Setting up a database for molly

I have found that I am well past saturation point as to what observing runs I have been on and certainly what objects I observed during them. This has not mattered while it has benn a case of observe, reduce, analyse, write up and forget, but now I am carrying out work which requires a longer perspective. Its obviously impractical to keep all data on-line and in any case it would take forever to search them. Therefore I have recently written some Perl scripts which grind through molly files (and also every molly file in a directory) and write a long one-liner for each spectrum. The data currently written can just be squeezed into my workstation if I expand the windows to their max. Data such as object name, record number, telescope, date, UT, HJD, wavelength range, number of pixels, RA, Dec and signal-to-noise are stored.

I have also written a script to search through the resultant database with useful criteria such as all objects of a certain name, RA range, covering a particular wavelength etc. This script can be invoked as a single command with UNIX style flags and will then list all spectra that satisy your criteria. You can then track down the molly file it came from and with any luck (this bit is up to you) track down which tape it is on.

My intention is that, once you are satisfied that you have fully and finally reduced a run, you process it through this software and add to whatever database you have already set up.

If you are interested in getting hold of any of this stuff please contact me. I think that I am going to find it very useful.

Tom Marsh, Warwick.