I am trying to upload a flux-calibrated spectrum of T CrB from last night, but I get several errors when I try to upload my file, _tcrb_20250329_41_DTrowbridge_flux.fits:
0 is not a(n) <class ‘float’>
Observer card David Trowbridge (TDW) does not match obscode TDW (and no aliases supplied)
Equipment name from FITS does not match record
When I try to upload a file, I get a message saying, Sorry new users cannot upload files. I have been a user for several years.
Are you certain that you selected the correct file? I looked through the error log and the errors include missing FITS keywords, 1D data (no wavelength information), and other things. Perhaps you uploaded an intermediate file by mistake?
It’s definitely the correct file. It was created using specINTI but the FITS header does not include an “obscode” keyword. Also, I don’t know whether the FITS header needs to have something for equipment name. If it does, what’s the keyword for that? I could try to add these using a FITS header editor, but I need some hints as to what it’s looking for.
Hi, David: AVSpec expects certain keywords. Some of them are needed so that later analysts can properly interpret the spectrum; some seem to be used to cross-check the observer and equipment ID. One of the mandatory items is Equipment name (AAV_INST), which must match (exactly) the equipment ID that you selected from the AVSpec drop-down menu; similarly the site name (AAV_SITE). See the AVSpec Tech Manual.
I had problems similar to what you are seeing, when I processed the spectra using AstroPy/SpecUtils, because it had stripped out some of the needed Header info. Editing the FITS Header to put the correct info in, resolved the problem with AVSpec.
Cheers,
Bob B.
Unfortunately, the error logs don’t give me much else I can go on. @scott.donnell do you know if SpecINTI has built-in support for AVSpec? (I’ve also pinged Christian Buil by email). I don’t see anything in their documentation explicitly discussing BESS, SpecDB, AVSpec, or any of the other amateur spectroscopy databases.
David if SpecINTI doesn’t support our format, there might be someone here that has written a script to add the relevant header information to the FITS files. The documentation of what AVSpec expects in a FITS file can be found in the AVSpec Technical Guide
SpecInti (as is ISIS) is compatible with the BeSS standard which the AVSpec fits definition was designed to be compatible with so there should not be any need to make SpecInti “compatible with AVSpec”
Here is an example of a fits header from a spectrum reduced with SpecInti by Christian Buil which was accepted by BeSS. As I understand it, AVSpec translates specific BSS keywords specific to BeSS to AVSpec specification
(Note this is the output from BeSS which fills some of the BSS keywords with data based on the observer’s previously submitted details. I believe AVSpec requires similar )
Cheers
Robin
SIMPLE
T / conforms to FITS standard
BITPIX
-32 / array data type
NAXIS
1 / number of array dimensions
NAXIS1
4161
CRVAL1
6502.007486585123
CDELT1
0.04875922424344026
EXPTIME
3000.0
OBJNAME
'AX Mon ’
OBJECT
'AX Mon ’
EXPTIME2
‘5 x 600.0 s’
BSS_ITRP
14183
SPE_RPOW
14183
BSS_VHEL
0
DATE-OBS
‘2024-09-21T03:08:27.009600’
GEO_LONG
7.094
GEO_LAT
43.5801
GEO_ELEV
40
BSS_SITE
‘Antibes Saint-Jean’
BSS_INST
‘Askar107PHQ + StarEx2400 + ASI533MM’
OBSERVER
'cbuil ’
BSS_COSM
'Removed ’
BSS_TELL
'None ’
BSS_NORM
'None ’
CRPIX1
1
CTYPE1
‘Wavelength’
CUNIT1
‘Angstrom’
VERSION
‘specINTI 2.5.1’
JD-OBS
‘2460574.63087’
RA
97.637241 / Right ascension of the star (decimal degrees)
DEC
5.867001 / Declinaison of the star (decimal degrees)
BSS_NAME
'AX Mon ’ / Name of the star as recorded in BeSS
TELESCOP
‘Askar107PHQ refector’ / Name of the telescope
INSTRUME
'Star ’ / Name of the spectrograph
DETNAM
'ASI533MM ’ / Name of the detector
BSS_LONG
7.092778 / Longitude of the site as recorded in BeSS
BSS_LAT
43.586944 / Latitude of the site as recorded in BeSS
BSS_ELEV
70.000000 / Elevation of the site as recorded in BeSS
DATE-END
‘2024-09-21T03:58:27.009599999907’ / date+time at exposure end
MID-HJD
2460574.647305285258 / Heliocentric Julian Date at mid-exposure