*** QUICK CHECK FOR DATA QUALITY ** Here is a quick way to check for data integrity by checking that all beams are present in a FITS file. Probably you should not do this to a FITS file "in progress", but it is possible to check on it right after it's done. This code is based on Brian's "quicklook.pro" routine, but run line-by-line. Check the observing log to find out the name of the FITS file you want to examine; this can be a file which was aborted mid-way. Log into a fast computer at AO as "a2010". Go to /share/a2010-2/work In this example, we assume the errant file is: /share/pserverf.sdb1/wappdata/wapp.20080324.a2010.0025.fits IDL> @wasinit2 IDL> @alfinit IDL> file='/share/pserverf.sdb1/wappdata/wapp.20080324.a2010.0025.fits' IDL> istat=wasopen(file, desc) IDL> istat=corinpscan(desc, b, scan=desc.scani[0].scan) IDL> corplot, b[30] This displays the total power for record 31 for each beam, each pol. Note that the beam designations are off by one (N+1). Are they all there? Is galactic HI in the right place? Check another record (N) by changing the index in b[N-1]. Do this repeatedly to try to find exactly when the error occurred. IDL> corplot, b[300] skip board: 6 data not finite IDL> corplot, b[200] skip board: 6 data not finite IDL> corplot, b[100] IDL> corplot, b[150] skip board: 6 data not finite IDL> corplot, b[120] skip board: 6 data not finite IDL> corplot, b[110] IDL> corplot, b[115] skip board: 6 data not finite IDL> corplot, b[114] skip board: 6 data not finite IDL> corplot, b[113] So the failure occured after record (113+1), 114 seconds into the file, and the problem was that beam 5 dropped out entirely. The other beams looked ok, through the rest of that drift. If you want to see the spectrum of only one of the beams, try: IDL > corplot, b[30], brd=1 (for Beam 0, etc) IDL > corplot, b[30], brd=5 (for Beam 4, etc)