Parent objects

For the objects with USE_PARENT set in the eyeball quality checks, we have set up a directory which contains measurements of the parent objects:

 
$VAGC_REDUX/parents

The list of objects which we have measured is in:

 
$VAGC_REDUX/parents/object_sdss_imaging_parents.fits

whose columns are the same as those in the object_sdss_imaging file, with the addition of OBJECT_POSITION, which indicates which row of the that file each row in this file replaces.

The full photometric information for each object is in

 
$VAGC_REDUX/parents/sdss/parents/calibObj-[run]-[camCol].fits

As for the normal catalog, the calibobj_position column in object_sdss_imaging_parents.fits indicates which row of the appropriate file to look in.

In addition, we have calculated K-corrections and Sersic fits for each parent, and put the results in files whose rows are parallel to the object_sdss_imaging_parents file:

 
$VAGC_REDUX/parents/sersic/sersic_catalog.fits
$VAGC_REDUX/parents/sersic/kcorrect.[collision_type].[flux_type].z[band_shift].fits

The contents of these files are calculated identically to the contents of the corresponding files for the children.

Note that sometimes the parent is centered in an odd place (like an outlying HII region) in which case structural measurements such as the Sersic index can be misleading. Such cases have the flag BAD_PARENT_CENTER set in the eyeball quality bitmask.

NYU Value-Added Galaxy Catalog