Module hipparcos

Retrieve Hipparcos epoch/intermediate photometry from the ESA website.

The time series together with some header information is stored in a record array and dictionary, and optionally written in a specified file.

The time points are given in barycentric Julian Date and are corrected for the offset of 2440000.0 in the original files, but only in the output record array. The output files display the original contents.

For epoch photometry, set dtype='ep'. For intermediate date, set dtype='i'.

For more information: http://www.rssd.esa.int/SA-general/Projects/Hipparcos/CATALOGUE_VOL1/sect2_05.ps.gz

Example:

>>> data,header = getHipData(1234)
>>> data = data[data['q_mag'] <= 2]         # keep only the good points

To write the retrieved data to a file:

>>> data, header = getHipData(1234 , "myfile.txt")

To store the different columns in separate arrays:

>>> data, header = getHipData(1234)
>>> time = data['time']
>>> magnitude = data['mag']
>>> errorbar = data['e_mag']
>>> qualityflag = data['q_mag']

In the case of intermediate data products:

• orbit: orbit number
• source: source of abscissa (F=FAST, f=rejected FAST, N=NDAC,n=NDAC rejected)
• d_acosd: partial derivative wrt alpha cos(delta)
• d_d: partial derivative wrt delta
• d_pi: partial derivative wrt parallax
• d_mua: partial derivative wrt proper motion alpha cos(delta)
• d_mud: partial derivative wrt proper motion delta

Parameters:

• ID (integer or string) - identification of the star: if you give an integer or string that can be converted to an integer, it is assumed to be the hipparcos number of the star. E.g. 1234 or "1234". If it is not an integer, the star will be resolved via sesame to get the HIP number if possible
• dtype (string (one of ('ep','i'))) - data type (epoch ('ep') photometry or intermediate ('i') data)
• outputFileName (string) - the name of the file that will be created to save the Hipparcos time series

Returns: rec array, dict

record array with fields time, mag, e_mag (errorbar), q_mag (quality flag), and a dictionary containing the header information. The header dictionary is of style {'HH14': ('A', 'Annex flag (light curves)'), ...}