VSpec or RSpec?

[chiltonstar]

Coming back to (astro) spectroscopy after a year or two in the wilderness, I've been trying to get corrected spectra using VSpec. The spectra are objective prism using an high-quality H&W spectrograph prism on an ED80. In terms of sharpness, it appears to work well and I get half band widths of about 0.7 nm at 486.1 nm H Beta (see examples attached, uncorrected). However, as the spectra are prism generated, correction with three wavelengths is necessary to linearise the wavelength scale. All works well until I try and use the response curve profile to correct another spectrum - it always crashes in the same way, with an "unexpected error". Is this an issue because of the non-linear scale (even though they've been linearised or something else ? Anyone an expert??

Should I be switching to RSpec therefore (VSpec is not the easiest software to use after all)?

Chris

Edited May 2, 2019 by chiltonstar

[Merlin66]

Chris,

Good to see the objective prism being used.

I'd suggest trying John's BASS Project for the processing. https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/astrobodger/info

The software is available: https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/astrobodger/links/all

 

 

[chiltonstar]

20 hours ago, Merlin66 said:

Chris,

Good to see the objective prism being used.

I'd suggest trying John's BASS Project for the processing. https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/astrobodger/info

The software is available: https://uk.groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/astrobodger/links/all

 

 

Many thanks for this Ken. I've joined the group, downloaded and installed the software and thus far, I am impressed. Something to play with on the (many) cloudy evenings!

Chris

[hamishbarker]

After a false start and frustration last year, I had success with ISIS  by Christian Buill et al.

http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/isis-software.html

After reading the use guides thoroughly, it works great, but is sensitive to the FITS headers. blank exposure time and lack of obs date and obs end caused errors. My images were taken with a DSLR and when converting RAW to FITS formats with Nebulosity, there was no way to fill in the exposure fields. However, using a fits header editor, ( i used fits4win2   here: http://astroshed.com/fits4win/f4w2hdudoc.htm I edited the headers and now it works really well, with excellent ability to automate the processing.

Edited May 17, 2019 by hamishbarker
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