Automating Reduction of Multifiber Spectra
from the MMT's Hectospec and Hectochelle

By
Douglas J. Mink, William F. Wyatt, Nelson Caldwell, Maureen A. Conroy, Gabor Furesz, Susan P. Tokarz
Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, MA 02138
Hectospec, the MMT's low resolution, 300 fiber spectrograph, posed some interesting and unique problems for reduction software development. To address these issues as well as the usual ones encountered in a multifiber spectrograph, we built a semi-automatic reduction pipeline, SPECROAD, using host IRAF CL scripting. The pipeline is based on existing IRAF tasks, modified when necessary, with some locally-developed procedures added. For quality control purposes, some human interaction was kept in the process. The pipeline takes raw data and produces one-dimensional, wavelength calibrated, sky subtracted, and velocity correlated spectra that are automatically distributed to PIs and added to a database. We are currently developing a pipeline for the 240-fiber Hectochelle high-dispersion spectrograph and we will discuss the additional issues which have complicated its data reduction.

Reference:
Douglas J. Mink, William F. Wyatt, Nelson Caldwell, Maureen A. Conroy, Gabor Furesz, Susan P. Tokarz, 2007, in Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XVI, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 376, Edited by R. Shaw, F. Hill, and D. Bell, San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, p. 49

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