If you’re not familiar with making finding charts, I recommend using something like fcmaker to create quick and easy finding charts for NOT/WiFeS or any of your other favourite instruments:
https://fpavogt.github.io/fcmaker/index.html
Requirements:
aplpy (1.1.1 or above)
astroplan
astropy (3.0 or above)
astroquery (0.3.4 or above)
matplotlib (2.0.2 or above)
numpy (1.13.1 or or above)
p2api (0.92 or above)
pillow (4.2.1 or above)
pytz (2018 or above)
PyYAML (3.12 or above)
scipy (0.19.0 or above)
Installation instructions can be found here: https://fpavogt.github.io/fcmaker/installation.html
Before you get started, you need to make two small changes to the python code (there are bugs which haven’t yet been fixed by the developer)
Open the script “fcmaker_plots.py” - it will be located within your conda environment: for instance mine is: /Users/angus/anaconda3/envs/py36/lib/python3.6/site-packages/fcmaker/fcmaker_plots.py
Comment out the whole if statement “if (fcm_m.min_abs_GAIA_pm >=0)”, located at line 402 (total statement from 402-451)
Comment out line 635 “fig1.savefig(fn_out+'.jpg') as jpg format is not currently supported
Comment out “ fn_out+'.jpg' ” after the return at line 643
Now you can run fcmaker from any directory you like!
Fcmaker was designed to be integrated for ESO instruments and OBs, but we can get it to do this for any generic telescope if we run it locally.
You need to create a parameter file for the OB. Copy and paste the text below into a new .txt file in whatever directory you like. Change the bits in red to correspond to the name, ra and dec of the object you want to observe
#
# A list of basic OB parameters to generate an NOT finding chart from scratch
#
##### OB Info #####
ob_name: SN-NAME_class # OB name, required to name the output files!
ob_id: # optional
pi: # optional
prog_id: # optional
inst: XSHOOTER # Required!
##### Target #####
equinox: J2000 #
epoch: 2000.0 #
ra: 00h00m00.00s # E.g.: 21h49m07.290s
dec: +00d00m00.00s # E.g.: +00d26m55.000s
pmra: 0.0 # proper motion in arcsec/year
pmdec: 0.0 # proper motion in arcsec/year
ephemeris: # relative path+filename of an ephemeris file, optional
##### Acquisition #####
bos_ra: 0 # Blind-offset (RA), XSHOOTER convention!
bos_dec: 0 # Blind offset (Dec), XSHOOTER convention!
acq_pa: 0 # Acquisiton Position Angle (degrees), XSHOOTER convention!
is_gs: False # User-defined Guide Star ?
gs_ra: 00h00m00.00s #
gs_dec: +00d00m00.00s #
##### Observation #####
ins_mode: slt # Can be slt, img or ifu
uvb_slt: 1.0 #
vis_slt: 1.0 #
nir_slt: 1.0 #
slt_throw: 0.0 # The Nodding Throw along the slit
noff: 0 #
obstype: [O S] #
coordtype: SKY # DETECTOR = SLIT, or SKY
off1: [0 -75] #
off2: [0 -70] #
return: True
##### Other params #####
bk_image: DSS2 Red # None, bk_images to download from SkyView, Gaia, or local fits file
bk_lam: None # None, or else overrides SkyView default
data_loc: fcm_data # Relative path to the background images (local FITS file or SkyView images)
plot_loc: fcm_plots # Relative path to store the finding charts
Save this as a .txt file anywhere you like.
Then from a terminal run:
python -m fcmaker -f file_name.txt --local --do-png
Where file_name.txt is the name of the .txt file you made above. This should create a png finding chart in a directory called ‘fcm_plots’ which will look something like this:
NOTE - because the reference images are drawn archival images from other surveys (in this case DSS), the transient won’t be visible in the finding chart. You need to note this in the comments section of the OB