Where can I find more information about the HIRES instrument and data products?
Information on the HIRES instrument and data products can be found at the Keck Observatory HIRES page. A description of all FITS header keywords is available here. • How far back in time are data available in the archive? The archive started ingesting HIRES data coincident with its CCD upgrade on August 18, 2004. This upgrade replaced the old, single-CCD detector with a state-of-the-art three-CCD mosaic. HIRES data obtained prior to the upgrade date (called ‘legacy data’) are also available. Legacy data from 2001-2004 were released in May 2008, and data from 1994-2001 were released in June 2008. • What is the dark feature present in the middle of the chip in ‘legacy’ data? This feature is a cosmetic defect caused by a pen mark near the middle of the old HIRES chip. To quote the HIRES User’s Manual, S. Vogt (1994): One very prominent distinguishing cosmetic defect of this CCD is a large felt-tip pen mark near the center of the CCD. It was kindly added by some technician at Tektronix to
