SKYCALC module

Introduction

skycalc is a module that mostly provides an interface to the astroplan package for observations planning. It has a table() routine that emulates the hour angle listing of John Thorstensen’s skycalc program. It also contains a simple routine for returning airmass from an image header (allowing for different ways of storing it), as well as a routine for returning parallactic angle

Module functions

pyvista.skycalc.airmass(header, obs=None)[source]

Get airmass from header cards

Tries AIRMASS, AIRMAS, and SECZ (in that order) first otherwise computes from DATE-OBS, RA, DEC if obs= is given

pyvista.skycalc.calendar(obs='apo', tz='US/Mountain', year=2023, plot=False, sun_dt=10.0)[source]

Get LST at midnight and moon phase and position for every night of a calendar year”

Parameters
  • obs (str, default='apo') – observatory to compute for

  • tz (str, default='US/Mountain') – timezone

  • year (float, default=2023) – year to calculate for

  • plot (bool, default=False) – if True, plot LST midnight for year

pyvista.skycalc.object(ras=[], decs=[], names=[], file=None, obs='apo', date=None, plot=False, tz='US/Mountain')[source]

Get airmass table for specified object position, observatory, date

Parameters
  • ras (float, str, or array-like) – input RA(s) of objects (sexagesimal hh:mm:ss or degrees)

  • decs (float, str, or array-like) – input DEC(s) of objects (sexagesimal dd:mm:ss or degrees)

  • names (str, or array-like) – name(s) of objects

  • file (str) – filename to read name, ra, dec from

  • obs (str) – observatory for site

  • plot (bool) – show plots of airmass and parallactic angle?

  • tz (str) – timezone

pyvista.skycalc.parang(h, dec, site='APO')[source]

Calculate parallactic angle from HA, DEC, site

Parameters
  • ha (hour angle, hrs) –

  • dec (declination, degrees) –

  • site (str, site name, default='APO') –

Return type

parallactic angle in degrees

pyvista.skycalc.parang_header(hd, obs='apo', tz='US/Mountain')[source]

Calculates parallactic angle given header information DATE-OBS, RA, DEC, plus observatory

pyvista.skycalc.readtui(file)[source]

Opens and parses TUI-type file and returns columns 1, 2, and 3 as lists (e.g. names, ras, decs)

pyvista.skycalc.refraction(obs=None, wav=0.5, h=2000, temp=20, rh=0.25)[source]

Calculate coefficient of refraction

pyvista.skycalc.zd(h, dec, site='APO')[source]

Calculate zenith distance from HA, DEC, site

Parameters
  • ha (hour angle, hrs) –

  • dec (declination, degrees) –

  • site (str, site name, default='APO') –

Return type

zenith distance in degrees