Name conventions

This article documents the conventions for file names and directories on the computer (a12) used in the astronomical laboratory courses.

In the Home directory you will find the directory data_reduction, which is the default directory for the data reduction and all files that are relevant for the lab course.

The root directory has further subdirectories:

• data contains all observational data
• scripts contains scripts and programs that are needed for the laboratory courses

Do NOT modify the scripts or the data in these directories, but copy all necessary files to your group directory.

In the data directory you will find further subdirectories that are named within the scheme YYYYMMDD, e.g.

20120815

The data in this directory are then exposures of August 15, 2012.

Copy your observational data to your group directory to make the data reduction there. The files in the data directory serve as backup of the observations, i.e. to restore the raw data in case errors occur within the scope of the data reduction.

The directory can contain special labels, attached to the name of the directory. The label must be separated by an underscore _, e.g.

• _einsteinturm
• _groupX

The data for the observations S1 and S2 are taken at the Einsteintum, so the directory could be named YYYYMMDD_einsteinturm. In case more than one group observed during a night, their respective data are stored in directories YYYYMMDD_groupX, where X is their group number. Special cases may have their own labels, which should be self-explanatory.

The scripts directory contains subdirectories, named after the id of the observations and should look like:

castor's home directory
--scripts
----s1s2
----n1
----n2 

Copy the scripts to your group directory to customize them as needed there.

Overview: Laboratory Courses