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Getting started

  • Installation
    • Requirements
    • Install from source
    • Using a conda environment
    • Verify the installation
    • Running the test suite
    • Building the documentation locally
  • Quick start
    • The mental model
    • 1. Simulate a field
    • 2. Inspect the result
    • 3. Or use the command line
    • 4. Read the FITS output back
    • Where to go next

User guide

  • User guide
    • Concepts: the pipeline
      • Design principles
      • The two detectors
      • Key parameters at a glance
    • Gaia catalogs
      • Cone search
      • On-disk cache
      • Bringing your own catalog
      • The output catalog
    • From Gaia photometry to count rates
      • Memoization
      • Sky and dark
      • Practical notes
    • PSFs and defocus
      • The three focus modes
      • Oversampled rendering
      • Stamp sizes
      • Jitter
    • Noise and saturation
      • The model
      • n_reads semantics
      • Per-star saturation flags
      • Quick example
    • FITS output and WCS
      • The SimulatedField object
      • FITS layout
      • Header cards
      • The WCS
      • Reading it back

Tutorials

  • Tutorials
    • wcc-sim: example usage and verification
      • 1. Simulate a field
      • 2. Full-frame image with the Gaia catalog overlaid
      • 3. The three PSF modes: in-focus, +1 wave, +2 waves defocus
      • 4. Astrometric check
      • 5. Photometric closure
      • 6. Noise statistics
      • 7. Saturation and FITS output
      • Summary
    • PSF focus modes: Airy vs defocus
      • 1. Render the three PSFs
      • 2. Radial profiles and encircled energy
      • 3. Jitter
      • Summary
    • Detectors, filters, and count rates
      • 1. The two detectors
      • 2. Available sensorfilter keys
      • 3. BP−RP → Pickles spectral type
      • 4. Count rates through the instrument model
      • 5. The same field on both detectors
      • Summary
    • Noise and saturation
      • 1. A brightness ladder
      • 2. The background noise budget
      • 3. n_reads: trading saturation for read noise
      • 4. Noiseless closure
      • Summary
    • Astrometry, WCS, and custom catalogs
      • 1. The TAN WCS and its round-trip
      • 2. Do stars land where the WCS says?
      • 3. Position angle
      • 4. Edges and the in_image flag
      • Summary
    • The command line and the FITS output
      • 1. wcc-sim --help
      • 2. Simulate a field from the shell
      • 3. What is in the file
      • 4. The catalog extension
      • 5. Astrometric closure through the file
      • Summary
    • PSF wings: no more postage stamps
      • 1. Before / after on a real field
      • 2. The wing model
      • 3. Seam smoothness
      • 4. Encircled energy: what do the wings change?
      • 5. How far do the wings extend in practice?
      • 6. Is the extrapolation correct?
      • Summary
    • wcc-phot: differential photometry of a WCC image series
      • 1. Simulate a dithered series
      • 2. Pick a target and run aperture photometry
      • 3. The field, with apertures
      • 4. Relative light curve
      • 5. Per-frame centroiding
      • 6. PSF photometry
      • 7. Watching it live
      • Summary

Reference

  • Command-line interface
    • Options
    • Cookbook
    • Example scripts
  • API reference
    • Top-level public API
    • Modules
      • End-to-end pipeline (wcc_sim.pipeline)
      • Gaia catalogs (wcc_sim.catalog)
      • Bright-star supplement (wcc_sim.brightcat)
      • Epoch propagation and cross-matching (wcc_sim.astrometry)
      • Count rates (wcc_sim.starflux)
      • PSF rendering (wcc_sim.psf)
      • Chromatic effective PSFs (wcc_sim.chromatic)
      • PSF wing extension (wcc_sim.wings)
      • Scene rendering & noise (wcc_sim.render)
      • Extended sources (wcc_sim.extended)
      • Detector geometry (wcc_sim.detectors)
      • WCS construction (wcc_sim.wcsutil)
      • FITS output (wcc_sim.fitswriter)
      • Command-line interface (wcc_sim.cli)
  • Changelog
    • 0.1.0 (2026-07-02)
wcc-sim
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