The NuSTAR Calibration Database

Introduction

The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) spacecraft was launched on a Pegasus XL rocket which was dropped from a Lockheed L-1011 "TriStar" aircraft flying over the Pacific Ocean near the Kwajalein Atoll on June 13, 2012, as can be seen in this video. NuSTAR, the first focusing high-energy X-ray telescope in orbit, operates in the band from 3 to 79 keV, extending the sensitivity of focusing far beyond the ~10 keV high-energy cutoff achieved by all previous X-ray-imaging satellites. To attain the required 10m focal length needed for its telescopes, NuSTAR used a unique deployable mast, or boom, that extended the optics after the payload was in orbit.

Documentation

Documentation is at http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/nustar/nustar_about.html and the CALDB is documented at https://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/heasarc/caldb/nustar/

Initialisation

You need to initialise HEAsoft first.
setenv CALDB /usr/local/HEA/CALDB
source $CALDB/software/tools/caldbinit.csh

Version

From the CALDB page above on Wednesday, 13 December 2017.
Latest CALDB version: 20171204 
Latest CALDB release: FPM 
CALDB release date: 2017-12-04

Testing

Use
caldbinfo INST nustar fpm

caldbinfo infomode=BASIC chatter=20

Rhys Morris
Last modified: Wednesday, 13 December 2017