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| Paper: |
Introducing Slits in Slitless Spectroscopy: Reducing FORS2-MXU data with aXt |
| Volume: |
351, Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems XV |
| Page: |
283 |
| Authors: |
Kuemmel, M.W.; Kuntschner, H.; Larsen, S.S.; Walsh, J.R. |
| Abstract: |
Modern day spectrographs have the ability to simultaneously observe large numbers of objects. Semiautomatic software to aid the reduction of the large amount of data is highly desirable. In a feasibility study we have applied the aXe spectral reduction package to reduce data taken with the spectroscopic mask mode (MXU) of the FORS2 instrument at the VLT. Even though the primary aim of aXe was to facilitate an unsupervised reduction of slitless spectroscopic data from the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) on HST, the software was designed to allow the reduction of any spectroscopic data without the need for fundamental software changes. This is accomplished by the use of configuration and calibration files which contain all characteristics of the instrument-specific configuration. For the preparation of these files for FORS2 special (daytime) calibration data are needed. As a testbed we have selected the ESO/GOODS spectroscopic survey to analyze the quality of our aXe reduction of FORS2-MXU data. A detailed comparison with “by hand” reduced spectra from the GOODS team demonstrates that data of comparable quality can be produced in a semi-automatic way with aXe. |
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