iraf.net

Hi,I'm trying to run ccdproc to process my object frames, and it is failing with this error:ERROR: Error processing Dflatu.fits
"grow=grow)"
line 325: mscsrc$ccdproc.cl
called as: `ccdproc (mode=h)'Here are the parameters of ccdproc that I'm using:ecl> lpar ccdproc
images = "@N2685.list" List of Mosaic CCD images to process
(output = "") List of output processed images
(bpmasks = "@masks.list") List of output bad pixel masks
(ccdtype = "") CCD image type to process
(noproc = no) List processing steps only?\n
(xtalkcor = yes) Apply crosstalk correction?
(fixpix = yes) Apply bad pixel mask correction?
(overscan = yes) Apply overscan strip correction?
(trim = yes) Trim the image?
(zerocor = yes) Apply zero level correction?
(darkcor = no) Apply dark count correction?
(flatcor = yes) Apply flat field correction?
(sflatcor = no) Apply sky flat field correction?
(split = no) Use split images during processing?
(merge = no) Merge amplifiers from same CCD?\n
(xtalkfile = "!xtalkfil") Crosstalk file
(fixfile = "BPM") List of bad pixel masks
(saturation = "!saturate") Saturated pixel threshold
(sgrow = 1) Saturated pixel grow radius
(bleed = "!bleedval") Bleed pixel threshold
(btrail = 15) Bleed trail minimum length
(bgrow = 1) Bleed pixel grow radius
(biassec = "!biassec") Overscan strip image section
(trimsec = "!trimsec") Trim data section
(zero = "medZero") List of zero level calibration images
(dark = "") List of dark count calibration images
(flat = "Dflat*.fits") List of flat field images
(sflat = " ") List of secondary flat field images
(minreplace = 0.9) Minimum flat field value\n
(interactive = no) Fit overscan interactively?
(function = "legendre") Fitting function
(order = 1) Number of polynomial terms or spline pieces
(sample = "*") Sample points to fit
(naverage = 1) Number of sample points to combine
(niterate = 1) Number of rejection iterations
(low_reject = 3.) Low sigma rejection factor
(high_reject = 3.) High sigma rejection factor
(grow = 0.) Rejection growing radius
(fd = "")
(fd2 = "")
(mode = "ql") I'm new to IRAF, so any help you can provide would be much appreciated.Thanks very much,
Jennifer

If there is more information I need to provide to help figure this out, please let me know. I've just installed the newest version of IRAF (2.15.1a) on my MacBook Pro.Thanks in advance,
Jennifer

Hello Jennifer,I don't see the source of the error in the information so far. If you are interested in just getting things done I would suggest you try to process the flat explicitly. What I mean is that while the program was designed to process any dependent calibrations when you specify the science exposures in the input list this is not frequently done (and hence the possiblity of an undiagnosed problem). More commonly people call ccdproc first with a list of biases, then with a list of flats, and then with the list of science exposures. Since this is more common it is less likely that you would encounter a problem.If the problem persists or you want us to pursue this error I would need more information. The first step might be to get more detailed information about the command producing the error. This would be done by type d_trace before the ccdproc command. This will dump a lot of information to the terminal but what is usually of interest is in the last 100 or so lines where the last full command executed in the script and causing the fatal error occurs. You would scroll back in your terminal window and cut this information for me to look at. To turn off this verbose mode you type d_trace again (i.e. it is a toggle command).Yours,
Frank Valdes

Hi Frank,Thanks so much for your detailed response --I am reducing Palomar 200" LFC data using the guide and IRAF scripts provided by Roy Gal, and as I'm a beginner, I have just been following the recommendations of the guide. By the time I get to the error I describe, I have run ccdproc already to do an initial calibration (to apply the crosstalk and overscan corrections), but then I use zerocombine/mscmedian and flatcombine (which, I believe, checks the parameters in ccdproc) to create a master bias and dome flats. In fact, in the documentation I'm using specifically says not to run ccdproc at this stage but to wait and run it (next) with the bias and flats created in these previous steps. When I run ccdproc with d_trace, here is the last task called and the few hundred or so lines following it (abridged): ----- exec external task _ccdtool - line 115 -----
----- connect to mscbin$x_ccdred.e -----
ccdtool\ninput="@tmp$iraf626q"\n
output="tmp626n.fits[inherit]"\nnointerp=""\nbpmasks=""\n
calproc="tmp$iraf626r"\nccdtype=""\nproctype="flat"\n
max_cache=0\nnoproc=no\nonerror="original"\nfixpix=yes\n
overscan=yes\ntrim=yes\nzerocor=yes\ndarkcor=no\nflatcor=yes\n
sflatcor=no\nillumcor=no\nfringecor=no\nreadcor=no\n
scancor=no\nfixfile="@tmp$ccdproc626lI"\nsaturation="INDEF"\n
sgrow=0\nbleed="INDEF"\nbtrail=0\nbgrow=0\n
biassec="!biassec"\ntrimsec="!trimsec"\n
zero="@tmp$ccdproc626lJ"\ndark="@tmp$ccdproc626lK"\n
flat="@tmp$ccdproc626lL"\nsflat="@tmp$ccdproc626lM"\n
illum=""\nfringe=""\nminreplace=0.9\nreadaxis="line"\n
scantype="shortscan"\nnscan=1\ninteractive=no\n
function="legendre"\norder=1\nsample="*"\nnaverage=1\n
niterate=1\nlow_reject=3.\nhigh_reject=3.\ngrow=0.\n
mode="ql"\n$nargs=4\n
--------------------------------
----- task _ccdtool - line 168 ( ) -----
168 14874+6: inspect instrument
168 14880+3: end
----- task _ccdtool - line 169 ( ) -----
169 14874+5: inspect ampfile
169 14879+3: end*** then a few hundred lines which look just like this (i.e:
line number some number: inspect parameter
line number some number: end) *** ----- task _ccdtool - line 296 ( ) -----
296 14874+4: call bye
296 14878+3: exec
----- exec builtin bye : line 296 -----
296 14874+4: call bye
296 14878+3: exec
----- exec builtin bye : line 296 -----
115 12760+5: call flpr
115 12765+3: exec
----- exec builtin flprcache : line 118 -----
----- disconnect mscbin$x_ccdred.e -----
----- disconnect mscbin$x_mscred.e -----
----- disconnect bin$x_images.e -----
118 12768+5: pushparam cal1
118 12773+6: pushconst 1
118 12779+5: intrinsic access
118 12784+4: biff +136
119 12788+7: pushconst `'
119 12795+4: assign fd
120 12799+5: call delete
120 12804+5: pushparam outname
120 12809+4: posargset 0
120 12813+6: pushconst no
120 12819+5: absargset verify
120 12824+3: exec
----- exec external task delete - line 121 -----
delete\nfiles="tmp626n.fits"\nverify=no\ndefault_action=yes\n
allversions=yes\nsubfiles=yes\nmode="ql"\n$nargs=1\n
--------------------------------
----- task delete - line 297 ( ) -----
297 14874+4: call bye
297 14878+3: exec
----- exec builtin bye : line 297 -----
121 12827+5: call delete
121 12832+5: pushparam extlist
121 12837+4: posargset 0
121 12841+6: pushconst no
121 12847+5: absargset verify
121 12852+3: exec
----- exec external task delete - line 122 -----
delete\nfiles="tmp$iraf626q"\nverify=no\ndefault_action=yes\n
allversions=yes\nsubfiles=yes\nmode="ql"\n$nargs=1\n
--------------------------------
----- task delete - line 298 ( ) -----
298 14874+4: call bye
298 14878+3: exec
----- exec builtin bye : line 298 -----
122 12855+5: call delete
122 12860+5: pushparam cal1
122 12865+4: posargset 0
122 12869+6: pushconst no
122 12875+5: absargset verify
122 12880+3: exec
----- exec external task delete - line 123 -----
delete\nfiles="tmp$iraf626r"\nverify=no\ndefault_action=yes\n
allversions=yes\nsubfiles=yes\nmode="ql"\n$nargs=1\n
--------------------------------
----- task delete - line 299 ( ) -----
299 14874+4: call bye
299 14878+3: exec
----- exec builtin bye : line 299 -----
123 12883+5: call error
123 12888+6: pushconst 1
123 12894+4: posargset 0
123 12898+11: pushconst `Error processing '
123 12909+5: pushparam input
123 12914+3: concat
123 12917+4: posargset 1
123 12921+3: exec
----- exec builtin error : line 129 -----
ERROR: Error processing Dflatu.fits
cl_error: abort=1 beep=1 trace=1 flpr=1
cl_error: code=1 do_err=1 errtype=1/1 task='ccdproc'
"grow=grow)"
line 325: mscsrc$ccdproc.cl
called as: `ccdproc (mode=h)'
ecl> Any insight you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Please let me know if more information is necessary to help diagnose the problem.Thanks so much,
Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,Thanks for the information. I now know logically what happened. CCDPROC tried to process the science exposures. Found that one of the calibrations needed to be processed in some way before the science exposures. It used a task CALPROC. That failed for some reason and it printed the message.Hopefully you have a logfile. If you look at the parameters for mscred (lpar mscred) you will see verbose and logfile. You should have verbose=yes and logfile set to some name (often it is simply logfile). If you can send me the contents of that file I may be able to see what specifically the program is complaining about with the calibration.Another diagnostic output that might be useful is to run the command CCDLIST with the input list being the calibration files or at least Dflatu.Regards,
Frank

Hi Frank,Thanks for your response -- I think we're getting somewhere!It didn't seem that looking at the logfile was helpful; it just showed that the crosstalk corrections were made but didn't include any lines that indicate what failed.However, the output of CCDLIST looks like this (run in the long form on just one flat image, though for each flat it looks the same):Dflatu.fits[lfc0][1024,2048][real][flat][1][XOT]:flat_u
exposure=60 darktime=60
Aug 2 17:30 Crosstalk is 0.001*lfc1
Aug 2 17:30 Overscan is [1026:1056,1:2048], mean 1006.649
Aug 2 17:30 Trim is [1:1024,1:2048]
[TO BE DONE] Bad pixel fixing
[TO BE DONE] Zero level correction
Dflatu.fits[lfc1][1024,2048][real][flat][2][XOT]:flat_u
exposure=60 darktime=60
Aug 2 17:30 Crosstalk is 0.001*lfc0
Aug 2 17:30 Overscan is [1026:1056,1:2048], mean 1809.749
Aug 2 17:30 Trim is [1:1024,1:2048]
[TO BE DONE] Bad pixel fixing
[TO BE DONE] Zero level correction
Dflatu.fits[lfc2][1024,2048][real][flat][3][XOT]:flat_u
exposure=60 darktime=60
Aug 2 17:30 Crosstalk is 0.0013*lfc3
Aug 2 17:30 Overscan is [1026:1056,1:2048], mean 1132.607
Aug 2 17:30 Trim is [1:1024,1:2048]
[TO BE DONE] Bad pixel fixing
[TO BE DONE] Zero level correction
Dflatu.fits[lfc3][1024,2048][real][flat][4][XOT]:flat_u
exposure=60 darktime=60
Aug 2 17:30 Crosstalk is 0.00155*lfc2
Aug 2 17:30 Overscan is [1026:1056,1:2048], mean 2657.488
Aug 2 17:30 Trim is [1:1024,1:2048]
[TO BE DONE] Bad pixel fixing
[TO BE DONE] Zero level correction
Dflatu.fits[lfc4][1024,2048][real][flat][5][XOT]:flat_u
exposure=60 darktime=60
Aug 2 17:30 No crosstalk correction required
Aug 2 17:30 Overscan is [1026:1056,1:2048], mean 1345.678
Aug 2 17:30 Trim is [1:1024,1:2048]
[TO BE DONE] Bad pixel fixing
[TO BE DONE] Zero level correction
Dflatu.fits[lfc5][1024,2048][real][flat][6][XOT]:flat_u
exposure=60 darktime=60
Aug 2 17:30 No crosstalk correction required
Aug 2 17:30 Overscan is [1026:1056,1:2048], mean 3364.143
Aug 2 17:30 Trim is [1:1024,1:2048]
[TO BE DONE] Bad pixel fixing
[TO BE DONE] Zero level correctionFor some reason, when I ran flatcombine (with process=yes, which I believe is supposed to check the parameters of ccdproc, right? In ccdproc I set fixpix=yes and zerocor=yes to apply the bad pixel masks and the zero level correction), it didn't seem process the images before making the flats. It seems likely that this is why the processing of the science images failed (since the flats are not fully processed). Is there an obvious reason why flatcombine wouldn't process the images before combining the flats?Thank you again for your help --
Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,No I don't know any reason other than the parameters were not set for zero subtraction at the time. So if you do the bias correction first on this file then ccdproc should work on your science data.Yours,
Frank