Command-line interface

Installing the package puts a wcc-sim executable on your path (entry point: wcc_sim.cli.main()). It exposes the full simulate_field() pipeline:

wcc-sim --ra 291.0 --dec 44.5 --sensorfilter zwo:r --focus 1 \
        --exptime 90 --seed 42 -o field_1wave.fits

On success it prints a one-line summary and exits 0:

Wrote field_1wave.fits: 9568x6380 px, 52840 sources, focus=1w, 3121 saturated px

Options

Option	Default	Meaning
--ra (required)	—	Pointing RA [deg, ICRS].
--dec (required)	—	Pointing Dec [deg, ICRS].
-o, --output (required)	—	Output FITS path.
--sensorfilter	zwo:r	wcc_etc sensorfilter key, e.g. zwo:r, zwo:r+1, qcmos:bb.
--focus	sensorfilter’s	Waves of defocus: 0, 1, or 2.
--exptime	90	Total exposure time [s].
--n-reads	1	Coadded frames (ETC semantics; saturation is per frame).
--pa	0	Position angle [deg E of N].
--jitter	telescope’s	Jitter Gaussian sigma [mas].
--mag-limit	21	Gaia G faint limit of injected sources.
--no-noise	off	Skip the noise realization (expectation image only).
--no-clean	off	Omit the noiseless CLEAN extension (halves file size).
--seed	none	RNG seed for a reproducible noise realization.
--shape NY NX	full array	Subarray shape — quick looks and tests.
--stamp-npix	per focus	PSF stamp size [detector px, odd]; see PSFs and defocus.
--cache-dir	none	Gaia query cache directory (offline reruns; see Gaia catalogs).

Cookbook

Quick look — 1024×1024 subarray, cached Gaia query:

wcc-sim --ra 291.0 --dec 44.5 --shape 1024 1024 \
        --cache-dir gaia_cache --seed 42 -o quicklook.fits

Focus sweep — the same field at all three focus levels:

for f in 0 1 2; do
  wcc-sim --ra 291.0 --dec 44.5 --focus $f --exptime 90 --seed 42 \
          --shape 1024 1024 --cache-dir gaia_cache -o field_focus$f.fits
done

Full-frame qCMOS image, broadband filter:

wcc-sim --ra 150.1 --dec 2.2 --sensorfilter qcmos:bb \
        --exptime 60 --seed 7 -o qcmos_bb.fits

Noiseless truth image for photometric closure (no noise, keep CLEAN):

wcc-sim --ra 291.0 --dec 44.5 --no-noise --shape 2048 2048 \
        --cache-dir gaia_cache -o truth.fits

Bright-star handling — split 900 s into 10 reads so per-frame exposure stays short, and extend the jitter:

wcc-sim --ra 291.0 --dec 44.5 --exptime 900 --n-reads 10 \
        --jitter 50 --seed 42 -o deep_10reads.fits

Example scripts

The repository’s scripts/ directory contains ready-to-run examples:

Script	What it does
scripts/smoke_run.py	Python end-to-end smoke run: a Kepler-field pointing at all three focus levels, 1024×1024, FITS to smoke_out/. Network required once (queries are cached).
scripts/example_quicklook.sh	Single fast subarray image with a cached Gaia query.
scripts/example_focus_sweep.sh	The CLI focus sweep above, one FITS per focus level.
scripts/example_detectors.sh	The same pointing on both detectors (IMX455 r-band, qCMOS broadband) for a side-by-side comparison.