This document describes the format of an input catalogue for a galaxy simulation in Artificial sky tool (manual).
The galaxy catalogue is FITS file with one or more table extensions. Every extension represents a galaxy class (type) like elliptical or spiral galaxy. Every row in the table describes parameters of a model for the class. Currently, only elliptical galaxies are implemented.
The first extension is dummy. It is recommend to have set HDUNAME = 'ARTGALAXY', even it is not currently used.
This extension, identified by EXTNAME = 'ELLIPTICAL', contains parameters for specification of elliptical galaxies. Their profiles are based on Sérsic model.
| Column | Description | Units |
|---|---|---|
| RAJ2000 | Right Ascension of the centre | deg |
| DEJ2000 | Declination of the centre | deg |
| MUEFF | Surface magnitude in Reff | mag/arcsec2 |
| REFF | Effective radius Reff | deg |
| PA | Position angle (top is zero) | deg |
| E | Eccentricity b/a | |
| SERSIC | Sérsic exponent |
artgalaxy.lst is a template of a galaxy catalogue; run munipack fits --restore artgalaxy.lst to make FITS itself.