Scheduler Output Schema

The scheduler simulations output a sqlite database with the following columns in the observations table.

All values are for the center of the field of view (e.g., airmass, altitude, etc)

Column Name	Units	Description
airmass	unitless	airmass of the observation (center of the field)
altitude	degrees	Altitude of the observation
azimuth	degrees	Azimuth of the observation
block_id	int	Identification ID of the block (used by some survey objects)
cloud	fraction	what fraction of the sky is cloudy
fieldDec	degrees	Declination of the observation
fieldId	int	deprecated, should all be 0 or -1.
fieldRA	degrees	Right Ascension of the observation
filter	string	The filter that was loaded for the observation, one of u,g,r,i,z,y
fiveSigmaDepth	magnitudes	The magnitude of an isolated point source detected at the 5-sigma level
flush_by_mjd	days	The modified Julian date the observation would have been flushed from the queue at
moonAlt	degrees	Altitude of the moon
moonAz	degrees	Azimuth of the moon
moonDec	degrees	Declination of the moon
moonDistance	degrees	Angular distance between the observation and the moon
moonPhase	percent (0-100)	The phase of the moon (probably the same as illumination fraction)
moonRA	degrees	Right Ascension of the moon
night	days	The night of the survey (starting at 1)
note	string	Note added by the scheduler, often which survey object generated the observation
numExposures	int	Number of exposures in the visit
observationId	int	Unique observation ID
observationStartLST	degrees	the Local Sidereal Time at the start of the observation
observationStartMJD	days	Modified Julian Date at the start of the observation
paraAngle	degrees	Paralactic angle of the observation
proposalId	int	deprecated
rotSkyPos	degrees	The orientation of the sky in the focal plane measured as the angle between North on the sky and the “up” direction in the focal plane.
rotTelPos	degrees	The physical angle of the rotator with respect to the mount. rotSkyPos = rotTelPos - ParallacticAngle
seeingFwhm500	arcseconds	The full-width at half maximum of the PSF at 500 nm. (XXX-unsure if this is at zenith or at the pointing)
seeingFwhmEff	arcseconds	“Effective” full-width at half maximum, typically ~15% larger than FWHMgeom. Use FWHMeff to calculate SNR for point sources, using FWHMeff as the FWHM of a single Gaussian describing the PSF.
seeingFwhmGeom	arcseconds	“Geometrical” full-width at half maximum. The actual width at half the maximum brightness. Use FWHMgeom to represent the FWHM of a double-Gaussian representing the physical width of a PSF.
skyBrightness	mag arcsec^-2	the brightness of the sky (in the given filter) for the observation
slewDistance	degrees	distance the telescope slewed to the observation
slewTime	seconds	The time it took to slew to the observation. Includes any filter change time and any readout time.
solarElong	degrees	Solar elongation or the angular distance between the field center and the sun (0 - 180 deg).
sunAlt	degrees	Altitude of the sun
sunAz	degrees	Azimuth of the sun
sunDec	degrees	declination of the sun
sunRA	degrees	RA of the sun
visitExposureTime	seconds	Total exposure time of the visit
visitTime	seconds	Total time of the visit (could be larger than visitExposureTime if the visit had multiple exposures with readout between them)
cummTelAz	degrees	The cumulative azimuth rotation of the telescope mount, should be +/- 270 degrees due to cable wrap limits.