
# Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
# are permitted in any medium under the GNU GPL v3+, without royalty
# provided the copyright notice and this notice are preserved.  This
# file is offered as-is, without any warranty.

# Parameters of the script
deep_thresh=5
step_arcmin=1
center_ra=192.721250
center_dec=41.120556

# Input and build directories (can be anywhere in your file system)
indir=input
bdir=build

# Abort the script in case of an error.
set -e

# Make the build directory if it doesn't already exist.
if ! [ -d $bdir ]; then mkdir $bdir; fi

# Build the 5-pointing pointing pattern (with the step size above).
pointingcat=$bdir/pointing.txt
echo "# Column 1: RA  [deg, f64] Right Ascension"  > $pointingcat
echo "# Column 2: Dec [deg, f64] Declination"     >> $pointingcat
echo $center_ra $center_dec \
            | awk '{s='$step_arcmin'/60; fmt="%-10.6f %-10.6f\n"; \
                    printf fmt, $1,   $2; \
                    printf fmt, $1+s, $2; \
                    printf fmt, $1,   $2+s; \
                    printf fmt, $1-s, $2; \
                    printf fmt, $1,   $2-s}' \
            >> $pointingcat

# Simulate the pointing pattern.
stack=$bdir/stack.fits
astscript-pointing-simulate $pointingcat --output=$stack \
           --img=input/ref.fits --center=$center_ra,$center_dec \
           --width=2

# Trim the regions shallower than the threshold.
deep=$bdir/deep.fits
astarithmetic $stack set-s s s $deep_thresh lt nan where trim \
               --output=$deep

# Calculate the area of each pixel on the curved celestial sphere:
pixarea=$bdir/deep-pix-area.fits
astfits $deep --pixelareaonwcs --output=$pixarea

# Report the final area (the empty 'echo's are for visual help in outputs)
echo; echo
echo "Area with step of $step_arcmin arcminutes, at $deep_thresh depth:"
astarithmetic $pixarea $deep isblank nan where -g1 \
              sumvalue --quiet

For a description of how to make it executable and how to run it, see Writing scripts to automate the steps. Note that as you start adding your own text to the script, be sure to add your name (and year that you modified) in the copyright notice at the start of the script (this is very important!).